This CD is a dual reissue of
Harold Budd's
The Oak of the Golden Dreams and
Richard Maxfield's Electronic Music. The album presents complex, haunting, and evocative electronic soundscapes. In these examples of musique concrete occurs the odd coincidence of jazz motifs, Korean folk music, spoken word, and more. The ebb and flow of tape loops present an aural kaleidoscope, exciting to the ear, in
Maxfield's pieces.
Maxfield's works date six to ten years prior to
Budd's 1969 and 1970 creations. More minimalist,
Budd's two, lengthy (18:44 and 19:46) pieces feature ambient tone coloring out of a electric organ-like Buchla Box. ~ Tom Schulte