Harold Budd is often called an ambient musician, but if he hadn't recorded a few albums with Brian Eno (Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, The Pearl) he'd probably be considered a composer of modern chamber music. In fact,... more » he's the godfather of ambient chamber music, a style marked by achingly beautiful melodies, an unremitting melancholy, and a profound sense of space and atmosphere. Now 68 years old, Budd says that he's calling it quits, and he's left Avalon Sutra not just as a swansong, but a minor-key career zenith. In a series of vignettes, most of them all too short, Budd weaves his piano amidst a string quartet, the winds of Jon Gibson, and ambient moods. Budd's music sounds haunted by memories, and many of his poetic titles seem drawn from his life. Several have dedications, like "A Walk in the Park with Nancy (In Memory)." A spontaneous musician, Budd often improvises his pieces in the moment. "Rue Casamir Delavigne" is built around a keyboard drone and Budd's inner conversation between acoustic and electric piano. But Avalon Sutra also catches some of these improvs in a freeze frame, where their inner logic can be contemplated in the string quartet arrangements of "Three Faces West" or "L'enfant Perdu." In fact, Budd's improvisations have always sounded fully composed--delicate drops of piano like melting icicles on a warming day. There is a second, bonus CD, an extended remix by Akira Rabelais. He takes one of Budd's miniatures and stretches it out into an extended meditation, "As Long as I Can Hold My Breath (At Night)," turning it into a slow-motion opus. When listening to either disc, carve out some time to become immersed in this subtly transformative world and you will be rewarded. --John Diliberto« less
Harold Budd is often called an ambient musician, but if he hadn't recorded a few albums with Brian Eno (Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror, The Pearl) he'd probably be considered a composer of modern chamber music. In fact, he's the godfather of ambient chamber music, a style marked by achingly beautiful melodies, an unremitting melancholy, and a profound sense of space and atmosphere. Now 68 years old, Budd says that he's calling it quits, and he's left Avalon Sutra not just as a swansong, but a minor-key career zenith. In a series of vignettes, most of them all too short, Budd weaves his piano amidst a string quartet, the winds of Jon Gibson, and ambient moods. Budd's music sounds haunted by memories, and many of his poetic titles seem drawn from his life. Several have dedications, like "A Walk in the Park with Nancy (In Memory)." A spontaneous musician, Budd often improvises his pieces in the moment. "Rue Casamir Delavigne" is built around a keyboard drone and Budd's inner conversation between acoustic and electric piano. But Avalon Sutra also catches some of these improvs in a freeze frame, where their inner logic can be contemplated in the string quartet arrangements of "Three Faces West" or "L'enfant Perdu." In fact, Budd's improvisations have always sounded fully composed--delicate drops of piano like melting icicles on a warming day. There is a second, bonus CD, an extended remix by Akira Rabelais. He takes one of Budd's miniatures and stretches it out into an extended meditation, "As Long as I Can Hold My Breath (At Night)," turning it into a slow-motion opus. When listening to either disc, carve out some time to become immersed in this subtly transformative world and you will be rewarded. --John Diliberto
CD Reviews
A beautiful coda
somethingexcellent | Lincoln, NE United States | 11/25/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"According to reports, Avalon Sutra is the final release from Harold Budd, and if that is indeed true, then at the very least he's going out on a strong note. A musician and composer for well over 4 decades, Budd has worked with the likes of Brian Eno and the Cocteau Twins (among others), scored films, and has assembled a large body of work that although somewhat new-agey at times, offers up remarkable consistency and even some great surprises (his By The Dawn's Early Light mixes spoken word, Native American themes, and ambient music like they were always meant to be together).
As mentioned above, one of the criticisms that I've always heard of Budd is that he's simply too soft (or new age, if you will), but let's face it, many of the early 'classic' ambient pieces (including Budd and Eno's Plateaux Of Mirrors, Eno's Music For Airports, etc etc) could easily fall into that category. Budd has shown over the years that he's one of the masters of calm and Avalon Sutra does nothing to break that streak. If anything, it's easily one of the better releases that he's put out, with subtle work from everyone involved to create another soothing release that doesn't relegate itself to wallpaper.
Largely piano driven, the album winds its way through 14 pieces that mix slightly varied instrumentation in a way that helps the album progress very nicely. The three-part "Arabesque" tracks all mingle expressive but subtle piano playing with soft beds of ambient drones and the slightly sharper tones of soprano saxophone played by John Gibson. "It's Steeper Near The Roses (for David Sylvian)" runs barely over a minute long, but is a touching vignette that blends heavily reverbed piano with warm strains of strings. "Little Heart" is almost all sparkling chromatics, as shimmering bells and sparse piano phrases linger over a bed of lush ambience. "Rue Casmir Delavigne (for Daniel Lentz)" strips things down even more as Rhodes chords linger and linger and reflect off more restrained piano playing to great effect.
The closing track of "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath" starts out with piano work that feels a bit more somber than some of the other pieces on the album, but seems to bloom about halfway through into something different entirely as beautiful electronics flutter and rise over a repeating chime pattern, ending the release with a touch of hope. The second disc of the release (simply entitled "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath") finds that final track reworked into one epic seventy minute piece courtesy of Akira Rabelais and Budd, and although it works the same themes over and over, it's absolutely hypnotic and an amazing take on work by Budd. Strings flourish and breath while a repeated ambient background loops wearily and sparse piano notes and phrases fall in and out of the mix. On top of the already great music contained within, the stunning artwork on the release only adds to the attractiveness of the overall package. I guess if Budd has to have a final recording, this is the way to go.
(from almost cool music reviews)"
The last Harold Budd album
A. Stribling | Alexandria, VA | 12/01/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"After years of creating some of the best ambient music around, Harold Budd has decided to call it quits. You couldn't ask for a better swan song. This two CD set serves as both an excellent summation of his work to date, as well as a jumping point for those not familiar with his earlier works. Listening to this, you can hear elements and chords from Plateaux of Mirror and Pavilion of Dreams. There's also an hour-long piece (the title track) that suggests a less mournful Abandoned Cities, as well as collaborative pieces with flute and strings. A fine example of ambient music and an essential work for Budd enthusiasts."
Igloo Magazine's REVIEW
Pietro Da Sacco | 12/02/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Review by: James Knapman at [...]
(04.28.05) Samadhisound's fourth release (issued in late 2004) appears in the form of Harold Budd's last: Avalon Sutra, a double CD release featuring fourteen of Budd's classically pearlescent compositions on one disc, and a sixty-nine minute, one track remix of "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath" by Akira Rabelais with Budd and David Sylvian on the other. These are the parting works of an artist whose musical career has spanned three decades, and Budd now feels that he has fully expressed everything he wanted to through his music and wishes to retire. There could be no more fitting epitaph to Budd's work than Avalon Sutra, which presents to the listener a suite of often brief, classically ambient pieces of astounding beauty and delicacy.
Each piece has been intricately composed and performed on the piano with additional soprano saxophone, bass flute and on a number of pieces, a string quartet or the warm, hazy synthesizer and Rhodes accents that are common in Budd's work. That's almost as much as is constructive to say about them, in fact. Avalon Sutra is an almost emotionally neutral work; the experience and mastery that inform this album allow the pieces to transcend any immediately obvious emotional leanings leaving it entirely up to the listener to interpret, something of a rarity in music these days. Retrospective or introspective without becoming maudlin, they neatly avoid falling into unflatteringly rigid definitions such as 'autumnal' or 'melancholy,' indeed there is very little material here that can be categorized as 'autumnal;' such is the textural or emotional warmth that pervades each piece. Even the titles of the tracks reflect a sense of place rather than mind.
There's a stately regality to Avalon Sutra that befits the idyllic paradise of its title. Leisurely walks through the headily fragranced grounds of stately homes or public gardens in full bloom during high summer, surrounded by the buzz of insect life, birdsong, softly running water, sunshine reflected off dappled lily-ponds ("Arabesque 1," "Little Heart," "A Walk In The Park With Nancy"); shafts of light illuminating the glittering swirls of dust in an amber sunset warmed living room on a spring afternoon ("Chrysalis Nu," "Rue Casmir Delavigne"); a hurried retreat into the nearest available shelter to escape an unexpected April shower ("L'Enfant Perdu"); the memories and feelings these pieces evoke will likely be as personal to the listener as they are to Budd.
Experiencing the fourteen movements on Avalon Sutra in sequence and in one uninterrupted sitting is key to experiencing the full impact the album can have. As noted earlier, many of the pieces are strikingly brief, but taken together, the impressionistic composition of the pieces has a cumulative, almost compounding effect that culminates in the heartbreaking, genuinely bittersweet goodbye that is the closing "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath."
"Little Heart," strongly reminiscent of "Chet" on an earlier album Luxa, sets itself apart from the other pieces, both by nature and by design. Resting quietly at the very center of Avalon Sutra, it is as extended mantra of delicately entrancing wind-chimes, distant piano solo and a bright, looped pad underpinned by a soft, deep bed of bass drones. If the listener has not already been relaxed, immersed and fully transported by the textures and atmospheres of Avalon Sutra by this point, they certainly will be once "Little Heart" comes to an end.
The second disc in this set contains the epic, 69 minute "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath (By Night)," remixed by Akira Rabelais with additional production by David Sylvian and Harold Budd. It is not, as the title suggests, a simple remix of "As Long As I Can Hold My Breath" however; it is a re-distillation of many aspects of Avalon Sutra as a whole, and most notably uses the looped strings section from "Chrysalis Nu" as it's central and unchanging melodic motif with additional strings seemingly based on those found in "Three Faces West." This is a piece that has been composed in a style similar to those famous ambient experiments in atmospheric immersion such as "Thursday Afternoon" by Brian Eno. Indeed it is a strikingly beautiful, restful piece, but actually acquires a somewhat mournful tone that is not really present in Budd's original works. As arresting as this piece is, it's evolution over the course of its full running time is almost undetectable and is unlikely to engage most listeners to the extent that they will sit through its entire run. This is, perhaps, not the point however. Eno's epic pieces are, on the whole, meant to be played at a low volume such that they merge with the ambient sounds from the environment in which the piece is played, and it is in this way that this piece works best.
All of the above neither adequately describes nor does justice to the work Budd has lovingly crafted here, therefore it is highly recommended that you visit the luminescent paradise that is Avalon Sutra."
A beautiful, sublime final work from Harold Budd
E. OReilly | NY USA | 10/02/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I first heard Harold Budd on his collaborative effort with Brian Eno on "Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror". I've listened to that more than some other Brian Eno CDs I have... to me, it really stands out as a great ambient work.
The 2-CD set, "Avalon Sutra/As Long As I Can Hold My Breath", has that same feel. The first CD is a thoughtful series of haunting pieces featuring piano, woodwind and strings. Each piece, while brief, seems to be a continuation of the previous one, like the whole CD is a long narrative composed of short sentences.
The second CD has just one hour-long piece -- " As Long As I Can Hold My Breath"-- a somewhat repetitive composition that, as you listen, becomes a musical mantra. About halfway through you realize that the music is quite hypnotic: interwoven into the rhythm of the steady ebb and flow of cello(?) is a lazy exchange between piano and violin.... just a few simple notes here and there, but it's the steady heartbeat of the cello (or viola, I'm not 100% on that one) that's really mesmerizing."
Beautiful Coda
G. Katsoulis | Boston, MA | 03/11/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I was saddened to learn that this would be Harold Budd's final work. He reportedly has said he has nothing more to say. Listening to this beautiful, quietly sad offering, it is both easy to believe and difficult to accept.
In Avalon Sutra, one can hear the culmination of all of his work. There are elements of my personal favorite, The White Arcades, as well as wisps of The Pavilion Of Dreams and Through the Hill.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the release is Harold Budd's work with a string quartet. In listening to his arrangement, one realizes how he has been overlooked as one of the centuries great composers. It is this that makes me wish there were more to come, with other instrumentations.
This is his most beautiful, complex work. Avalon Sutra features the deepest, and most lush audio production of all his work. Clearly it was created with love and a careful attention to sonorous details.
The second CD in the package is an hour long version of the piece As Long As I Can Hold My Breath. For Harold Budd fans, this may well be the perfect format, as his music has always been ideal for comtemplation and inspiration."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1