Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After The Night Falls

Label: Darla Records

Released: 2007

Style: Ambient, Instrumental

"A companion piece to 'Before the Day Breaks', 'After the Night Falls' is a gorgeous soundtrack to the twilight hours by two of the most gifted producers of blissed-out music the world has ever known. The last we had heard from Harold Budd was that "Avalon Sutra" was going to be his final album and that he was ready for retirement, but in a typically obtuse fashion we now suddenly find ourselves with two brand new albums from the great man released on the same day. It doesn't stop here either, the now 70 year-old musician roped in his friend Robin Guthrie to lend some effected guitar to the proceedings, and the results are predictably sublime. It's hard to speak about this album without referencing 'Before the Day Breaks', but I must say that the darker focus evident here imbues proceedings with a much welcome aural fog. Maybe I'm just more interested in post-sunlight albums, but there's a haziness to 'After the Night Falls' which is perfectly in tune with that very specific time of day - it's not midnight, it's not pitch black, but night has drawn in. Musically this is the perfect marriage of the sound of two consummate professionals - Budd's piano echoing over Guthrie's signature reverberating guitar sound. The pieces here are almost mirror images of those on the companion album, even down to the track titles, for instance the opening track is named 'How Distant Your Heart' in response to the opening track of 'Before the Day Breaks' which is named 'How Close Your Soul'. This in my opinion makes both discs totally indispensable, it is almost impossible to simply buy one and be done with it - to hear one dictates that you need to hear the other. Basically fans of midnight ambient music, shoegaze or the solo piano perfected by Budd should buy this without delay, it's frankly unmissable." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 How Distant Your Heart (4:03)

2 Avenue Of Shapes (3:27)

3 Seven Thousand Sunny Years (6:19)

4 She Is My Strength (2:52)

5 Inside, A Golden Echo (3:24)

6 Open Book (5:17)

7 And Then I Turned Away (3:30)

8 The Girl With Colorful Thoughts (4:26)

9 Turn Off The Sun (4:58)

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Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - Before The Day Breaks

Label: Darla Records

Released: 2007

Style: Ambient, Instrumental

"To say we've been eagerly waiting for this pair of albums would be a serious understatement...These are two artists that should really need no introduction - Harold Budd, the legendary pianist who defined a whole genre with his peerless piano-led soundscaping and Robin Guthrie, the guitarist who as part of the Cocteau Twins introduced the term ethereal into modern music. The two musicians have crossed paths before, first on the stunning Cocteau Twins album 'The Moon and the Melodies' and more recently on the soundtrack to 'Mysterious Skin' - but its here on these sessions (recorded in 2006) that they have really created something unique. The first thing you notice about the music here is just how evenly balanced Budd's piano is with Guthrie's guitar, nothing feels at odds at any time. This is the biggest difficulty with a collaboration, and especially a collaboration between two very well known musicians who both have a 'signature' sound. The unique qualities of each musician are left intact, but are gradually smudged into each other to create an overall a haze of blissful ambience that leaves us somewhere in-between classic Cocteaus and Eno-era Budd, a place which I'm sure you can imagine is well worth visiting. This album is one part of a two disc set (we're still wondering exactly why it wasn't released as a double pack) and is titled very appropriately 'Before the Day Breaks' - I say appropriately because I can't really think of a better collection of music to usher in the new dawn. The record almost seems out of time, out of sorts with the world in its absolute honesty - there is no dense pop sound on offer here, no over-compressed loud hellish noise assault, rather this is the delicately handled sound of two musicians who have proven what they needed to prove and are simply here to enjoy the ride. It feels like a privilege that they have let us join them. Gorgeous stuff - and a massive recommendation." - Boomkat

Tracklisting:

1 How Close Your Soul (7:36)

2 A Formless Path (4:23)

3 A Minute, A Day, No More (5:21)

4 She Is My Weakness (3:41)

5 Outside, Silence (4:25)

6 Hidden Message (4:48)

7 I Returned Her Glance (3:43)

8 My Monochrome Vision (4:44)

9 Turn On The Moon (4:21)

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