RIP Harold Budd

Steven Hale
Dec 9, 2020

A quiet musician has left behind beautiful quietude.

Photo by Kaleb Dortono on Unsplash

Deep fans of Brian Eno or The Cocteau Twins are likely to know the music of ambient composer Harold Budd, who died recently at 84 of complications from the coronavirus.

Budd began as an avant-garde composer in the vein of John Cage, but reacted against the tyranny of that style by creating stunningly beautiful melodies and textures.

Most ambient and new age music passes through the listener with hardly a ripple. Budd’s shimmering, meditative compositions reshape the listener with a vision of trance-like calmness and harmony. THIS is the antidote for our anxious era.

No more words. Here’s the first track from The Pavilion of Dreams.

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Steven Hale

Music: Discovering the lost and forgotten. Politics: Exposing injustice. Screenwriting: Emotional storytelling.