THE ROOM

You always know what to expect with a Harold Budd recording and this is no different, just a tad duller and with very few electronics in the background. Budd to me, is the modern day Erik Satie. The pair of them would have got on like a house on fire.

The origins of 'The Room' lie within a track on the pretty cool 'White Arcades' album from '88.

'The Room' is a very pretty, non cheesy ambient recording that has its highlight in 'Room of Oracles' which has a nice 'dead of night' creepy deserted ballroom feel to it after the previous night's carnage. Such a pity that the song titles are so pathetic.

Reverb, delay and silence using only piano are central to all the tunes presented here. Just one tune has vocals but are so reverbed they sound more like an instrument than flesh and blood. That's no bad thing though as this is one of the few that really stand out.

Apparently he was inspired at a young age by the sounds created by winds blown across telephone wires. All the tunes do tend to get a bit similar but always remain beautiful.

Harold Budd developed a style of ambient music that will remain forever his. He's instantly recognisable within this field. Just 3 stars for this one though, as there are very few avenues investigated, preferring just to plod along down the straight path he's chosen - that, combined with a very dull cover and poor liner notes supplied with the disc. Probably more deserving of 4 stars, but then, I've got hat feeling of Dijon -vu - the feeling I've heard this mustard before.