*** 1/2 Harold Budd, “The Room,” Atlantic.

A collection of “rooms,” including a flowered room and one dedicated to forgotten children, serves as a conceptual springboard from which ambient alchemist Budd creates 13 vignettes of bewitching subtlety. His electronically treated piano soundscapes evoke images of raindrops falling on a silent landscape. Remarkably, Budd’s love for the abstract never gets in the way of the raw emotional power of his enchanting melodies.

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Albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent). The albums are already released unless otherwise noted.