Harold Budd - Avalon Sutra

Label: Samadhisound
Released: 2004
Style: Modern Classical, Ambient

"On Avalon Sutra, Budd’s valedictory release, he has created brief, snapshot like compositions, made all the more fragile and impermanent by his glistening piano work, Avalon Sutra has a bittersweet, autumnal quality – the composer’s trademark “loveliness” deepened and perturbed by the brevity of these pieces. If “ambient” music characteristically works to sustain a mood of intimacy, warmth, meditative ecstasy, such moods, which are certainly present in Budd’s work, are never allowed to last too long on Avalon Sutra. There’s a cumulative sadness and beauty to the way that these mood pieces linger briefly, stop and transform into something new. Budd’s gorgeous, angular string arrangements amplify this feeling." - Label

Tracklsting:

1 Arabesque 3 (2:40)
2 It's Steeper Near The Roses (For David Sylvian) (1:02)
3 L'Enfant Perdu (2:14)
4 Chrysalis Nu (To Barney's Memory) (1:59)
5 Three Faces West (Billy Al Bengston's) (2:49)
6 Arabesque 2 (3:02)
7 Little Heart (7:40)
8 How Vacantly You Stare At Me (4:01)
9 A Walk In The Park With Nancy (In Memory) (5:55)
10 Rue Casimir Delavigne (For Daniel Lentz) (5:28)
11 Arabesque 1 (1:56)
12 Porcelain Ginger (2:01)
13 Faraon (1:23)
14 As Long As I Can Hold My Breath (3:47)

The second disc isn't necessary. As Boomkat would say, "Essential Purchase."

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