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Harold Budd at the Good Shepherd Center
Jun. 12th, 2009 08:23 amLast night I got to see pianist Harold Budd play in the Chapel Performance Space at the Good Shepherd Center. It was part of the Wayward Music Series, and I went with carl (who had called our attention to the show) and Scott (who had just had his jaws unwired earlier in the day).
I mostly know Budd through two albums of ambient music he did with Brian Eno, The Plateaux of Mirrors and The Pearl, although carl has recently given me mp3s of a bunch of other collaborations with a variety of artists, from Andy Partridge of XTC to Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. Last night he played with Keith Lowe on stand-up bass. The music had a slight jazz inflection, to my ears. Lowe did a little bit of looping, and I think he used a few other electronic effects too. For the most part, however, the sounds were acoustic. The mood was one of reverie. I drifted often into my own thoughts, losing track of the music, but always winding my way around back to it. I was reminded of a time when Tami and I went to see Marc Olsen play a solo set in a gallery space on Capitol Hill. We fell into an intent conversation while waiting for him to set up, and after about an hour and a half, we suddenly realized he had just stopped playing. He had played an ambient set that had threaded its way into our conversation and only became noticeable when it stopped.
The chapel space (on the third floor of the Good Shepherd Center) was pretty interesting in itself. It has large plaster pillars connected by arches -- reminiscent of one of D West's towering architectural drawings. The windows are stained glass with abstract rectangular shapes and patterns. Some of the windows were open during the performance, and you could here voices and other sounds from the surrounding park. One of the things that ambient music can do is make you aware of the ambient sounds in your environment. During the opening gong piece -- a "composition" by Budd that was played by somebody else -- the ambient noises from outside the room -- the happy cries of kids playing in the park -- became the main focus of my attention. I liked it. It brought a very peaceful feeling.
A very pleasant evening, and then I walked home through Wallingford in the late twilight.
I mostly know Budd through two albums of ambient music he did with Brian Eno, The Plateaux of Mirrors and The Pearl, although carl has recently given me mp3s of a bunch of other collaborations with a variety of artists, from Andy Partridge of XTC to Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins. Last night he played with Keith Lowe on stand-up bass. The music had a slight jazz inflection, to my ears. Lowe did a little bit of looping, and I think he used a few other electronic effects too. For the most part, however, the sounds were acoustic. The mood was one of reverie. I drifted often into my own thoughts, losing track of the music, but always winding my way around back to it. I was reminded of a time when Tami and I went to see Marc Olsen play a solo set in a gallery space on Capitol Hill. We fell into an intent conversation while waiting for him to set up, and after about an hour and a half, we suddenly realized he had just stopped playing. He had played an ambient set that had threaded its way into our conversation and only became noticeable when it stopped.
The chapel space (on the third floor of the Good Shepherd Center) was pretty interesting in itself. It has large plaster pillars connected by arches -- reminiscent of one of D West's towering architectural drawings. The windows are stained glass with abstract rectangular shapes and patterns. Some of the windows were open during the performance, and you could here voices and other sounds from the surrounding park. One of the things that ambient music can do is make you aware of the ambient sounds in your environment. During the opening gong piece -- a "composition" by Budd that was played by somebody else -- the ambient noises from outside the room -- the happy cries of kids playing in the park -- became the main focus of my attention. I liked it. It brought a very peaceful feeling.
A very pleasant evening, and then I walked home through Wallingford in the late twilight.
