erasing clouds
 

Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd, Bordeaux

review by dave heaton

Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd have successful collaborated before, but to my ears they haven’t done anything together that touches what they’ve accomplished here. The difference is how well they’ve brought together their respective talents and approaches to ambient music into one unified approach. With many of their previous works, and with so many collaborations, you’re quite aware of the presence of each of them, sometimes even able to easily separate the tracks out into components in your head, something that seems a little contrary to the spirit of ambient music, meant as an immersive experience.

Bordeaux flows along in captivating fashion, drifting in a dream-like state that in the moment doesn’t remind us of Guthrie or Budd’s past work, but of course carries the hallmarks of both. Up there with the best ambient albums, it’s extremely pretty music with a spirit of rumination. There’s something both classical (meaning timeless, like ruins that will stand forever, or the presence of the wind) and progressive about it. It feels like morning, like an awakening. It’s music able to stir up deep sadness, deep consolation, deep feeling period, while emptying out the clutter in your head.

{www.darla.com}


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