American composer and pianist Harold Budd, often cited as one of the founding fathers of ambient, has died from complications of Covid-19. He was 84. Budd started out writing minimalist works in the 1960s but didn't release his first album until 1978, when Brian Eno helped produce The Pavilion Of...
American composer and pianist Harold Budd, often cited as one of the founding fathers of ambient, has died from complications of Covid-19. He was 84.
Budd started out writing minimalist works in the 1960s but didn’t release his first album until 1978, when Brian Eno helped produce The Pavilion Of Dreams. The pair then collaborated on 1980’s Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror and 1984’s The Pearl.
Budd went on to work with other leftfield rock musicians such as Jah Wobble and John Foxx, although he formed his most enduring creative bond with Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie, starting with 1986’s The Moon And The Melodies. The pair’s most recent collaborative album, Another Flower (recorded in 2013), was released just last week.
“A lot to digest,” wrote Guthrie on Facebook. “Shared a lot with Harold since we were young, since he was sick, shared a lot with Harold for the last 35 years, period. Feeling empty, shattered lost and unprepared for this… His last words to me were ‘adios amigo’… They always were.. He left a very large ‘Harold Budd’ shaped hole whichever way we turn…”