Harold Budd & Clive Wright: Little Windows

It is with the release of Little Windows that ambient composer Harold Budd and guitarist Clive Wright complete their triptych of albums started in 2008. Even though Budd announced some years ago that he was calling it quits, citing that he had accomplished everything he had set out to do musically, this sudden flux of collaborations with Wright seems to mean that he was just kidding. Whatever the circumstances, Budd and Wright feel like two peas in a pod, summoning elongated sounds from thin air and fluffing them into the atmosphere. Little Windows is in turns austere, ornate, and always harmonious. But for all that it has going for it, the album never reaches a point of transcendence, never giving you that “a-ha!” moment where subtle nuances turn into magic. Call it music for the retired who still want to work.