March 4, 2008

Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams

(1978)
The 1978 recording debut from reformed avant-garde composer and eventual ambient forerunner Harold Budd consists of four chamber works (written between 1972 and 1975) that use varying combinations of harp, mallet instruments, piano, saxophone, and female or male vocals. Two years before his fateful first studio collaboration with Brian Eno (who produced this album), Budd was creating hypnotic music in an acoustic mode. All of the works herein--including "Two Rooms," whose latter half is an adaptation of John Coltrane's "After the Rain"--sustain a similarly dreamy vibe. An important credo for Budd was to make music as pretty as possible as an antidote to the noisy avant-garde he had escaped from. One cannot fault him for the lovely sounds he creates here, although fans familiar with his more cinematic works might be caught off-guard. Regardless, the pleasant Pavilion of Dreams provides insight into Budd's past, and it offers the same somniferous effect as a gentle lullaby, making it perfect for late-evening listening.(-Bryan Reesman)
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sendspace sucks tried half a dozen times but no download slots available
can this be uploaded to rapidshare? thanks

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for this post. I *used* to own the LP. Like a sucker, I thought, "Of *course* they'll reissue the entire Obscure Records series!" Hah!

Any chance you have the other titles, apart from Eno's "Discreet Music" and Gavin Bryers's "The Sinking of the Titanic"? Penguin Café Orchestra's first LP appeared in the series, as did an album of music by John Cage, and a few other composers I don't remember now. I'd love to have the whole series again in digitized splendiferousness, but a decent LP transfer is always welcome in the meantime.