artist: Harold Budd country of origin: USA style(s): Ambient, meditative, impressionist essential releases: Plateaux Of Mirror [with Brian Eno] (1980, Editions EG) The Pearl [with Brian Eno] (1984, Editions EG) Lovely Thunder (1986, Editions EG) The White Arcades (1988, All Saints/Warner) The Room (2000, Atlantic) Avalon Sutra (2005, Samadhi Sound)

The distinctively dreamy, often extraordinary and occasionally ominous music of Californian pianist Harold Budd is affecting and rich in images and has been widely imitated over the years. Imitated, but never bettered. Like fellow American Tim Story, Budd’s lyrical, emotionally subtle musings owe more than a little to the piano music of French composer Eric Satie (1866-1925) and Claude Debussy (1862-1918). In fact, Satie’s “Gymnopedies” and “Gnossiennes” were the virtual blueprint for a modern school which includes Budd, Story and a number of others. A major difference, however, is that Satie never had electronics and recording studios at his disposal, a tool which gives the music of his modern-day descendents a seductive air the Frenchman could only have dreamed of.

Except for a recent return to form on The Room and Avalon Sutra the first four albums listed above remain the pick of Budd's output and all pre-date his restless 90's period during which he made rather unsuccessful forays into world beat, daft poetry and various art rock experiments. All four albums are distinguished by haunting, drifting piano melodies enhanced with tasteful washes of electronic colour. There is something deeply subconscious about this music, slightly out of focus and utterly compelling at the same time. Some persist in calling it minimalism but I disagree. Although he was involved with the Minimalist movement in the USA in the late 60's, the inherent drift of Budd's classic sound is miles away from the mathematically precise and repetitive music of Steve Reich or Philip Glass.

The two recordings with Brian Eno, The Plateaux Of Mirror and The Pearl, establish the classic Budd sound. Budd plays acoustic and electric piano while Eno creates a subtle, beautifully reflective backdrop with wisps of synthesiser and sound effects. On Lovely Thunder and The White Arcades Budd goes it mostly alone and applies some of the production lessons he learned from Eno with great finesse, while on some tracks subtly expanding the sonic palette. The 20-minute "Gypsy Violin" features long, sad phases on said instrument around which a luminous drone slowly morphs, rises and falls. "Child With A Lion" and "Totem Of The Red Sleeved Warrior" also put the piano aside for playful synth improvs on the former and a deeply haunting ghost choir on the latter.

Following is patchy 90's phase, is 2000 release The Room is a quite magnificent return to the timeless piano sound of his 80's classics, on which he uses a track originally from The White Arcades as the springboard for a new collection of electro-acoustic pieces that are by turns dark, nostalgic, sad and surreal. The double album Avalon Sutra from 5 year later is also a fine work and, at the time, was allegedly Budd's final release after having announced his retirement from composing music at the age of 68. It didn't turn out to be true, but style-wise the first disc of Avalon Sutra nonetheless sounds like a summary of his entire career spanning solo piano, treated piano, synth drones and small chamber compositions. The second disc is a low-key epic engineered by friends Akira Rabelais and art rocker David Sylvian. Based on a short track from Disc One called "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath" the synthetic strings, drones and piano are looped and remixed along with added violin to create a slow-motion drift across a moonlit landscape. It's late night ambience of the most seductive kind.

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