Drone
Located in 2 routes
Drone is music organized around sustained or continuously repeated tones, often with very slow harmonic movement, beating overtones, resonance, and immersive duration. Its sound may come from strings, oscillators, organ, accordion, voice, tambura, guitar amplifiers, tape, modular synths, or processed field recordings; the important feature is the persistence of tone as environment. It can be meditative, severe, ecstatic, devotional, oppressive, or physically overwhelming.
History
Modern drone draws from Indian classical music, medieval chant and organum, folk drones, electronic oscillators, and mid-century experimental listening, then becomes a defined avant-garde language through La Monte Young’s sustained-tone works and the Theater of Eternal Music. Tony Conrad, Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, Charlemagne Palestine, Pauline Oliveros, and later Stars of the Lid and Sunn O))) expanded drone into violin minimalism, ARP synthesizer meditation, massed instrumental tones, organ/piano ritual, deep-listening practice, ambient drift, and amplifier-based heaviness. Drone influenced minimalism, ambient, krautrock, shoegaze, doom metal, noise, sound installation, and long-form electronic music.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- La Monte Young and minimalism histories
- AllMusic
- UbuWeb
- Discogs