Drone & Minimalism
Drone & Minimalism is music built from sustained tones, repeated processes, slow harmonic change, phase, nonstandard tuning, resonance, and deep attention to duration. The sound may be a sine-wave chord, tambura-like continuum, organ pulse, just-intonation piano, massed guitars, low-frequency amplifier wash, or luminous ambient expanse; development is often glacial but physically intense. It asks the listener to hear inside a sound rather than follow a conventional progression of events.
History
The family grows from Indian classical influence, medieval organum, tuning experiments, Cagean duration, postwar electronic music, and early minimalism, then crystallizes around La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Tony Conrad, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Eliane Radigue, Phill Niblock, and Charlemagne Palestine. In the 1960s and 1970s, drones and process music reshaped contemporary composition and later fed ambient, krautrock, drone metal, post-rock, techno minimalism, and experimental rock. The lineage continues through deep-listening practice, long-form electronic drone, just-intonation work, sound installation, and maximal loud drone by groups such as Sunn O))) and Swans.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Grove Music Online
- Minimalism and drone histories
- AllMusic
- Discogs