Customer Reviews

By the Dawn's Early Light

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This disc represents a high-water mark in the soon-to-ebb tide of Harold Budd's inspiring career (he announced his retirement last year). Deeply affecting and emotionally brilliant, the ensemble playing evokes memories of longing, caring and compassionate non-attachment to things unattainable. Several tracks feature the composer reading his own poems over intermittent accompaniment and, unlike some of my relatives who find them odd or incongruous, I find the content and tone of the artist's voice and poems a resonant sign of his commitment to the overall composition and the "subjects" of his work: the desert, the Native Americans, childhood and the unsurpassable feeling of intuition that links all living and non-living things.

I know, I know, hard to make that statement, given Budd's remarkable work over the years; especially with Brian Eno. Still, if I had to pick out a single Budd album to give to a non-Budd listener, as an example of Budd in top form, I'd go with this one.

Budd's signature piano blends beautifully with Bill Nelson's guitars, B.J. Cole's slider, Mabel Wong's viola, and Susan Allen's harp. Intentionally evocative of the dusty Southwest which Budd called home as a boy, the album also features a series of Budd's quirky spoken word poems, which begin and end the album in appropriate fashion.

The highpoint, in my opinion, is 'Saint's Name Spoken', featuring Budd on piano and vocals and Bill Nelson on string guitar. Slow, melancholy, evocative, it's right there with some of the best blue Jazz and, yet, is not jazz at all, but something else entirely.

Like most of Budd's work, it's not easy to describe this album, suffice to say that it is among my top ten ambient/instrumental albums of all time. I can't say enough good about it.

I often play this back-to-back with Budd & Eno's ambient classic, "The Pearl".

When I first bought this CD some seven years ago, I was immediately put off by the viola that somehow dominates many of the tracks. I put the CD on the shelf and never listened to it until recently. What I found now was a richly textured Ambient/Minimal CD, packed with very emotional pieces. It sounds alot like Harold Budd, but since he gets som extra help from other musicians, this turns out to be something more. I can see parallells between this and for instance Gavin Bryars "After the Requiem" as well as the instrumental extension of David Sylvian's "Gone to Earth", where Bill Nelson's guitar playing is featured as well.

I don't think I could add much more about this cd to what has been written by other reviewers.

My brother and I just got back from Nevada looking at ghost towns in the middle of empty barren landscapes. This cd was the background music to that trip and fit perfectly.

Highly recommended.

This is one of Budd's best recordings, hauntingly beautiful and melancholic.

Harold Budd's output is normally top-notch. This is no exception. Recorded at Daniel Lanois' studio in New Orleans and featuring guitarist Bill Nelson, pedal steel player BJ Cole, and others, this is a haunting work full of gorgeous ambience. Budd's poetry on several tracks works perfectly alongside the instrumental pieces. A great album to listen to on late nights.

Harold Budd's body of work since the mid-70s has been concerned with a lush, beautiful area of sound. It's worth noting that Budd's work was one of the first things released by Brian Eno on his influential and aptly-named Obscure label. And while this album is a lush, dark, and beautifully atmospheric effort, I find that the occasional poetry...as also occurs on his collaboration with Andy Partridge of XTC...detracts from the atmosphere that the pieces themselves build up. It would've been more effective, I think, if the music had been left to just flow and the verbal bits had been left for perhaps another release where they could've been merged with the music in a more effective manner. But by no means does this mean you shouldn't buy this work; there's a lot here that's more than worthwhile.

I orginally bought the CD for track 13 b/c I kept hearing it on somafm.com but upon listening to the entire CD, it was well worth the money. Budd has a way with the keys and the depth of the heartfelt emotion is reflected in the beauty of the music.

This, along with Budd's collaboration with Andy Partridge (Through the Hill) is some of my favorite music. The samples that Amazon gives here are representative, but too short to give a real feel for the hauntingly beautiful, melancholic feel of this album. Buy it.

Abandoning the dark, synth-driven soundscapes of "The white arcades", this release delves into contemporary chamber music. However, I think "By the dawn's.." comes dangerously close to shallow new age music. Budd wastes his talent with sketchy, half-way developed compositions, thin synth sounds, and wailing viola. This album features very little of his piano playing, instead there's a couple of mediocre 'spoken word performances' by Budd himself. Besides, this loose collection of tracks and traces clearly lacks the concept character and underlying suspense of his best albums like "The pearl". Actually, the only redeeming quality are some guitar parts by Bill Nelson and B.J.Cole, lending a nice country-rock feeling to some tracks ("Down the slopes..", "The place of..", "A child in.."). After all, the result is a sweet but unengaging sounding album that fails to have anything really intriguing and memorable about it. Fortunately, Budd would return to top-form with 1996's "Luxa".