The Pearl

The Pearl is the second collaborative studio album by Harold Budd and Brian Eno, released in August 1984 by Editions EG and produced by Eno and Daniel Lanois in Hamilton, Ontario. The Pearl is similar to Budd and Eno's previous collaboration, Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror (1980), consisting mostly of subtly treated piano textures, but with more pronounced electronic treatments and nature recordings. The album has been well received by music critics, and is considered by some as a landmark work in ambient music. Production The Pearl was recorded in Hamilton, Ontario in 1984 by Harold Budd, Brian Eno, and Daniel Lanois. The trio shared a house during the recording sessions and worked on the record seven days per week. The music was recorded over two weeks, and then it took 8-12 months to finish production and decide which tracks worked best together. The group had no set approach to working beyond looking for and capturing unique moments; such as "Lost In The Humming Air", on which Budd improvised to humming noises by Brian Eno played on a Yamaha CS-80 and recorded in one take. In the case of "Dark Eyed Sister", Budd recorded it at a small studio beforehand and sent to Eno to develop further; this, according to Budd, was the "extreme version" of how they worked. Eno made most of the decisions on aesthetics, spending hours working solo and recording pieces at different speeds. Pianos in the studio included an acoustic piano, as well as Yamaha and Rhodes electric pianos. For treatments, the group used a Yamaha DX7, CS-80, Casio CT-200, Casiotone 202, a Sequential Circuits Pro One, AMS digital delay, Eventide Harmonizer, and an EMT 250 plate reverb. Comparison with Ambient 2 Budd believes both The Pearl and Ambient 2 are similar in terms of sounds and timbres, and those similarities were conceived even during the onset of production. The former album was produced effortlessly, and the duo thought they could produce similar music again with ease. However, production on The Pearl was more challenging. Budd attributed this to naivety as a musical duo for Ambient 2, and explained that their musical language had matured since then, making production more difficult for The Pearl. In this sense, Budd believes The Pearl is more "cohesive" and "focused" than Ambient 2. He feels the conflicting emotions and "artful confusion" in the music make it more complicated and therefore more interesting to listen to. Critical reception