The Pearl

Eno had produced Harold Budd's The Pavilion of Dreams on his Obscure label in 1978 and made Ambient 2: The Plateaux of Mirror with him in 1980. For The Pearl, Budd, Eno and Daniel Lanois shared a house in Hamilton, Ontario, and worked seven days a week, tracking in about two weeks and finishing over many months. Budd played acoustic, Yamaha and Rhodes pianos with his slow, sustain-heavy touch; Eno processed and surrounded them with synthesizers and treatments. Lost in the Humming Air was improvised in one take. Budd called it a refinement of their first record and probably the best work he had been involved in. AllMusic gave it four and a half stars, and The Guardian later called the pair the godfathers of ambient. Budd died in December 2020.