Harold Budd
Harold Budd was born in 1936 in Los Angeles and grew up in the desert town of Victorville. While serving in the army, Harold encountered jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler which resulted in a stint as Ayler’s drummer. From the 60s through the early 70s Harold studied composition and produced a number of avant-garde pieces including “Lovely Thing” and “Lirio”, a 24-hour piece for solo gong. Harold subsequently taught at the California Institute for the Arts from 1970-76. Harold's 1972 piece “Madrigals of The Rose Angel” came to the attention of Brian Eno and resulted in the release of the album The Pavilion of Dreams on Eno’s Obscure Records label. This album included appearances by Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Marion Brown. Harold has continued to release a string of solo and collaborative albums including The Serpent (In Quicksilver) (1981), The Pearl (1984, with Eno), The Moon and the Melodies (1985, with the Cocteau Twins), Through the Hill (1994, with XTC’s Andy Partridge), Avalon Sutra (2004), Bordeaux (2011, with Cocteau Twin Robin Guthrie), Bandits of Stature (2012), and more.
In 2013, Harold finished a year-long project with the video artist Jane Maru which resulted in two albums, Jane 1-11 (2013), and Jane 12-21 (2014). Harold’s music continues to influence many generations of musicians, from U2’s sampling for “Cedars of Lebanon” on the album No Line on the Horizon (2009) to an anthology of 13 contemporary ambient musicians paying homage to Harold in Lost in the Humming Air (2012). Meanwhile, Harold continues to create and innovate. His book of poetry, Aurora Teardrops (2015), marked his seventh such book.
Harold passed away in December 2020.
