La Bella Vista

La Bella Vista captures two impromptu performances from minimalist ambient guru Harold Budd. Playing solo on a vintage Steinway piano during two friendly gatherings, Budd created improvisational passages that danced across the air, not knowing that Adam Samuels and his friend Daniel Lanois were recording the sessions. At turns noirish and deeply emotional, these ten slices of piano poetry express the depth of Budd's humanity and work a powerful magic over any patient music lover. While Budd's piano might appear overly melancholic as background music, it sparkles with wit and happiness on closer listens. He does allow many somber notes to linger in the air, but his nimble-fingered flourishes work like pastel bridges over these voids. The song titles could not be more appropriate. The sprightly sweet tones of "Other Flowers," for example, might cause one to reminisce about running through a field of flowers as a child, while "Her Face" might score a film where two lovers attempt to leave behind past scorn and rediscover their each other. Looking past the abstract surface of Budd's cascading waterfall of piano notes, this is an album born of introspection that reveals and unravels the minds in its audience. On par with Budd's work with Brian Eno during Eno's ambient glory days, La Bella Vista paints new emotional worlds each time it's approached.