Various Artists - Someplace You Cannot See (2024)

This is a mix that I made when I was really, really going through it, probably in late April of last year. Unlike the last mix I posted, this one I really put some time into, piecing it all together into two suite-style, 46-minute sequences in Garageband over the course of a few days. It's pretty depressing, obviously, but I was in desperate need of an outlet, and it's definitely one of the best mixes I've ever made. There's a ton that I could write about why I chose each track on here, but y'all have already heard enough about my grief, so I'll just let you enjoy it however you like.

(To be clear: this is two 46-minute tracks.)

Safely floating away

My lantern dim

With a wick I didn't light

I never even asked for light

Includes songs from:

Michael Stearns - Floating Whispers (1987)

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd - Through the Hill (1994)

David Torn - What Means Solid, Traveller? (1996)

Lullaby for the Working Class - I Never Even Asked for Light (1997)

Songs of Green Pheasant - Songs of Green Pheasant (2005)

Growing - His Return (2005)

Asva - What You Don't Know Is Frontier (2007)

Snowman - Absence (2011)

John Foxx + Harold Budd - Translucence + Drift Music (2003)

Related:

Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (1978)

John Foxx - Metamatic (1980)

Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)

Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and the Melodies (1986)

Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)

Harold Budd - The Serpent (In Quicksilver) + Abandoned Cities (1989)

Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, Daniel Lentz - Music for 3 Pianos (1992)

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd - Through the Hill (1994)

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

Harold Budd passed into the great unknown on December 10th, 2020. Yes, it was fucking COVID-19. As you can see from the mass of links above, he's one of my favorite artists, and I would be remiss to not mark the occasion. Here's his two-part collaboration with John Foxx who, aside from his work as a new wave/synthpop artist, is an accomplished ambient musician in his own right. Translucence is all gorgeous, impossibly tranquil piano pieces echoing through a shimmering ambient haze, then Drift Music zooms in on the haze. Godspeed, Mr. Budd, on your journey to the pavilion of dreams.

Track listing:

 Translucence

1. Subtext

2. Spoken Roses

3. Momentary Architecture

4. Adult

5. Long Light

6. A Change in the Weather

7. Here and Now

8. Almost Overlooked

9. Implicit

10. Raindust

11. Missing Person

12. You Again

 Drift Music

1. Sunlit Silhouette

2. The Other Room

3. Some Way Through All the Cities

4. Stepping Sideways

5. A Delicate Romance

6. Linger

7. Curtains Blowing

8. Weather Patterns

9. Coming into Focus

10. After All This Time

11. Someone Almost There

12. Resonant Frequency

13. Avenue of Trees

14. Underwater Flowers

15. Arriving

Lost in the humming air

Andy Partridge & Harold Budd - Through the Hill (1994)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (1978)
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and Melodies (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)
Harold Budd - The Serpent (In Quicksilver) + Abandoned Cities (1989)
Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, Daniel Lentz - Music for 3 Pianos (1992)
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

Abstract, minimal sounds from XTC mainman Andy Partridge and ambient great Harold Budd. Evocative, patiently composed, and thoughtfully executed songs -- each has its own unique instrumental palette. One of my favorite ambient records.

Track listing:
1. Hand 19
2. Through the Hill
3. Great Valley of Gongs
4. Western Island of Apples
5. Anima Mundi
6. Hand 20
7. The Place of Odd Glances
8. Well for the Sweat of the Moon
9. Tenochtitlan's Numberless Bridges
10. Ceramic Avenue
11. Hand 21
12. Missing Pieces to the Game of Salt and Onyx
13. Mantle of Peacock Bones
14. Bronze Coins Showing Genitals
15. Bearded Aphrodite
16. Hand 22
17. Bosch
18. Bruegel

Children thrown from heaven

If you like this, try:

Vidna Obmana -
The River of Appearance (1996)

Arve Henriksen -
Chiaroscuro (2004)

Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, Daniel Lentz - Music for 3 Pianos (1992)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (1978)
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and Melodies (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)
Harold Budd - The Serpent (In Quicksilver) + Abandoned Cities (1989)
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

Icy, achingly beautiful compositions for... well, three pianos, obviously. If possible, I recommend listening on headphones; otherwise, it's difficult to tell where one piano ends and the next begins.

Track listing:
1. Pulse - Pause - Repeat
2. La Muchacha de los Sueños Dorados
3. Iris
4. Somo Tres
5. The Messenger
6. La Casa Bruja

I blink and she's gone

You will also like:

Sarah Hopkins & Alan Lamb -
Sky Song (1985)

Vidna Obmana -
The River of Appearance (1996)

Alesini & Andreoni - Marco Polo (1995)

Marco Pollo defies easy categorization, so it's not an ideal candidate for one of my half-assed write-ups, but it certainly encompasses a great deal of what this blog is about; there's a bit of new age-y synth ambience, some quasi-tribal drumming, spaced-out sax solos, hints of 90's electronica, even a touch of smokey Twin Peaks jazz. Plus, featured on the album are three of my absolute favorite musicians: Harold Budd, David Sylvian, and David Torn. If only they'd somehow managed to work some black metal in there, then it'd pretty much be Opium Hum: The Album.

Track listing:
1. Come Morning
2. Quinsal La Citta' del Cielo
3. Yangchow
4. The Golden Way
5. Sumatra
6. M. Polo
7. Il Libro Dell' Incessante Accordo Con Il Cielo
8. Maya
9. Buchara
10. Kubilay Khan
11. Samarca
12. The Valley of Pamir
13. Maya (Nocturne Version) [bonus]

Lost in the marketplace
As if half-born

You should also hear:

Michael Shrieve & Steve Roach -
The Leaving Time (1988)

Steve Tibbetts -
The Fall of Us All (1994)

Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams (1978)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and Melodies (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)
Harold Budd - The Serpent (In Quicksilver) + Abandoned Cities (1989)
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

A glimmering tapestry of harp, saxophone, angelic voices, synthesizer, Rhodes piano, and vibraphone. It's the perfect soundtrack to a contentedly lazy, stoned day, and all things considered, probably Budd's best album.

Track listing:
1. Bismillahi 'Rrahman 'Rrahim
2. Two Songs: Let Us Go into the House of the Lord / Butterfly Sunday
3. Madrigals of the Rose Angel: Rosetti Noise / The Crystal Garden and a Coda
4. Juno

Dawn vibration

Harold Budd - The Serpent (In Quicksilver) / Abandoned Cities (1989)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and Melodies (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

Issued in 1989, this record collects two of Budd's early albums: The Serpent (In Quicksilver),  originally recorded in '81 (on a 4-track, no less) and Abandoned Cities, which consists of two long pieces composed in '84 for an art installation. The Serpent is very much in line with the piano-driven, synth-saturated ambient music for which he'd eventually become known, while Abandoned Cities offers an enticing glimpse at a darker, more experimental approach at which he proved quite proficient.

Track listing:
1. Afar
2. Wanderer
3. Rub with Ashes
4. Children on the Hill
5. Widows Charm
6. The Serpent (In Quicksilver)
7. Dark Star
8. Abandoned Cities

Totems of the red-sleeved warrior

Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd - The Moon and the Melodies (1986)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)
Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (1997)
Cocteau Twins - Lullabies to Violaine (2006)

An excellent collaboration between Cocteau Twins and ambient composer Harold Budd. I'm trying to pack in as much laziness as possible before school starts again, and this album is helping me to achieve my goals.

Track listing:
1. Sea, Swallow Me
2. Memory Gongs
3. Why Do You Love Me?
4. Eyes Are Mosaics
5. She Will Destroy You
6. The Ghost Has No Home
7. Bloody and Blunt
8. Ooze Out and Away, Onehow

The thinner the air

Robin Guthrie & Harold Budd - After the Night Falls (2007)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)
Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)

Once again, I am too busy for this blog shit. But here's a gorgeous, shimmering pool of guitar, synth, and piano that is helping to keep me sane through all of this studying and essaying.

Track listing:
1. How Distant Your Heart
2. Avenue of Shapes
3. Seven Thousand Sunny Years
4. She Is My Strength
5. Inside, a Golden Echo
6. Open Book
7. And Then I Turned Away
8. The Girl with Colorful Thoughts
9. Turn Off the Sun

Freefall

Harold Budd - The White Arcades (1988)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:
Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)

Gentle, drifting synth and piano sound worlds from an American master. Put this on the next time you die and go to heaven in a little rowboat.

Track listing:
1. The White Arcades
2. Balthus Bemused by Color
3. The Child with a Lion
4. The Real Dream of Sails
5. Algebra of Darkness
6. Totems of the Red-Sleeved Warrior
7. The Room
8. Coyote
9. The Kiss

Ice floes in Eden

Harold Budd - Lovely Thunder (1986)

Here are some soothing, keyboard-based ambient compositions from American composer Harold Budd. They are beautiful, and I am exhausted. Good night.

Track listing:
1. The Gunfighter
2. Sandtreader
3. Ice Floes in Eden
4. Olancha Farewell
5. Flowered Knife Shadows (For Simon Raymonde)
6. Valse Pour le Fin du Temps
7. Gypsy Violin

An echo of night