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 | Various Artists:The Throne of Drones (Sombient/Asphodel - 1995) Drrrrrrroooooonnnnnnnnnnnn... Typically, if you said a CD just droned on and on, it would be considered a bad thing. But since droning is the whole point here, I have to say this one is quite a success! We're talking about deep, deep, deeeep space drones. |
| I wasn't sure what to expect when I stumbled across this intriguing package, but the first track, Robert Rich's The Simorgh Sleeps on Velvet Tongues, solidly sets the pace with more than 10 minutes of flatly floating, foghorn-like waves of sound.
I'm realizing as I write that this particular form is going to be a bit hard to accurately review because of the amorphous nature of the works; I'll just try to extract something relevant from each and hope that it somehow makes sense. In general, all are beatless and consist of long, sinuous tones. Many a science fiction movie could have benefited from such artfully rendered, spacy sounds. Mobius III from Ray Guillette is a short (3:25) and quietly effective piece, in that it drones along quite nicely. As does the shapelessly evolving journey that is In The Catacombs (Again) by Steve Roach. Smudgeon by Iso Ambient Orchestra is comparatively revved up with some long blasts of what could be guitar feedback squalling in a nuclear stratosphere. Xopher Davidson's pool of mercury is more machine-like, the nearby hum of some unknowable mechanism. Vidna Obmana contributes Equal Distance. Like much of his work, it shimmers in the distance, some strange, beautiful, unapproachable thing. For almost 10 minutes, your world basks in its eerie glow. A harsh blast opens Retina Volt Stream but Gregory Lenczycki's track drops to a smoothly pleasant drone soon enough. Low Ceiling by Jeff Greinke features some distant, wailing instrument that sounds like a Venusian loon calling across the radiated swamplands... (or something like that!). Rhythm & Noise brings us yet another wash of sonic tones with A Filament in Strata, a short (3:20) piece. The only track that can boast a rhythm of sorts is En Trance by Biosphere. It lopes as well as drones. David Darling brings a classical sensibility to Etude for T.O.D., sounding like interstellar cellos playing across the celestial winds. Maryanne Amacher's Sound Characters also has orchestral overtones; its blaring drones could be robotic instruments tuning up for some galactic overture. The piece shifts back and forth into a more immediate electronic pulse. The closing piece by Naut Humon veers from the previous material with a much busier atmosphere, and extremely short length. The "drone" form is not for everyone, probably falling into a love it or hate it category. For me, the (mostly) calm, yet unsettling darkness can be a perfect soundscape for working at the computer (particularly when doing something in a sci-fi vein). |
| The Throne of Drones is the first in a set of three discs (The 2nd is a 2-CD set, the 3rd a whopping 3 CDs). The care that went into the compilation and creation of these works is obvious. Both of my thumbs go up... your actual thumbage may vary. |  |
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