Richard Maxfield/Harold Budd - The Oak Of The Golden Dreams (1999 compi of LPs rel. 1969-71)

Great twofer reissue of a couple of rare LPs, which came out on the Advance label for new music in 1969 and 1971.  One by a composer who ought to be better known, as his slim discography contained intriguing experiments in sound before he tragically cut his own life short at the age of 42.  The other by a very well known composer, but captured here in his earliest recordings that bear no resemblance at all to the gentle ambient pianism that he'd become famous for, so well worth investigating from that angle.

The first composer was Richard Maxfield (1927-1969), a Seattle native whose only full LP in his lifetime was the 28-minute Electronic Music [a Dutch label, Slowscan, unearthed 2 double-LPs' worth of archival material in 2014-15].  The opening piece dated back to 1960, and although titled Pastoral Symphony is actually a heady stew of early electronic tones and pulses.  Bacchanale (1963) is a jazzy collage of violin, sax and clarinet with tapes of Korean folk music dropped in, and a Beat-style narration by New York poet Edward Field.  A 1964 prepared piano work, written for and performed by David Tudor, is next, before Maxfield's album ends with the tape loop piece Amazing Grace (1960).

Harold Budd's debut album takes up the remainder of the CD, and consists of just two spellbinding tracks dating from 1970.  First is The Oak Of The Golden Dreams, a monolithic Buchla drone in which the right channel contains an unwavering (until it detunes in closing moments) E flat whilst a Riley-like modal improvisation gradually gathers pace in the left channel.  The other piece is Coeur D'Orr, in which two tracks of electronic organ are overlaid by a saxophonist.  Both are miles away from even the late 70s music that Budd first became well known for, but are no less enjoyable and are utterly hypnotic in their transportive drones.

Original LP covers

link
pw: sgtg

Harold Budd at SGTG:
The Plateaux Of Mirror (with Brian Eno)
The Pearl (with Brian Eno)
Music For Three Pianos (with Daniel Lentz & Ruben Garcia)