harold budd

Sometime back in 1983 or so, Gene Bowen and I recorded about a five minute sketch of what would be “Dark Star” in the hut in his orange grove near Santa Paula in California. I kept it because I knew I would eventually use it later on. As it happened, this sketch set the perfect mood for Lita and Bob’s installation* later that year. So, Gene and I tracked and mixed two very long works in two days on what most people would have called very primitive equipment, except for the Strat of course.

I’m incredibly proud of these pieces. A few of them are the best I’ve ever done, definitely the best titled, and I’m proud they never just slipped away. I look at them like they’re not mine anymore – they’ve refused to go away. Maybe because they simply don’t want to.

Harold Budd

Notes from 1989 reissue on Opal/Land Records

*Music for ABHASA: Image-Bearing Light by Lita Albuquerque, Harold Budd, and Robert Kramer at Fisher Art Gallery, University of Southern California, September-October 1983. Installation produced by Selma Holo.