Dieter Moebius - Tonspuren

Tonspuren is considered the first true Moebius solo album and--if AllMusic is to be trusted--his best. This release, in 1983, would've been well after Cluster and Harmonia had done their best work.

Which is not to say this sounds like the work of a has-been. Indeed, it's helpful to know what kind of album Moebius would make on his own. Some of the pleasant toy-sound rhythms in Cluster / Harmonia works seem to be Moebius contributions. Actually, there are a few songs here that wouldn't sound entirely out of place on Raymond Scott's fantastic Soothing Sounds for Babies releases. These songs aren't incredibly dynamic, though, so really these work best as background music.

Harold Budd - The Pavilion of Dreams

All Music Guide didn't rate this very highly ("The opening "Bismillahi 'Rhahmani 'Rrahim" is the musical equivalent of a bubble bath") , so I'm using a different source for the blurb. It's also written about in more depth at Ground and Sky, but that reviewer cannot form sentences.

The 1978 recording debut from reformed avant-garde composer and eventual ambient forerunner Harold Budd consists of four chamber works (written between 1972 and 1975) that use varying combinations of harp, mallet instruments, piano, saxophone, and female or male vocals. Two years before his fateful first studio collaboration with Brian Eno (who produced this album), Budd was creating hypnotic music in an acoustic mode. All of the works herein--including "Two Rooms," whose latter half is an adaptation of John Coltrane's "After the Rain"--sustain a similarly dreamy vibe. An important credo for Budd was to make music as pretty as possible as an antidote to the noisy avant-garde he had escaped from. One cannot fault him for the lovely sounds he creates here, although fans familiar with his more cinematic works might be caught off-guard. Regardless, the pleasant Pavilion of Dreams provides insight into Budd's past, and it offers the same somniferous effect as a gentle lullaby, making it perfect for late-evening listening. --Bryan Reesman

(Harold Budd - The Pavillion of Dreams)