[.ca] Pavilion Of Dreams

From Amazon.com:
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

The best antidote for insomnia and for kicking babies:
I was fortunate to run into this album just as I started suffering of insomnia the last few days before the arrival of our new baby boy. I now see two great uses for this beautiful music by avant-garde artist Harold Budd: playing it to sleep (yourself) and playing it to a baby in the tummy -it proved to calm him down when he was moving like crazy. On a more musical note, this album opened up the early seventies' work of Budd to me. I wasn't familiarized with his collaborations with Brian Eno, of which this would be only the first, with Eno sitting in the producer's seat. A very nice starting point or point of arrival for ambient explorators and in general, for those who appreciate the subtlety of a work that stands for the mellow California minimalism.

Perhaps the greatest rainy day CD:
I have owned this album for more than ten years and it is truly beautiful. It is best on a warm rainy day. Harold Budd is usually classified under New Age, which is a shame, given what garbage one finds under that genre.

By the dead of night:
This album is a compilation of early tracks, recorded and composed between 1972 and 1976, with the help of well-known friends like Brian Eno and Michael Nyman. I must confess that I've bought this CD merely because of "Juno". In my opinion this is one of Budd's greatest songs, a very colorful and vivid composition. Coming up with sometimes even uptempo, pearling piano runs and bright melodies, "Juno" leaves a lasting impression. Unfortunately, the rest of this album is almost lifeless and very lame. These female choruses tend to touch new age cliches, just as the harps and saccharine wind instruments do. Not really bad, but I don't think that this is avantgarde. I wouldn't even want these tracks to be played at my burial, because I'm afraid of my funeral train being bored to death. If "Juno" wasn't on this album, I would rate it with 1.5 stars only. If you want to hear a really inspired and enjoyable neoclassical record by Budd, check out "She's a phantom".

Beautifully Tranquil:
I own 5 or 6 Harold Budd CDs and this one is my favorite. It is different from the others because to me it expresses calm, tranquil joy. For me,it brings to mind being on a beautiful South Pacific island, on the beach, completely in the moment, existing only for now. Sometimes the music makes me think about diving and watching the schools of fish sweep and twist like smoke on a breeze. My favorite piece is Madrigals of the Rose Angel. It's an etheral women's choir and a minimal space piano. It's somewhat like the last movement of Holst's The Planets but more etheral and mysterious. Budd uses some interesting combinations of instruments on this CD. There's a piece featuring the mellowest sax, he's pretty heavy on ambient women's voices, oddly a marimba is here and of course his piano. It all fits nicely. Surely when we finally become angels lounging out on the clouds,this CD is what it's going to sound like.

4 stars:
Music of contemplative nature creating a soundscape full with absolute stillness. It is evocative of long forgotten memories and puts one in a state of floatation or ethereal feelings. As an early CD by Mr. Budd it obviously hints on the direction he were to take for his following work. Four stars...

• Bismillahi 'Rrahmani 'Rrahim
• Two Songs: Let Us Go into the House of the Lord/Butterfly Sunday
• Madrigals of the Rose Angel: Rosetti Noise/The Crystal Garden and a Co
• Juno