Customer Reviews

The Room

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

There is some sort of irony at work when I think that Harold Budd does not particularly want to be considered an artist in the ambient genre, nor does he feel he plays piano particularly well. I guess time will judge him for being some sort of neo classical composer with leanings towards minimalism. Neither is it a bad thing that Harold Budd doesn't bring out a new record on a more than regular basis; I guess if he did a lot of us wouldn't appreciate him for what magic he does bring to the piano when he does. The Room, his first release in about four years, is strangely beautiful, almost like waking up from an afternoon's nap, that time when your mind is filled with distant memories and half forgotten dreams. Listening to these pieces I keep thinking that I have heard them before, in one form or another, though I'm not really able to pin them down. HB says that he is was taking up with these pieces where he left off in 1988 with The White Arcades. Simple repetitious piano / organ / synthesizer lines where the emphasis is on silence, maybe a state of meditative stillness are better word to utilize. My initial reactions were that Harold Budd was possibly revisiting the period which brought forth the release She Is A Phantom, but in retrospect I think this is not true. What can be said about this album is that it's not only one of the most memorable Harold Budd albums you may ever hear, but it retains the ghosts of many of its predecessors. There are fragments of The Pearl, Plateaux Of Mirror, Abandoned Cities, Lovely Thunder and much more. It's gorgeous when it's just electric piano. I'm especially fond of this aspect of his work; for here he manages to convey innocence and beauty at its best. He manages to bring out so may emotions in his phrasings, and all the time that soft pedal approach subdues all around. There is a lot of respect here for silence. I'm drawn to sounds and musics which contain memories and feelings of times past and present. People have commented that this is a sad album, but I beg to differ. Introspective is maybe a better word to utilize. Some people have also commented that HB hasn't exactly moved on, that he's still covering old ground with this release, which in all fairness is correct. But some of us like it that way. It's a good thing when people who hear his work for the first time are dumbfounded as I was upon first encountering the Harold Budd experience. For me, Harold Budd is an important living trasure in American contemporary music. His albums are timeless. And for a man who claims can't play well, does a damn fine job. Thank you Harold Budd for a beautiful album.

Throughout his career Harold Budd has created some of the most beautiful and elegant piano music ever; whether you believe it or not, he's the one and only musician who made neo-classical and chamber music palatable for me. Fans had to wait almost half a decade for new studio material, and although I expected a sort of techno album like "Glyph", "The room" picks up where 1988's "The white arcades" left off. Featuring typically lovely piano playing and warm synthesizer tones, but upon closer inspection, there are some new frills. The first two tracks, "TR of anc. dreams" and "TR of oracles", are among Budd's most intricate pieces, with layers of piano lines and synths all rolled into multi-dimensional soundscapes. With every note and nuance gliding into the text, the construction of such pieces alone takes times, and the production is undeniably amazing. It may be a surprise, but the strictly piano-driven tracks, like "TR of corner" and "TR obscured", are not the album's best cuts; the piano runs are faster and more discernible than on previous album, though they lack the suspense and unpredictability Budd is known for. He also steps away from his trademark sound at times, coming up with tracks where shimmering, floating synthesisers provide a convincing bed for pearling glockenspiel and other glittering sounds; "TR alight" and "TR of sec. light" are the album's brightest and most uplifting pieces. Finally, "The candied room" has a nice choral effect and "TR of mirrors" resembles 1984's "The pearl" in structure and atmosphere.

If there's any basic criticism that can be levelled at this album, it's that it seems like a variation on Budd themes, not a progression. It improves on "The white arcades", but it's not overly different. Having said that and given that his early-'90s flirtations with ensemble music and techno didn't appeal so much to me, I'm glad that "The room" is a return to his '80s style. Considering the songwriting, production, and sound quality, some of the pieces here are the best Budd has ever released. I would also recommend this album as first purchase for the newly interested.

Harold Budd triumphantly returns with his first album in four years! "The Room" hearkens back to the Budd of the 1980s; small, intimate works tinged with beauty, sadness, darkness, light, and a few other surprises. As always, the works are simple, but not simplistic. Sparse, but so well-constructed that one gets the feeling that a single additional synthesizer wash or piano inflection would ruin the piece. Quite reminiscent of earlier albums like the hard-to-find "The Serpent (in Quicksilver)" and "The White Arcades", the album from which, not coincidentally, "The Room" draws its inspiration. Highly recommended!!!

I've been waiting for this since Music for 3 Pianos (1993). Always hated having to edit out his vocals from my mix tapes. This one ranks up there with Ambient 2 and The White Arcades. Pure piano pleasure. The tunes just linger like incense. Anybody who's into Budd needs to check out

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/donner/abprogram.html

and order the Donner Party documentary video. Budd does the soundtrack and it's perfectly suited to the creepy subject. Haunting solo piano pieces culled from Serpent in Quicksilver, White Arcades, and a closing number by Angelo Badalamenti.

Harold Budd is an avant-garde composer who responded to the noisy avant-garde of classical music with the most beautiful music he knew to make. Only later was he associated with other ambient composers such as Brian Eno. Anyway, the music on this cd is incredibly beautiful. I recommend it highly. It feels to me like wide open very still plains. His minimal electronic music resonates with a very calm feeling.

A very cohesive set of relatively short soundscapes, this album is a recent favorite. Spare piano augmented by other treated keyboard with delicate percussion and pedal steel guitar, this opus will work wonders on your state of mind. Recommended.

There are a lot of reviews saying this is "flat" or "twee" or whatever, so I wanted to give a different viewpoint. I find this CD rich and variegated, fascinatingly subtle, and overall very satisfying. The Room has Budd putting a broad palette of timbres, textures, and tones to use in painting these minimalist watercolor sonic sketches. Almost every piece has a different keyboard sound. One has Budd delicately duetting with his brother who plays acoustic guitar, on another Budd sounds almost like a guitar himself, while a few tracks are bare piano interludes. As well, excellent use is made of percussive colorings like bells and chimes. This CD makes a perfect companion to The White Arcades, whose piece "The Room" this entire album is based upon in some sense or other. If you liked that one, definitely get this (and vice versa). It has some of those darkly undulating pieces like The White Arcades (and Lovely Thunder for that matter). In my opinion, The Room is in no way a sub-par Budd work; on the contrary, it's an exemplary one.

Harold Budd (with sometimes collaborator Brian Eno) has produced some of the most evocative ambient music ever on gems like "The Pearl" and "The White Arcades." Other collaborations (Cocteau Twins, Andy Partridge, Hector Zazou) saw him expanding his musical palette, but here he pulls it back to minimal piano and background texturings. The results are rather predictable and, in some instances, even tedious. I've read the reviews here and tried to like this album more, but it just doesn't rise above some of his other work, even after repeated playing. For those who love Budd's music, it's still a disc worth having for times of quiet reflection. Mostly, though, I reflect back on his earlier work--and find myself going back to those discs again and again when I'm in need of quiet inspiration.

The definition of a "room" is "an area separated by walls or partitions from other similar parts of the structure or building in which it is located: the first room on the left; an unpainted room." It would appear that Harold Budd had some unfinished business to attend to. The unfinished business being the sequel to The Room from Budd's 1988 masterpiece The White Arcades.Budd adds his signature frozen sparse piano to each room he attends in this 2000 Atlantic release, adding an intriguing measure of interpretation.

In The Room Of Mirrors is a perfect example of the mellow drama that unfolds from space to space. The Room plays as "a space that is or may be occupied" by someone in the past who harbored deep feelings of melancholia. It's poignance delivered in the emptiness of each room Budd travels. One can only hope in the future that Budd will finish the upstairs and basement walls in the form of a trilogy perhaps. I can't fathom Harold not decorating the place.

olofpalme63

I am conservative about giving five stars and so four is a very high rating. I am a very long term Budd fan and really look forward to anything new from him. If you love Budd's music, you will love this. The liner notes don't make it quite clear but it appears that the music was mostly recorded around 1988 when he released The White Arcades. This was the only let down for me. I was looking forward to hear what Budd would be in 2000, especially after his great last album LUXA from 1996 which showed progression from the past. This album most closely resembles The White Arcades while being a bit less synthy, a bit less cluttered, and a bit slower. I think I like it more than The White Arcades. Of course it is beautiful.