Echoes 2005:
Chamber Music
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Harold Budd, the godfather of ambient chamber music, creates achingly beautiful melodies marked by an unremitting sense of melancholy and atmosphere on Avalon Sutra. It was supposed to be his swansong, but reports are that Budd will continue dusting his keyboards with feathers.
Budd is joined by another ambient disciple, Leo Abraham. His Honeytrap album came in as a late year surprise, but his mix of Ventures guitar and Penquin Café Orchestra archness has been enchanting us for a couple of months.
Trumpeter Jeff Oster did something unusual, managing to wed ambient and New Age sensibilities on his full length debut, Released, bringing in stylists like guitarist Will Ackerman and singer Happy Rhodes to orchestrate his moody designs.
Adding texture to his album is Jeff Pearce, who made the Listener's Poll with his own spare and open album for solo Chapman Stick, Lingering Light. Also solo, Christopher O'Riley turned Radiohead's prog-rock anthems into subtle arrangements for solo piano a second time around on his album, Hold Me to This.
But the real surprise was Philip Glass’s largely unheralded double CD, Orion, recorded during a concert stand in Greece. It's divided into movements dedicated to Brazil, Canada, Australia, India, China, Gambia, and Greece and features musicians from each country. The highlights for us were certainly "Gambia" with kora player Foday Musa Suso and "Brazil" featuring Uakti. Glass wraps his minimalist cycles around these musicians to create a global chamber work.
Finally there is Mark Isham's score to Crash. Although it's an all electronic work, Isham uses ambient chamber music aesthetics to articulate his ghost echoes.
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Harold Budd
Christopher O'Riley (L)
& Echoes host John Diliberto
Philip Glass
