Composer Harold Budd always resented the term “ambient,” with which his music had been saddled since his pioneering collaborations in late 70s and early 80s with Brian Eno. One can imagine the thoughtful, genial Budd being positively exasperated with the even more niche tag “dark ambient.” And yet, Budd’s haunting and uncharacteristically bleak 1984 album Abandoned Cities was dark ambient before the term existed. One of the lesser-known works in Budd’s discography, its synthesizer drones and blighted landscapes seem to speak prophetically to the crisis of our present moment.
Category: Harold Budd
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd :: The Moon and the Melodies
First released in 1986, the collaborative record of dream pop deities Cocteau Twins and minimalist giant Harold Budd is still among the most interesting crossbreeds between so-called pop and so-called art music. By the time of its release, The Moon and the Melodies‘ mix of cerebral drone experimentation and crystalline emotional delivery was at least on par with those at the frontier of pop’s absorption of the avant-garde: John Cale, Laurie Anderson, Arthur Russell, and the like.