harold budd

Review by Soundtrackgeek.com:

White Bird In A Blizzard is set in 1988 when a a mother disappears for no reason. The composers Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd are not so familiar names in the world of film scoring, but they have notably worked together on the score to Mysterious Skin from 1994. This is yet another dreamy drama score. There have been quite a few this year, recently “Tracks” and “Wish I Was Here”. White Bird seems to have a bit of fantasy in there as well and ‘The Radiant Bride’ has a sort of dreamy fantasy feel to it with lots of long synth pads and wind-like instruments. The cue that first got my attention was the 80s music inspired ‘Brock’s Theme’. There’s a certain retro sound to it and I was immediately thinking about the year 1988.

This score has lot of great textural work and it also has a beautiful reverbing guitar on some cues such as ‘Forever Changed’. It’s not a soft score, in fact it is quite a powerful score that’s not afraid to come at you with lots of energy. I think this score depends on a certain mood from the listener. It’s all about expectations. I can see some people thinking this score is boring, and I can see others relaxing to it and really enjoying it. At the moment I am really enjoying it. It’s funny but sometimes it reminds me of Mark Isham’s Crash, but without the vocals. Check out ‘The Affair’ for example. After a rocky start, it became a thing of beauty for me. Yes, the music felt like the same piece of music over and over and yet, I was captivated by it. I couldn’t put it down. There are a lot of ambient scores, but White Bird In A Blizzard get it right.

2014