Lost In The Humming Air (Music inspired by Harold Budd)

There‘s not a lot of artists who had such an important influence on todays ambient music like the outstanding piano player and composer Harold Budd. Albums like his classical „Pavilion of Dreams“ or his cooperations with Brian Eno like „The Pearl“ are well known to many electronic and Ambient musicians and listeners of the last decades. Especially the two fellow musicians Martin Juhls (aka Marsen Jules) and Rafael Anton Irisarri (aka The Sight Below) were often talking about the influence that Budd‘s music had on them and how much respect and admiration they had for him and his work. Out of this came the idea of paying respect to Budd in some way, to give something back to him. „Lost in the Humming Air“ is the result of this thought in form of a musical tribute and it‘s a big honor to release this in the 50th year of Mr. Budd‘s career as a composer. We invited some of our favorite artists to contribute a song that, in some way, resembles the music of Harold Budd or channeles the influence he had on them as musicians. We are very glad that „Lost in the Humming Air“ has turned out to be a special selection of thirteen modern Ambient pieces, with illustrous contributors such as Mokira, Taylor Deupree, Deaf Center, Christopher Willits, Biosphere, Porn Sword Tobacco and Bvdub. While all of the tracks offer a unique perspective on how the now classical sounds of Harold’s music have been an influence in one way or the other, they still manage to maintain a sound that is closely connected to the individual musician. Deaf Center, known for their highly acclaimed albums on labels such as Miasmah and Type, contributed the dark and moody “Plateau”, which was originally the opening track of a rare live performance of the duo in 2009. Our longtime friend and highly respected fellow musician John Xela made an exception of not participating in compilation projects anymore with his sublime home listening piece “The Only Rose”, which resembles his earlier work for labels such as Neo Ouija and City Centre Offices. For the first time ever, Brock van Wey, who has been one of our favorite producers for quite some time now, has collaborated with his mother Criss Van Wey, who played the piano for their heartbreaking elegy “My Father, My Friend”. We hope that, by releasing this record, we can give something back to Harold and maybe also help a younger generation of Ambient afficionados to discover the beauty of his timeless music. If you want to know more about how the individual artists feel about Harold Budd and their contributions to this project, feel free to read the liner notes we compiled on the next page.

All artists who contributed in this release donated their tracks. The profit of this CD will go to a charity project chosen by Harold Budd.