before the day breaks
Harold Budd & Robin Guthrie
Produced by Robin Guthrie
Track listing
- how close your soul - 7:37
- a formless path - 4:23
- a minute, a day, no more - 5:21
- she is my weakness - 3:31
- outside, silence - 4:25
- hidden message - 4:49
- I returned her glance - 3:43
- my monochrome vision - 4:44
- turn on the moon - 4:21
Recorded Spring of 2006 at SF Soundworks, San Francisco, CA
Original release - 2007
before the day breaks and it's companion release after the night falls are like fraternal twins. They were recorded and released simultaneously. The titles for each of the nine songs in turn reflect or oppose each other in some way. The symmetry between musical themes and textures is less obvious. When directly compared, structures and sounds loosely align as if each
Guthrie's guitar and Budd's piano balance each other out nicely throughout both releases. Even when Guthries treatments are at their heaviest and most muscular, Budd's piano work is never overwhelmed.
In places, before the day breaks feels a little more muscular and more raw than after the night falls, especially with the last track, "Turn On the Moon."