Although Harold Budd promised retirement after his stunning Avalon Sutra album 2½ years ago, we find him (thankfully) returning to the fold for a collaboration with ex-Cocteau Twins co-founder/guitarist/producer Robin Guthrie. Maybe Budd only intended to retire from solo releases, or maybe he'd had a bad day in the desert. Nevertheless, it’s just good to have a new CD with Harold Budd printed on the cover.

This twin-set of albums have been released simultaneously and complement each other as each track has its own companion piece on the corresponding disc. For example, track one on After the Night Falls is titled, How Distant Your Heart, with the opposite track on the second disc titled, How Close Your Soul. Not really sure why there were not simply released as a two-disc set, but the decision’s not worthy of close inspection.

More pertinently, to the satisfaction of Guthrie and Budd’s many admirers, these albums are an intruiging and airy union of Guthrie’s signature guitar sound and Budd’s signature piano sound, fused together and bathed in cavernous echo and calming synthesiser washes. Neither Guthrie’s sprinkled guitars nor Budd’s light fingered piano tones dominate the music – although Budd’s piano tends to guide the mood, whilst Guthrie’s succulent, wandering guitar perhaps guides the song arrangement. However, both are seamlessly integrated, and one therefore gets the immediate impression that both artists forged a remarkably natural working relationship during its recording.

For the most part, the 18 tracks that cover the duration of both CDs mainly consist of ‘drift music’, swimming effortlessly at an unswervingly lax tempo, with guitar and piano refrains meditatively supporting each other, residing on a bed of ambient synthesisers and very occasional percussion elements. In fact, I was quite surprised by the closing Turn Off The Sun (from After The Night Falls), which breaks into gentle, lead drumming with crashing percussion; on this occasion Guthrie’s guitar does dominate and is stylistically reminiscent of his Cocteau Twins era.

One thing’s for sure, the more you play these two albums, the more the songs come into their own and the further you notice the subtle, radiant changes of mood and emotion. Absolute masters of their trade, this collaboration was never going to be a disappointment and it isn’t, the duo’s alliance sounds exactly as you might expect, if not better considering Budd & Guthrie’s equally prominent styles - both After the Night Falls and Before The Day Breaks are simply beautiful ambient albums that require oodles of slow absorption to reap the full benefits, after which they’re in another league.