Harmony, melody and bass: essential parts of a musical composition. Songs have an order, like stories: a beginning, a climax and an end. Each element that makes them up is a layer that gives dimension to the sounds. We could argue that the more elements a song has, the more complex it is. However, drone (pedal) music is a good example to refute this assertion because it manages to reveal, sometimes with a single sound or note, an inexhaustible depth. With this genre something similar happens to what the theory of holograms proposes, where each pixel contains the entire image. Each element is a whole.
Drone music, or simply drone (pedal), is a minimalist genre that emphasizes the use of sustained sounds, notes or groups of tones, called . Although each composition approaches the genre in a different way, these are normally characterized by long audio programs with relatively slight harmonic variations. A sustained note to fill an entire space. One cannot talk about this genre without mentioning La Monte Young, one of its creators from the 1960s, who, since he was a child, was captivated by sounds like the passing of the wind: a robust and simple sound, but with an inexplicable magic. . In 2000, La Monte Young defined drone music as “the sustained-pitch branch of minimalism.”
The starting point of drone music
Drone music has very clear roots in ancient classical instruments and compositions. The bagpipes of Scotland, the didgeridoo in , the classical Carnatic music of South India or the classical Japanese gagaku music are clear examples in which elements of drone can be found. The modern drone genre is often linked to the underground scene and post-rock or experimental music genres. This minimalist music generally has a dark and penetrating (by the art of repetition) tone.
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Journalist Mark Richardson of Pitchfork Media and Allmusic describes this genre precisely:
This is what happens when a fixation on held tones reaches a tipping point. The timbre is reduced to a single clear instrument or sine wave. The silence disappears completely and the base-level interaction (between small groups of “pure” tones) becomes the content of the music. This type of work takes what typically helps us distinguish music from sound.
Drone music: from Stockholm to the world
Although this genre has had a presence in different places around the world, today Sweden is one of the most purposeful places, and not by chance. For the past few years, drone music has been resonating from Stockholm, Sweden, and mesmerizing experimental music fans around the world. Artists such as Kali Malone, Caterina Barbieri, Ellen Arkbro and Maria W. Horn are releasing some of Sweden’s most vibrant drone and electroacoustic music compositions.
The reason why this relatively small country is navigating the terrain of artistic creation so well has to do in a certain sense with public policies, with some institutions that have facilitated and supported the creative processes of thousands of artists over the years. years. For example, Fylkingen, a state-subsidized chamber music society (1933), has played a crucial role. He has helped shape the scene’s broader arc with a regional center for avant-garde music. In the 60s and 70s it won various awards and hosted great music legends such as Xenakis, Morton Subotnick, Ravi Shankar, Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen and La Monte Young, to name just a few.
Drone music proposals in Sweden are still relevant, especially in these fast-paced times that seem to have no intention of stopping. Precisely for that reason, we want to share with you some of the pieces that we have enjoyed the most from the current scene.
Drone music playlist of the moment
David Granström, A distant color, secluded
Ellen Arkro, Isak Edberg, Marta Forsberg, Kali Malone and Kristofer Svensson, XKatedral Volume II
Marta Forsberg, To All Frequencies I Can Not Sense for Quartet
Kali Malone, The Sacrificial Code
Ellen Arkbro, For Organ and Brass
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