Translucence/Drift Music

Budd's piano works resonate with measured participation in West Coast Jazz, experimental and classical music and examinations of minimalism and Zen. In his compositions, he tends to identify and isolate single movements and motifs, which are deliciously and ruthlessly developed through each piece. These are further distilled and focused by employing a fine awareness of the possibilities and effects of modern recording techniques, especially their tendency to produce alterations of relative scale. The final effect of this concentration on seemingly simple movements is to provide the aural equivalent of a magnifying lens, through which the listener may marvel at the intricate beauty of things which were previously overlooked, because they may have seemed too small, or fleeting, or insignificant.

This original sensibility was properly consolidated when Budd worked closely with another 20th century innovator, Brian Eno, and a new kind of recorded music was evolved, one which addressed previously unidentified parts of the listening spectrum. Tranquillity, stillness, contemplation and a sense of wonder were the main elements brought into focus through these seminal recordings. The result of a gentle application of intelligence and combined sensitivities, unrestricted by convention. Budd has since continued to make his own explorations through a series of solo recordings and collaborations with other musicians. His intuition, courage and steadfastness have enabled him to produce a quietly luminous and immensely valuable body of work.

John Foxx has made an idiosyncratic journey through popular music since the mid 1970's. In 1976 he was among the first to choose Brian Eno as producer and later, in 1978, worked with Conny Plank (original producer of Kraftwerk, Neu, Can, etc.,) in Dusseldorf, West Germany. In 1979 he used synthesizers and drum machines to record "Metamatic", the first electronic album by a British solo artist. This album is now credited as providing a blueprint for the evolution of popular electronic music to the present day.

Later he released the beginnings of the "Cathedral Oceans" series, first on CD and then as a DVD multimedia work containing visual imagery integrated with surround sound. These recordings were the result of many years investigations of the possibilities of creating harmonic structures through the use of long echoes and complex reverberations. A continuation of Foxx's lifelong fascination with the interplay between the human voice and reflections and delays allowed by large scale architecture.

In parallel to this, he also works as a successful and innovative visual artist. In the early to mid 1980's, he was one of the first to recognise and use the potential of digital imaging systems in producing photographic collage and composite artwork. He is now working on a series of 'cut up' digital movies, as well as new electronic and piano music. His work continues to be regarded as relevant and innovative by succeeding generations of musicians and artists.