- "Lund Quartet are an instrumental band from Bristol. They are heavily influenced by the Scandinavian jazz scene and turntablism, using samples of Bristol's finest musicians recorded especially for the band and creatively playing them back through turntables along side a more traditional jazz line up of piano, drums and double bass. Their sound morphs effortlessly from gentle and reflective, to heavy grooves.
The band consists of Simon Adcock on piano and theremin, Jake Wittlin on turntable, Rob Childs on double bass, and Sam Muscat on drums. This is a quartet of highly skilled players, each of whom are equally capable of holding the listeners attention, whilst there is a definite emphasis on subtlety and space. They have been turning heads since their first gig, including coming runners up in last years Future of Jazz competition, encouraged by this the quartet spent 2011 concentrating their efforts on producing their debut album, in their self-built studio.
Their self-titled debut album was released in December 2011, with a sellout launch gig in Bristol. The album has already had national radio play (BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 3, BBC 6 Music, JazzFM), and the track Tulipan quickly became popular on 22Tracks." http://www.lundquartet.com/.
Following the Stephan Mathieu trail:
Denver: "I can't imagine listening to a drone for anything approaching 59 minutes, much less wanting to go through that again, but to each his own."
GP: "if you can't imagine it perhaps you should try it for real."
- Yup ! - thats a constructive and much recommended approach to the matter . . .
Well that seems like a fair enough challenge. However, I'm not sure I want to spend $6.00 at emu to take it up. I went over to Bandcamp to look for things with a drone tag, a method that often doesn't work well, and listened to this and this. Do they fit the label? They're not 59 minutes long, of course.
Well that seems like a fair enough challenge. However, I'm not sure I want to spend $6.00 at emu to take it up. I went over to Bandcamp to look for things with a drone tag, a method that often doesn't work well, and listened to this and this. Do they fit the label? They're not 59 minutes long, of course.
lots of different kinds of drone, ranging from icy to warm to angry. i'd try metal-drone, like earth's miami morning comedown ii. it's lumbering, menacing, and dry (doesn't remind me of miami at all, fwiw).
@Daniel, was streaming the Cyann & Ben at Rdio. Liked the first track a lot - nice spooky keyboard vibe. Didn't really care for the rest. I listened to about half of Spring as well, and I am not really convinced by the vocalist.
Will suggest some drone tomorrow. the Stephan Mathieu is $1.89 at www.junodownload.com
Well that was kind of nice. I have an album of theirs. MediaMonkey says I've listened to it once, but I don't remember it. It probably didn't have any catchy melodies or Springsteen-like drama. Of course. I see that Earth is going to be near here, in Boulder, in a couple of weeks.
@BigD - I like Gjallarhorn a lot and have several of their CDs. My favorite album is Sjofn - and my favorite song is track 1 from that album. Great stuff.
@denver, Below are some more drone things you could stream without paying. A few caveats/tips for listening:
1. Drone pieces are no more all the same than in any genre. It is possible to love one and hate another. There can be significant differences in mood between e.g. guitar-generated and synth pad drones.
2. A part of me suspects it might be a particularly subjective genre, as there is such a large measure of how particular timbres strike the ear. (E.g. I am not so keen on that Revenant piece you found and linked - the timbre does not appeal to me as much and the sound becomes too invasive in places, though it certainly fits the label. And that Raffet piece is going for a kind of creepy drone effect that is also most days not my cup of tea.)
3. Depending what genre you're coming from you might have to learn to listen with slow ears, not waiting impatiently for the next thing to happen. You are listening for layers of sound, timbre, overtones, resonance, subtle shifts and extended structures over time. Sometimes like watching clouds or a river. It took me a while to really get into the genre (as with some other genres).
4. Very little "drone" music is pure drone, i.e. just a single sustained tone, it's more a kind of minimalism with extended timbres - there may be foreground sounds, slight rhythmic effects, chord shifts, etc.
I suggest/recommend for a place to start that you take a free listen to the first track on this album by Fabio Orsi and Seaworthy. It's about 15 minutes, and I find it gorgeous, and ever more so as it gradually unfolds. If it's working for you, let the rest of the album flow.
I am in love with that Stephan Mathieu album at the moment (three times through so far). As mentioned it can be had for a couple of dollars, but there is an extract on youtube here.
For something a little more minimal, try the last track on this album, which I reviewed here. After listening to Earth, it offers a good example of how while some drones fill the sound stage, some, like this, offer a kind of sketch of aural absence, like the after-resonance of some great instrument that stopped playing just before you entered the room.
ETA I have thought several times I would like to write one or more pieces on MiG on how/why to listen to drone music, knowing that it's one of those genres that skirts the edge of what most people would be willing to call or experience as music, yet also that it has a rather rich pedigree and a lot of potential reward. But the ideas are not coherent yet,
One of my favorite drone artists, Dave Seidel, aka mysterybear, has plenty of his music online to stream. Try "Penumbral" or Elementals to start with, perhaps.
Yeah, Dave Seidel is very recommendable, I started a thread a while ago but haven't managed to follow up with updates. He is also an Emusers member with no posts, yet.
This one is just one month old and is in the more avantgarde end of the drone spectrum:
(drone) is one of those genres that skirts the edge of what most people would be willing to call or experience as music, yet also that it has a rather rich pedigree and a lot of potential reward.
well, there's elements of drone in a lot of music, including music that may be accessible, at least relatively so. a lot of rock music has drone-elements in it. for instance, there's a drone element to in the reflection, by the group flying canyon (rip, btw). that's an "accessible" song, at least to certain elements of the indie-rock crowd.
There's drones in plenty of music - Russian Orthodox choral church music, blues, classical, etc. What's harder for most listeners is the idea that you could isolate that element and make something of it as a central and foreground thing rather than an accent. That's true of other things too. Most music has percussion, but I confess I usually have to work at listening to percussion ensembles where it's all percussion.
good point. still, music can be fairly characterized as "drone," even when it has a significant amount of other elements built into it. the genre label is a function of the relative emphasis of the drone element, and the overall vibe (if it has a fairly thick drone layer, and it's sludgy and heavy and lumbering, it's likely going to be characterized as "drone.").
Comments
Thanks, Kez
- "Lund Quartet are an instrumental band from Bristol. They are heavily influenced by the Scandinavian jazz scene and turntablism, using samples of Bristol's finest musicians recorded especially for the band and creatively playing them back through turntables along side a more traditional jazz line up of piano, drums and double bass. Their sound morphs effortlessly from gentle and reflective, to heavy grooves.
The band consists of Simon Adcock on piano and theremin, Jake Wittlin on turntable, Rob Childs on double bass, and Sam Muscat on drums. This is a quartet of highly skilled players, each of whom are equally capable of holding the listeners attention, whilst there is a definite emphasis on subtlety and space. They have been turning heads since their first gig, including coming runners up in last years Future of Jazz competition, encouraged by this the quartet spent 2011 concentrating their efforts on producing their debut album, in their self-built studio.
Their self-titled debut album was released in December 2011, with a sellout launch gig in Bristol. The album has already had national radio play (BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 3, BBC 6 Music, JazzFM), and the track Tulipan quickly became popular on 22Tracks."
http://www.lundquartet.com/.
- Very Kraftwerk'ish . . .
Thanks, BN, enjoying this.
John Maus - we must become the pitiless censors of ourselves.
Decided to forgo my tradition of Copland on American holidays and try something different.
@amclark: that john maus album is fantastic. loopy, woozy pop. but he's a laughable windbag. we shall all bear witness.
Well that seems like a fair enough challenge. However, I'm not sure I want to spend $6.00 at emu to take it up. I went over to Bandcamp to look for things with a drone tag, a method that often doesn't work well, and listened to this and this. Do they fit the label? They're not 59 minutes long, of course.
lots of different kinds of drone, ranging from icy to warm to angry. i'd try metal-drone, like earth's miami morning comedown ii. it's lumbering, menacing, and dry (doesn't remind me of miami at all, fwiw).
Will suggest some drone tomorrow. the Stephan Mathieu is $1.89 at www.junodownload.com
actually, come to think of it, nebraska-era springsteen fronting earth might actually work.
Am really liking this - see the Freshly Dropped at eMu thread for their peculiar situation and how to find them.
1. Drone pieces are no more all the same than in any genre. It is possible to love one and hate another. There can be significant differences in mood between e.g. guitar-generated and synth pad drones.
2. A part of me suspects it might be a particularly subjective genre, as there is such a large measure of how particular timbres strike the ear. (E.g. I am not so keen on that Revenant piece you found and linked - the timbre does not appeal to me as much and the sound becomes too invasive in places, though it certainly fits the label. And that Raffet piece is going for a kind of creepy drone effect that is also most days not my cup of tea.)
3. Depending what genre you're coming from you might have to learn to listen with slow ears, not waiting impatiently for the next thing to happen. You are listening for layers of sound, timbre, overtones, resonance, subtle shifts and extended structures over time. Sometimes like watching clouds or a river. It took me a while to really get into the genre (as with some other genres).
4. Very little "drone" music is pure drone, i.e. just a single sustained tone, it's more a kind of minimalism with extended timbres - there may be foreground sounds, slight rhythmic effects, chord shifts, etc.
I suggest/recommend for a place to start that you take a free listen to the first track on this album by Fabio Orsi and Seaworthy. It's about 15 minutes, and I find it gorgeous, and ever more so as it gradually unfolds. If it's working for you, let the rest of the album flow.
I am in love with that Stephan Mathieu album at the moment (three times through so far). As mentioned it can be had for a couple of dollars, but there is an extract on youtube here.
For something a little more minimal, try the last track on this album, which I reviewed here. After listening to Earth, it offers a good example of how while some drones fill the sound stage, some, like this, offer a kind of sketch of aural absence, like the after-resonance of some great instrument that stopped playing just before you entered the room.
ETA I have thought several times I would like to write one or more pieces on MiG on how/why to listen to drone music, knowing that it's one of those genres that skirts the edge of what most people would be willing to call or experience as music, yet also that it has a rather rich pedigree and a lot of potential reward. But the ideas are not coherent yet,
This one is just one month old and is in the more avantgarde end of the drone spectrum:
ETA: and Dave in a more subtle mood:
Horrid Red - Celestial Joy
$5 at Bandcamp (album cover is linked).
Craig
A Jonah rec--cool ambientish jazz.
well, there's elements of drone in a lot of music, including music that may be accessible, at least relatively so. a lot of rock music has drone-elements in it. for instance, there's a drone element to in the reflection, by the group flying canyon (rip, btw). that's an "accessible" song, at least to certain elements of the indie-rock crowd.
also, it is a fantastic song.
extended samples via youtube. smooth, deep house-ish.