Harold Budd and Translucence

For the fourth part of John Foxx’s series ‘Key Moments’, he takes us behind the scenes to recreate one of the most important musical collaborations of his life, working with the avant-garde Californian musician and composer Harold Budd. They met at one of John’s concerts in the late 1980s and went onto work together on an influential double album, Translucence and Drift Music. In the basement of The Piano Shop in Bath, John sets up a Yamaha upright piano and his equipment exactly as he did with Harold. He attaches mics as close as possible to the strings, and as he plays, the sound is fed through the same reverb unit he used then. The recording demonstrates the dreamlike sound of slow, sustained resonance and full piano harmonics which create a timeless musical ‘evanescence’, as John describes it.

Presented by John Foxx
Produced by Anna Horsbrugh Porter
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 3