That Ambien stuff is pretty scary... these popular and heavily advertised sleeping pills apparently cause people to sleepwalk, "sleep-eat", and even "sleep-drive"...
Well, there's a safer alternative for the chronically sleep deprived, thanks to the dynamic ambient duo of John Foxx and Harold Budd. Play Translucence or Drift Music at bedtime and you won't be awake for long. In fact, I still haven't made it all the way through either of these CDs without falling asleep...
Based on what I have been conscious enough to hear, Translucence is heavy on minimalist piano melodies - processed, echoed, reverbed, and chorused to the max. Drift Music is all washes of serene synthesizer chords. There may be polka music on the final tracks, I can't be sure.
Keyboardist John Foxx was the front man for the electro-punk band Ultravox! before converting to New Age-ism in the mid-1980s. Harold Budd is, of course, one of the founding fathers of ambient music, best known for his collaborations with Brian Eno (who supposedly coined the term "ambient music"... maybe Eno should be suing Ambien's marketing people?)
If you're an obsessive Harold Budd completist (like I am), you'll eventually want to own this "missing link" in his discography. Otherwise, there's not much here to listen to, really... even by ambient music's standards. If you're suffering from insomnia, though, Translucence/Drift Music is available over-the-counter and, as far as I know, it won't cause you to drive to Denny's in the middle of the night.
Article comments
1 - Triniman
I always loved Harold Budd and Jon Hassell. Haven't heard the solo work of John Foxx.
2 - Stephen V Funk
I dig Jon Hassell too. I (now) have everything Harold Budd ever recorded (I think...) I adore his music unconditionally (one of these days I hope to write a longer survey of all of his stuff...)
This was my first John Foxx listen. Something tells me this album is more Foxx than Budd. Especially the polka parts...
3 - Stephen V Funk
I should add that I could do without Budd's poetry readings however... thankfully that was a short-lived phase of his...