Harold Budd
b. 24 May 1936, Los Angeles, California, USA. Pianist and ambient/new age composer Budd, was already married with two small children when he gained a master's degree in music, which ensured employment in the composition faculty of the California Institute of the Arts. At the expense of rhythm, his sonic experiments betrayed much of the hypnotic quality of Indian classical music in that single moods were investigated undynamically and often at considerable length. In 1978, he was signed to the Obscure label by Brian Eno—who had dedicated Through Hollow Lands from BEFORE AND AFTER SCIENCE (1977) to Budd. Moreover, Budd and Eno collaborated on THE PLATEAUX OF MIRRORS and THE PEARL. Budd's most conspicuous artistic tangent, however, was THE MOON AND THE MELODIES, recorded with the Cocteau Twins, which crept into the UK album chart in 1986.