Harold Budd isn’t happy about the fact that Tower Records in New York stocks his records in the “new age” bin. “Arrggghhh!” he eloquently responds from his home in Los Angeles. “I hope they never pass gun control laws in this country.” But the news that Chicago’s Rose Records keeps him in the avant-garde section is no consolation. “That’s even worse. I think I’ll go back to the new age bins.”
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“People ask me what kind of composer I am. I say, ‘You’ll have to listen to the record.’”
Budd admits to having shown little musical ability in his youth. Starting out as a jazz percussionist, he got the opportunity to play with saxophone great Albert Ayler during a stint in the Army. Afterward, Budd became involved with the California conceptualist/minimalist movement, writing instruction pieces along with Terry Riley, Lamonte Young, and others. In one early piece, Lovely Thing, the pianist is instructed to play one chord many times as softly as possible; another, Candy Apple Revision, cryptically states only “D-flat major.” In one statement about his music Budd wrote, “Insofar as I feel all art to be utterly worthless (no redeeming social value), I’m interested in that what I do is pretty (terrifying, gripping, sensitive, relaxing, hypnotic, spiritual — all to the side for the moment); an existential prettiness, a kind of high-art uselessness.” In the meantime, Budd taught art to pay the bills. Finally, new wave/ambient composer and record producer Brian Eno heard Budd’s The Pavilion of Dreams, and asked to record it. Since then, Eno and Budd have collaborated on two albums.
“Live performance is something I’ve never felt very comfortable with anyway. I’m not a gifted keyboard player, I’ve never claimed that, but what I do is something that no one else does. . . . I’m coming armed with a lot of work I’ve done, I want to talk about the processes I go through, and the mistakes I’ve made. To tell you the truth, I like that kind of function, talking with other artists, better than lecturing or giving a straight performance. I’m coming to press the flesh with my colleagues that I haven’t met yet.
