Customer Reviews

White Arcades

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When this was originally released in the 80's, I happened to be going through a rough time. I happened to come across this and it just completely took me away...I felt like I was walking the surface of Pluto, in deep, cold, icy space. The layers of sound, listening in a darkened room, really helped to deal with things. It was like medicine. Listen to this in the dark, without any disturbance and be put into a trance...

This recording is an ambient/minimal milestone, and one of of my desert island top ten discs. It helped me write no less than two books, and accompanied untold thunderstorms in a memorable winter on a small Greek island writing one of them. I adore White Arcades more than anything else I own by Harold Budd.

But why is his label charging twenty dollars/euros for a CD rerelease of a recording that used to sell for a third of that? I don't have an argument with need, but I do have an argument with greed.

Say it ain't so, Hal.

I have a new job, a new house, and a new baby daughter.

I am very stressed out right now.

I am brooding. I can't stop and I'm losing sleep.

This album is really helping me cope with it all.

Thank you, Mr. Budd, for taking my mind off of things.

I'm so glad you didn't really retire.

Any attempt to review Harold Budd's music inevitably finds the author falling back on such cliches as 'ambient' and 'minimalist'. Both are of course apt descriptions of his music. White Arcades is one of Budd's best works, a consistently beautiful series of compositions that leave the listener soothed yet strangely haunted. An excellent starting point for anyone approaching Budd's music for the first time.

this is a hypnotically gorgeous set of minimalist ambient compositions. i put this right up there with the best of brian eno's ambient material. mesmerizing drifting soundscapes with soft notes touching the ear gently and putting one in the state of a dream. perfect night music. don't let it escape from the grasp of your life.

My brother first introduced Harold Budd to me when I was six. Ever since, his powerfull music has "lulled" my life. I think I'd be a different person without having grown up with it.

The White Arcades is an awe-inspiring album to the mind and soul. All tracks have a mesmerizing, similar yet diverse tune that'll make you
yearn for more...I've personally indentified more with "White Arcades" (i.e. first track) because it has a airy and pensive tune, which feels as if you're inside an ancient cave of grandiose wonder, at the same time it feels like as if you're regressing in time towards a bewildering European or Chinese era of imaginable characters and backgrounds.

P.ss. Overall I recommend this blissful c.d to anyone with an imaginary mind.

The kind of music you might expect to hear played at, say, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. A wonderful blend of synthetic and acoustic instrumentation swirls and loops, but the music always sound human, and expressive. Budd is a master at pulling this sort of thing off, and this recording never fails to brighten my mood. Not quite Ambient, not quite Space Music, not quite New Age, not quite jazz--but quite entertaining, and with a decent dollop of midbass to satisfy audiophile cravings, The White Arcades is a one-of-a-kind musical treat.

The first chords introduce the mood immediately: rich, thickly-layered melodic textures, capturing an air of mystery, and a clear sense of the otherworldy. Shimmering string and percussion effects against background layers of musical colour, into which a few, clear piano notes are scattered, like stray icicles. Simple, drifting melodies, with seriously addictive hooks, wash gently around you, hugging you close.
Like another reviewer, I rate this as one of the best Harold Budd albums around, and it clearly stands the test of time, still as fresh and magical even now. Clearly, Eno's production/collaboration is influential, and something of the mood recalls 'Twin Peaks', even though the music is quite dissimilar. Only two gripes: we only get 42 minutes of this magical sound-world, and the cd booklet gives hardly any information, except for where the tracks were recorded. (mostly Scotland, which came as something of a surprise to me). So, if you're needing a de-stresser, this is it: just slip right down and immerse yourself in these warm, honeyed tones. Simply gorgeous!

I first heard Harold Budd in 1987 from a school roommate. He was playing Budd's "The Moon and the Melodies" on LP. I bought this and also "Abandoned Cities", "The White Arcades" (TWA) and "Lovely Thunder" first on LP then on CD. I love TWA, particularly the first two songs and the second in particular with it's mesmerizing tone; great for concentration and reading technical material. It breaks dead silence but it does not distract. The song, "The Room" has a very interesting continuo ascend-descend-ascend, etc scale (sorry, don't know the musical technical term for this). What is ingenious about it is that if you listen to this carefully, you can hear it in either one of two pattern (accent) types depending on how you focus. It is kind of like watching a communications antenna revolving clockwise from a distance but then you may see an illusion where it is turning counter-clockwise (up angle vs. down angle).