Guitar Drone
Located in 1 route
Drone conjured from electric or acoustic guitar via sustain, EBow, feedback, heavy reverb and looping, so that struck or bowed strings blur into slowly-shifting chordal fog with long, ringing decay. Depending on volume it ranges from feather-soft ambient wash to crushing, amplifier-driven wall of sustained distortion. Production relies on layered loops, tape delay and cavernous space, usually with no drums and no conventional riffing. The mood swings from meditative and pastoral to monolithic and menacing, but always centres the guitar's ability to hold and morph a single sonority.
History
The template was set in 1973 when Robert Fripp's tape-looped "Frippertronics" met Brian Eno on No Pussyfooting, and it split into two great lineages: the soft, orchestral guitar drift of Stars of the Lid, Rafael Anton Irisarri and Christopher Willits, and the heavy, tectonic drone of Dylan Carlson's Earth, whose 1993 Earth 2 all but invented drone-metal, and Sunn O)))'s amplifier worship from 1998 onward. Nurtured by labels like Kranky, Southern Lord and Type, guitar drone linked ambient, post-rock and metal, influencing shoegaze, doom and modern soundtrack scoring while remaining a fertile solo-artist idiom with pedalboard and loop.
Defining artists
Essential listening
- The Heavenly Music Corporation(1973) — Robert FrippSpotifyYouTube
- It Took the Night to Believe(2005) — Sunn O)))SpotifyYouTube
- Seven Angels(1993) — EarthSpotifyYouTube
- Teeth of Lions Rule the Divine(1993) — EarthSpotifyYouTube
- Dungtitled (In A Major)(2007) — Stars of the LidSpotifyYouTube
- The North Bend(2010) — Rafael Anton IrisarriSpotifyYouTube
Sources
- Southern Lord and Kranky label notes
- David Keenan writing on drone in The Wire
- Fripp & Eno reissue liner notes