Product Description

In the final stage of the Brian Eno reissues series, the wonderfully sublime collaboration album with the talented ambient classical composer Harold Budd. In 1980, Eno and Budd collaborated on Ambient 2 - The Plateaux of Mirror, a beautifully crafted ambient album (the 2nd in the recently reissued Eno Ambient series) which contained piano textures seen later in his collaborations with Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins and on this hauntingly serene album The Pearl. The Pearl includes 11 ambient soundscape poems using treated keyboard sounds (both electronic and acoustic) and floats in a fluid and dreamy manner throughout with touches of light colour. As with all recent reissues, these albums have been digitally transferred from the Original Masters by Simon Heyworth and mastered using 'Class A' Analogue Electronics combined with the best Analogue to Digital conversion.

Track Listing

1. Late October
2. Stream With Bright Fish
3. Silver Ball
4. Against the Sky
5. Lost in the Humming Air
6. Dark-Eyed Sister
7. Their Memories
8. Pearl
9. Foreshadowed
10. Echo of Night
11. Still Return

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55239 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-19
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .18 pounds

CD Description
The music of California-born composer Harold Budd has little in common with the hypnotic Eastern-influenced pulsing of fellow minimalists like Philip Glass or Terry Riley. Instead, his sometimes atonal but often pastoral and lulling compositions for piano most recall the influence of Erik Satie. For their second collaboration, THE PEARL, Budd and co-writer/producer Brian Eno eschew the lengthy explorations of their previous album, THE PLATEAUX OF MIRRORS, in favor of 11 brief miniatures between two and five minutes each. Given evocative, imagistic titles like "Late October" and "Lost in the Humming Air", Budd's watery, occasionally jazz-inflected piano solos are subtly supported by non-obtrusive layers of synthesizers, tape effects and other instrumentation by Eno and co-producer Daniel Lanois. Less trance-inducing than Eno's full-fledged ambient works, THE PEARL is nonetheless a gentleand quiet record as accessible to fans of Satie and Bill Evans as it is to minimalist and ambient enthusiasts.

Customer Reviews

Essence of brooks in autumn
I bought my first copy of the Pearl (a cassette!) on its first release. I was a little worried, for I wasn't entirely convinced by ambient music at the time. But it proved perfect for walks by the stream in the little glade near my flat, and to me it's now the epitome of babbling brooks in autumn. What sets it far apart from hundreds of tedious New Age piano albums are Eno's treatments and backgrounds; that and Harold Budd's knack for taking simple melodies round unexpected corners.

Having owned it on CD for years, at first listen I was disappointed with the remaster, for it didn't seem to add much; but some way into the album, I realised that I was hearing things I'd never noticed before, an extra depth to the sound; so I guess the remaster is worth it after all. I just wish I could get it our of that insanely tight plastic sleeve!

Mesmerising, mournful
The whole album is mesmerisingly beautiful and deeply engaging. The overall tone is haunting, but it's never so intense that it breaks your heart. It has instead a beguiling gentleness; like recalling a sad memory that makes you shed a couple of tears, before you manage a small smile that comes from forgiveness.

Wish I'd heard it a while ago.

Underrated work
Like many of Eno's ambient albums, The Pearl rewards repeated listenings. I've had the album just over a year and I listened to it a lot over a about a month, but remained undecided about it. Now, after checking out again, I believe it to be a beautifully haunting album, despite it not being as good as Music For Airports, Ambient 4 On Land and Apollo. Once you get over the lack of structure and definite beginnigs and ends, this album really does have appeal. Some moments are extremely beautiful, such as Late October and Stream With Bright Fish. Other moments, such as The Pearl, are quite sinister. The whole work has a wonderful flow and it's a great record to put on, escape and swim in the atmosphere of the music. The album, like the others mentioned in this review, shows a genius at work and shows why Brian Eno's music was so emotional,groundbreaking and massively influencial.