# Drone music



## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Drone music*, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece. La Monte Young, one of its 1960s originators, defined it in 2000 as "the sustained tone branch of minimalism".

Please suggest composers/works/recordings of Drone Music - preferably new examples.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Jo Montgomerie ~ from industry home *(Helen Scarsdale Agency)
The primary material of this album is not sound fragments, but sound debris. Unlike the possibly ‘natural’ associations of chance encounters with found sounds, these remnants allude to the aftermath of work. And work cuts across absolutely everything we do – it shapes the world, and in the process produces rubbish, which we refuse to look at, but is the substrate upon which our lives are erected. Montgomerie links this_ refuse_ thoroughly, adding sounds of her own home and her body into the mix, creating a sonic description of our “industry home” that does not romanticize that work. It grinds, it screeches, it drones on… just like us. *(David Murrieta* *Flores)





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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)




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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Prison Episodes, by Pouya Pour-Amin


7 track album




flamingpines.bandcamp.com


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)

is this the same as ambient?


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)




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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Bwv 1080 said:


> is this the same as ambient?


There is some idea that drone music is separate from ambient, which could be thought of as an umbrella category for several minimalistic styles.

Here's Wikipedia definition:

_Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes tone and atmosphere over traditional musical structure or rhythm. It may lack net composition, beat, or structured melody. It uses textural layers of sound that can reward both passive and active listening and encourage a sense of calm or contemplation. The genre is said to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual", or "unobtrusive" quality. Nature soundscapes may be included, and the sounds of acoustic instruments such as the piano, strings and flute may be emulated through a synthesizer._


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

This might be the ultimate drone work:

*Alvin Lucier: Music on a long thin wire (1980)*


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

Drones don't have to be boring.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

NoCoPilot said:


> Drones don't have to be boring.


Who said they were?


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## Bwv 1080 (Dec 31, 2018)




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## Nate Miller (Oct 24, 2016)

The first time I heard drone/ambient music was when I was 14 and the ska band I was in was going to be featured during the punk rock hour on KPFT public radio in Houston. Thing was, right before that was the Avant-Guard hour featuring drone music.

So we walk in to the radio station, a bunch of punk kids about half smashed on cheap booze, and the first thing I say is, "Man, what's making that ****ing noise?"

All these guys in berets and goatees started glaring at me and my buddy elbows me in the ribs and says "Shut up man, this is the Avant-guard hour!"

so the "****ing noise" was the actual piece that was going out over the radio. 😧 

Very embarrassing when you are a young kid trying to pretend you belong in a room full of grown ups


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## NoCoPilot (Nov 9, 2020)

The goatee crowd was probably saying the same thing about your punk: "What's that noise?"


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Corrado Maria De Santis ~ Ruins*

Ruins connote a number of things: Decay, collapse, fragments, a sense of pastness and history. But to refer to something as ruins also assumes resilience and persistence; that despite the passage of time or an absence, traces of what was still remain. Guitarist and composer *Corrado Maria de Santis* latest project _Ruins_, released on limited tape by Midira Records, manages to get at at least some of that complexity conveyed by its title. (read more)


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

What is _real? _The question has intrigued philosophers throughout the ages and is a prime inspiration for sci-fi, fantasy and comic book creators. Every new era brings a new twist on the question, the latest cluster including digital media, bots and fake news. *Giulio Aldinucci *has investigated such themes before, but never with such intention as he does here. This time, when one hears the faint echoes of choirs nestled in electronic drones, one feels the tug-of-war. One side sings of a higher purpose and a deeper connection. The other purrs, _modern, convenient, now_.

*Giulio Aldinucci ~ Real*


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

SanAntone said:


> *Drone music*, drone-based music, or simply drone, is a minimalist genre that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes, or tone clusters – called drones. It is typically characterized by lengthy audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations throughout each piece. La Monte Young, one of its 1960s originators, defined it in 2000 as "the sustained tone branch of minimalism".
> 
> Please suggest composers/works/recordings of Drone Music - preferably new examples.


Pandit Pran Nath


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

peeq / Yoichi Ichikawa: Sea of Dreams








Sea of Dreams, by peeq / Yoichi Ichikawa


from the album Drone Studies 3




yoichi-ichikawa.bandcamp.com





"This is the first work in which I experimented with the technique of applying a spectral filter to field recordings, extracting individual frequencies, and layering them on top of each other. Although it is a drone, various melodies emerge from the interference between the frequencies, and since the notes are specified by frequency rather than according to the 12-tone equal temperament, it triggered a renewed interest in the pure intonation. In this piece, I think you can hear the pure joy of discovering this technique for the first time."


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Bitchin’ Bajas—Bajascillators*






Listening to the latest album from Chicago zoners Bitchin’ Bajas without context, you’d be forgiven for think you’d stumbled onto a lost recording from Midori Takada, Craig Leon, or flute and drums-era Kraftwerk in some parallel universe record shop. Each of Bajascillators’ extended instrumentals offers access to endlessly listenable worlds within worlds.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Kali Malone: Pipe Inversions








"Pipe Inversions", by Kali Malone


from the album The Harmonic Series II - 3LP - Curated by Duane Pitre




imprec.bandcamp.com




Kali Malone (small pipe organ), Isak Hedtjärn (bass clarinet)


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

Felipe Vaz: The Well Frozen Piano








The Well Frozen Piano, by Felipe Vaz


3 track album




difficultartandmusic.bandcamp.com





_The "Well-Frozen Piano" is an attempt at bringing La Monte Young's masterpiece, The Well-Tuned Piano, closer to his own vision of a music that would last forever. Based on frequency spectra extracted from sections of Young's piece, this release consists of a drone composition with Vaz's arrangement of these spectra over time, and a computer application that allows for both an endless generation of drones and the replication of a multichannel sound installation based on them._


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

tortkis said:


> Kali Malone: Pipe Inversions
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I didn't see an audio clip at this link, so I found the work on YouTube for those who wish to hear the music.


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## tortkis (Jul 13, 2013)

^ That is strange, but thank you for finding a youtube clip.

Clarice Jensen: The Organ That Made You Bleed, from Drone Studies





Clarice Jensen is a composer and cellist based in Brooklyn, NYC. She studied with Joel Krosnick, Harvey Shapiro and has taken master classes with many composers such as Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter and Roger Reynolds. I have been checking her music since I was fascinated by her beautiful debut album For This From That Will Be Filled.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

*Drone Mass :: Jóhannsson: Triptych in Mass* 
Jóhann Jóhannsson · Theatre of Voices · Paul Hillier · American Contemporary Music Ensemble






The late Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson is particularly remembered for writing a number of atmospheric film scores, notably Sicario, Arrival and The Theory of Everything. Away from the big screen, he was a highly experimental musician with a particular interest in the relationship between electronics and classical music. Influences from the Holy Minimalists, Morton Feldman and the techno and glitch music scenes come together into a coherent style that is immediately recognisable yet difficult to categorise.

Jóhannsson's Drone Mass is a case in point; combining vocal ensemble, string quartet and electronics, it is a work that almost defies description. Part ambient soundscape, part abstract ritual, it was premiered in 2015 but had hitherto not been recorded. Paul Hillier's Theatre of Voices have joined forces with the American Contemporary Music Ensemble to revive the work and record it in an album released in March this year. (read more)


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