Harold Budd – Queen City Sounds and Art

Jack Quinn’s ambient composition “Poppies” draws your attention immediate by evoking a sense of something mysterious yet calming coming into your consciousness perhaps unnoticed in your everyday life for some time. The crystalline piano echoes of melody hang in the cloudy drone like faint rays of sunshine through a springtime fog but experienced on a rare warm day in late winter. It sounds like something opening up in your brain after a long period of feeling like you’ve been coasting through moods of being adrift in your own life. It is the sound of a manifesting clarity found in a stretch of tranquility in a time of daily disruptions and angst. The drawn out sounds trailing into the distance and the swells of guitar meshing effortlessly through the piano is like a calm awakening. Fans of Eno’s early 80s period in particular his collaborations with avant-garde pianist Harold Budd will resonate deeply with this song. Listen to “Poppies” on Spotify and follow Jack Quinn at the links below. Look for Quinn’s new album Music For Painting due out on December 8, 2023.

Jack Quinn on Instagram

Jimmy Harry accomplishes some impressively nuanced depth of sound field on his song “Gummy.” In the foreground there is the minimal and impressionistically processional piano line ringing out while the sound of what seems to be cello lurking at the edges and touches of an otherworldly synth figure in the distance. Flares of distorted static occasionally crackles like you’re peaking in at the dreams of an ancient radio or those of Deckard as he dreams of the unicorn in that scene from Blade Runner. It’s a song that induces a spirit of reflection and cleansing of conscience to make room for a more peaceful emotional state once the mind is empty of the pressures to focus on the usual concerns. Though ambient it gently eases your mind into a different headspace in a welcome distraction from a mundane psychological mode. Fans of Harold Budd’s 1986 ambient classical masterpiece Lovely Thunder will certainly find much to like here. Listen to “Gummy” on YouTube and follow Jimmy Harry on Soundcloud and Spotify linked below.