Customer Reviews

After The Night Falls

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have been a long time fan of the cocteau twins for quite some time. I was also introduced to harold budd when the twins collaberated with him on The moon and the melodies. As far as iam concerned, robin and harold are the perfect duo. Their music weaves together like beautiful tapestry. This is ambient music at its best. After the night falls is the best out of the two disc, but both of them are a must for any fan of both the artist.

This album doesn't seem to cover any new territory that the two haven't done before either together or solo. It's a good listen however. Some of the guitar bits bring back fond memories of Guthrie's work 10 years ago. Overall it's a good addition to your collection. If you're a newbie to the pair, it's an excelent introduction.

this reminds me of my favorite cocteau twins recording, the moon and the melodies. this is a great cd to meditate to, very relaxing and mind opening. the music is creamy, dreamy, and lulling.

Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie, a pair of legendary names in the ambient music world, created a two-album theme of music and emotions with Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls. Creating a kind of minimalist sound with these albums, the pair have created relaxing ambient music demonstrating that sometimes less is more, and better. Both are excellent for unwinding after work, for quiet times and perhaps even catching your breath at work. This is a definite recommendation for those who want their music a little calmer & quieter.

I barely became aware of the release of this album in early 2008 (it came out in mid-2007). Yet, since I found out about it, it's become a fixture in my iTunes playlist. The ethereal sound of Harold Budd (one of the early creators of Ambient music along with Brian Eno) blends in impeccably with the guitar work of Robin Guthrie (of Cocteau Twins fame) to yield an album that you will indulge in time and again.

Along with the companion Before The Day Breaks, this is an album you will find yourself listening in times of trouble and in times of joy equally, non-intrusive music that you can work to and write to as much as you can mellow to.

John Diliberto (in Amazon's review) is right...this could have, and probably should have, been a single CD in combination with Before The Day Breaks. Aside from that one minor complaint, the two CDs form a musical tapestry that is reminiscent of Budd's two Eno collaborations, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror and The Pearl, with Guthrie's guitar expanding the sound into the realm of Eno's collaborations with Robert Fripp, (No Pussyfooting) and Evening Star...with the big exception being that Guthrie eschews Fripp's reliance on loops and drones in favor of more traditional playing. If you're a fan of the four CDs I just named, you will love both of these...it's that simple. At times, a compelling melody will break free of the ambient spiral and pull you in, but for the most part, it's not music for "active listening" or driving around on a hot summer day with the top down on your convertible. It's ambient music, and it's among the best that's out there.

Ethereal, beautiful, sojourn and inspired. The tracks on Before The Day Breaks and After The Night Falls both have a timeless quality to them. Guthrie does his own effect work and the shimmering, blissful resonant reverb tails drift one into the subtle world of sonambulism. Frequency Hypnagogic.
In my collection at least, if these two works had to be ranked, both albums would top all other 'ambient' recordings, simply for the fact that the genre is one in which it becomes difficult to find anything purely musical and within many contexts, lends itself more to pure atmospherics and less musicality. Not so with the work of Guthrie and Budd.
This is where these two surpass the status quo of most other 'ambient' artists, as when working together, something new is arises that patternes a somewhat traditional song structure, yet drifts in tandem via effect work that amalgamates melancholic, heartfelt intonations in a very emotional and musical way. Furthermore, they stray from the traditional clutches of cliche by juxtaposing melodious, melancholy compositions with promising and optimistic resonance that never seems to become overly tedious, trite or contrived.
IMHO, there will come a time when these two artists could easily be compared with the likes of Erik Satie and Claude Debussy in that they conjure up images of impressionistic works and minimalism, but with some form of added 'je ne sais quoi' that makes it incomparable. In keeping with Dubussy and Satie, Budd and Guthrie are far too underappreciated by the their contemporaries, perhaps a little too ahead of their time, but through the passing therof, they could very well be treading new territory into neo 'classical' without the pomposity associated with such music. It would be a travesty should they not very well be recognized for the true musical genius (through simplicity) that their work has given us.
There are not enough stars in the Amazon rating box to descibe what this music is, because nothing out there except what these two have done before themselves, sounds like it. It is in a genre, all of its own.