November 19th, 2014
Mark Gardener has established himself as a songwriter, musician and producer of some distinction over the past twenty-five years. Recent collaborations with Robin Guthrie and Andrew Pearse have served as timely reminders of his artistry, while Gardener s technical wizardry has seen him oversee recent releases by Swervedriver and Desert Ships among others at his Oxford-based OX4 Sound recording studio.
However, it was with his first band
Ride that Gardener first became a household name. Having put out four albums alongside several EPs and singles to a wide range of critical and commercial acclaim, the band became an integral part of the Creation Records story. Despite splitting up in 1996 shortly after the release of final album
Harold Budd - Master Of Ambient Music Dies Published 11/12/20
Harold Budd at Bill Nelson’s 70th Birthday concert, Leeds 2018.Photo: Martin Bostock Photography
Tributes have been paid by the music community around the world to American composer and pianist Harold Budd, often cited as one of the founding fathers of ambient, who died from complications of Covid-19 following an earlier stroke in November.
Graduating from the University of Southern California, in 1966, he wrote a number of minimalist pieces before taking a teaching position at the California Institute of Arts in 1970 and released his first studio album,
The Oak Of The Golden Dreams / Coeur D’Orr, that same year.