Beautifully performed warm floating piano and perhaps the best packaging I have ever seen
Disadvantages:
He's retired !
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Avalon Sutra is perhaps pianist and composer Harold Budd's masterwork. It is made up of two CDs, the first being Avalon Sutra itself, the second is a one-hour remix of As Long As I Can Hold My Breath, the final track on Avalon Sutra could sleep. It also boasts what is perhaps the most beautiful packaging of any CD that I've ever come across, being covered in the most glorious and luscious pictures of flowers that I've ever seen - and I'm not on an individual particularly enamoured of flowers.
When I first unfolded the digipak, revealing the two CDs, emblazoned with elegant simplicity, I had high expectations for both disks though I had previously heard excerpts from Avalon Sutra. Were my expectations fulfilled? Without a doubt.
As with all of Budd's work the music has a wonderful simplicity and yet is almost impossibly warm when you should expect it to be quite the opposite: cold and unapproachable. You can split the works on this album, the first disc anyway, into three distinct strands, though these strands are themselves interspersed - they are not simply presented in three blocks of sound. The album opens with the first of the three recognisable strands that are woven throughout the album. Here, on Arabesque 3, Budd is joined by John Gibson's soft, breathy saxophone, who is also responsible for co-writing the tracks on which he plays. There is an elegant simplicity to the music which suggests that it is perhaps improvised but not in the sense of squawking squealing saxophone, it is exceptionally laid-back but like listening to Bill Evans it is never in the least bit boring because it is backed by so much intelligence and feeling for the music. As with all of Budd's work, Arabesque 3, as well as Avalon Sutra as a whole, is an exceptionally hypnotic piece of work (though this is even more apparent in As Long As I Can Hold My Breath). It is always a remarkable achievement that Budd is able to create intriguing, haunting music whilst working very much within the framework of his oeuvre. Avalon Sutra is instantly recognisable as a Harold Budd album, even though he, for the first time in his work, employs what is the second recognisable strand of the album, being the incorporation of the string quartet into the music. This does not mean that it is classical, as it exists in its own space. Budd weaves the string quartet into the tapestry of his music with effortless grace and to considerable effect. It seems Budd was uncommonly proud of his achievement in writing for the first time ever a string quartet and his pride is understandable. It is no small achievement that he so effortlessly incorporates what could otherwise be tedious, hackneyed or cliched - all too often the use of any form of classical instrumentation in modern work that does not aspire to be classical ends up sounding like a piece of tacky light classical music or else is an insult to the ears. Yet Budd uses the string quartet to add further warmth and depth to his work
The third strand of music in Avalon Sutra is the most archetypal of Budd's work: gentle piano based around the idea not so much of melody or rhythm but the precise use of sound and the insertion of delicate piano notes. It is perhaps best described as floating ambient piano, though this is in no way is fitting tribute to the music. Though in one sense it does quite adequately describe the manner in which Budd employs electronic atmospheres and textures, again almost impossibly warm and inviting, of which he overlays his beautiful, haunting piano.
As with all of Budd's albums, the tracks almost melt together into a single flow of music, without ever becoming repetitive, tedious or bland, this is perhaps an achievement that is hard to quantify.
As Long As I Can Hold My Breath is perhaps the apex of Budd's musical aesthetic, which is a single 70 minute piece of music. In fact the track itself is not wholly by Harold Budd but a remix of As Long As I Can Hold My Breath, which is the final track on Avalon Sutra. The remix, by sound artist Akira Rabelais, is for me an absolute gem, incorporating strands of Budd's only string quartets and the original As Long As I Can Hold My Breath into a continuous cycle of near ambient beauty. It is hard to describe because music that continues for so long with so little change - for the CD is basically a repetition of barely a minute's music - usually feels self-indulgent and unnecessary. Yet somehow the mixture of Budd's music and Rabelais' reconstruction creates an entirely recognisable musical vocabulary but in an original way, like so much of Philip Glass's work its cyclical nature is enthralling and hypnotic rather than dull and insipid.
But then that is almost Harold Budd in a nutshell. He should be insipid, dull, tedious, archaic, anachronistic, pointless, repetitious, almost a musical superfluity. Instead his music is fluid, elegant, graceful, hypnotic and above all quite beautiful. Culture, I feel, is far richer for having Budd's music as a part of it.
Sadly, Avalon Sutra is his swansong. He has decided to retire. Whether not there will be other albums already recorded but not yet released is a matter of debate and I for one hope to see many more.
I would urge all people interested in listening to music that is both unique and beautiful to listen to this album. I can imagine that it could appeal to lovers of classical music, to those who enjoy ambient à la Brian Eno, to listeners of world music (not that this is anyway ethnic music).
Amazon are currently stocking Avalon Sutra from £11.99, and how can one resist music so beautifully packaged and so beautifully performed.
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