The Pearl (album)

The Pearl
The Pearl
Studio album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno
Released	August 1984
Studio	Grant Avenue Studio, Hamilton, Ontario
Genre	Ambient
Length	42:59
Label	Editions EG
Producer	Brian Eno; Daniel Lanois;
Harold Budd chronology
Brian Eno chronology
Harold Budd and Brian Eno chronology

The Pearl is the second collaborative studio album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno, released in August 1984 by Editions EG and produced by Eno and Daniel Lanois in Hamilton, Ontario. The Pearl is similar to Budd and Eno's previous collaboration, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (1980), consisting mostly of subtly treated piano textures, but with more pronounced electronic treatments and nature recordings. The album has been well received by music critics, and is considered by some as a landmark work in ambient music.

Production

The Pearl was recorded in Hamilton, Ontario in 1984 by Harold Budd, Brian Eno, and Daniel Lanois.^[1] The trio shared a house during the recording sessions and worked on the record seven days per week. The music was recorded over two weeks, and then it took 8-12 months to finish production and decide which tracks worked best together.^[1] The group had no set approach to working beyond looking for and capturing unique moments; such as "Lost In The Humming Air", on which Budd improvised to humming noises by Brian Eno played on a Yamaha CS-80 and recorded in one take.^[2] In the case of "Dark Eyed Sister", Budd recorded it at a small studio beforehand and sent to Eno to develop further; this, according to Budd, was the "extreme version" of how they worked.^[2] Eno made most of the decisions on aesthetics, spending hours working solo and recording pieces at different speeds.^[1] Pianos in the studio included an acoustic piano, as well as Yamaha and Rhodes electric pianos.^[1] For treatments, the group used a Yamaha DX7, CS-80, Casio CT-200, Casiotone 202, a Sequential Circuits Pro One, AMS digital delay, Eventide Harmonizer, and an EMT 250 plate reverb.^[1]^[2]

Comparison with Ambient 2

Budd believes both The Pearl and Ambient 2 are similar in terms of sounds and timbres, and those similarities were conceived even during the onset of production.^[3] The former album was produced effortlessly, and the duo thought they could produce similar music again with ease.^[3] However, production on The Pearl was more challenging.^[1] Budd attributed this to naivety as a musical duo for Ambient 2, and explained that their musical language had matured since then, making production more difficult for The Pearl.^[1] In this sense, Budd believes The Pearl is more "cohesive" and "focused" than Ambient 2.^[1] He feels the conflicting emotions and "artful confusion" in the music make it more complicated and therefore more interesting to listen to.^[3]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	^[4]
Robert Christgau	A−^[5]
Tom Hull – on the Web	B+ ()^[6]

Contemporary reviews were positive. Electronics & Music Maker felt The Pearl had more unity than Ambient 2, and enjoyed the peculiar mix of Eno's melancholia and Budd's optimism.^[3] Sound on Sound described how the album generates oceanic imagery, such as galleons at the bottom of the sea, waves on a deserted beach, and fish swimming silently.^[1]

Retrospective reviews have also been positive. Ned Raggett, writing for AllMusic, stated that "The Pearl is so ridiculously good it instantly shows up much of the mainstream new age as the gloopy schlock that it often is".^[4] Robert Christgau wrote that "These eleven pieces are more circumspect and detailed, and while they do slip into decoration they're the most intellectually gratifying (and emotionally engaging) music Eno's put his name on since his first Jon Hassell LP".^[5] A more critical review from Uncut described The Pearl the as "overly tasteful abstraction that eventually proves tedious" and a decorative, "musical equivalent of a lava lamp".^[7]

Ambient 2 and The Pearl are often discussed together by critics in retrospect as landmark works in ambient and both Eno and Budd's repertoire.^[8]^[9]^[10] In 2014, The Guardian wrote that the albums earned them the title "godfathers of ambient".^[9] All About Jazz called the albums "some of the most beautiful music to come out of the early days of the genre".^[10] Q wrote that The Pearl built upon the sounds in Ambient 2, and described it as "slow motion cocktail jazz through a padded wall and earmuffs"^[11] Pitchfork described Budd and Eno's collaborations as evoking tension "between gentleness and threat, between intimacy and uncertainty, between the thrill of a hint and the human desire to see the whole picture".^[12]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Brian Eno and Harold Budd.

Side one
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Late October"	4:42
2.	"A Stream with Bright Fish"	3:55
3.	"The Silver Ball"	3:23
4.	"Against the Sky"	4:46
5.	"Lost in the Humming Air"	4:02

Side two
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Dark-Eyed Sister"	4:39
2.	"Their Memories"	3:52
3.	"The Pearl"	3:08
4.	"Foreshadowed"	3:47
5.	"An Echo of Night"	2:26
6.	"Still Return"	4:19
Total length:		42:59

Personnel

Brian Eno – composition, production
Harold Budd – composition
Daniel Lanois – production
Russell Mills – cover art, design
Christina Birrer – photography

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ Prendergast, Mark (December 1986). "The Sound-Painted World of Harold Budd". Sound on Sound.
^ ^a ^b ^c Everard, Chris (October 1984). "The Life Of Brian (Part 1): Harold Budd". Electronic Soundmaker & Computer Music. p. 28.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Goldstein, Dan (July 1986). "The Serpent and The Pearl". Electronics & Music Maker.
^ ^a ^b Raggett, Ned. The Pearl at AllMusic
^ ^a ^b Robert Christgau review
^ Hull, Tom (12 November 2023). "Grade List: Harold Budd". Tom Hull – on the Web. Retrieved 12 November 2023.
^ Dalton, Stephen (October 2005). "Harol Budd & Brian Eno: The Pearl". Uncut.
^ Dayal, Geeta. "Harold Budd". 4columns.org. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
^ ^a ^b "Harold Budd: the composer with no urge to make music". the Guardian. 25 February 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
^ ^a ^b Jazz, All About (2 August 2007). "Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd: Mirror Images article @ All About Jazz". All About Jazz. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
^ Henderson, Dave (December 2000). "The Pearl". Q.
^ "Harold Budd: Wind In Lonely Fences 1970 - 2011". Pitchfork. Retrieved 5 October 2021.