On AVALON SUTRA (46'03"), Harold Budd creates a
contemporary chamber music that may be too warm and
pleasant for the serious academic yet too complex and polite for
new age tastes. The 14 tracks are remarkably listenable without
being simplistic. Over half include arrangements for string
ensemble as well as a few woodwind solos. The remaining
pieces present Budd's languid and reverberant piano work at the
forefront. Both types occupy the listening space like good friends,
the first always engaging and conversant, the later as a warm
unspoken presence. These songs of innocence and experience
are minimalist based but harmonically rich. Touching and
winsome, Budd's melodic inventiveness has given him a distinct
American musical identity. His music is concerned with light,
shadow and color, and Budd uses these matters of composition
and improvisation to give an air of permanence to otherwise
fleeting musical moments. Based around the chromatic
richness of piano tones, Budd sounds effortlessly natural - as he
does more with less. AVALON SUTRA is often haunting, always
strong and a fitting bookend to 1978's Pavilion of Dreams.

Tune in this weekend to STAR'S END for music from AVALON
SUTRA, the new album by Harold Budd

For more on AVALON SUTRA, access:
http://www.samadhisound.com

-

STAR'S END broadcasts every Saturday night/Sunday morning
from 1am-6am (EDST) on:

88.5fm WXPN Philadelphia, PA
88.1fm WXPH Harrisburg, PA
90.5fm Worton/Baltimore, MD
104.9fm Allentown, PA

and live on the web...

-

Chuck van Zyl
Host of STAR'S END Ambient Radio
http://www.starsend.org