this is a song i was asked to do as a contribution to the online literary journal Eyedrum Periodically (www.eyedrumperiodically.org). the theme of that particular issue was "Drones".

the track is a long essay concerning spatial and temporal cues..made from ambient room recordings taken from different locations on different days and assembled like a giant chord, the notes consisting of cross sections of time instead of tonal variants.

this is what i wrote about drones (and i don't really put THAT much thought into a track when i start it, but alas, this is how i'd describe the result):

i believe that a drone is any sound that is devoid of repetition, significant change or greatly altering latitude. because it lacks repetition, it is singular and indicates the infinite in both directions and therefore reminds us of how the universe works and our place within it. if there was a big bang or if a deity swore us into existence, the resulting expansion can be seen as a singular arc in an incomprehensible wave form, a massive drone eeking outward toward infinity.

when we close our eyes in the utter dark in an utterly silent place, the sweet resulting sound is the sound of the big drone. the ambiance that forever surrounds us is drone upon drone of micro-tones and resonances built up into a sonic landscape so that anything that vibrates (creates sound) does so against this parent crest and is therefore part of it.

humans probably began replicating the sound of the universe when the world was much quieter, using their voices and bowed instruments. their simpler technology was designed to interlace with and reflect the harmonies that poured inward from outer space and that emanated from within the core of the world. prehistoric people cried outward from the earth to weave their sounds into the universal embroidery. our technology has allowed us to slow of the decay of sound which has allowed us to better mimic the sounds of the cosmos since probably before the invention of the light bulb, whose hum heralded the unique and defiant drone of humans.

the drone of a room or a space is the universal tone of that space. that tone defines it (or is a definition OF it). my song has taken several examples of specific spatial tones and combined them into a chord of drones, therefore bending representations of space and time. such technology can be dangerous if played in certain magnitudes back to a place which is sensitive to temporal and spatial resonances. my recordings are of a room in my house which has mustard colored walls and hardwood pine floors. the resulting chords disrupt temporal indicators and therefore come across with a sense of urgency and propulsion…a movement uncommon to unmanipulated drones. the ability to do this displays the power of drones in modern music by being able to create new types of spatial and temporal experiences previously impossible to humans.