Hi DiS
Looking for a few drone records to add to my go-to list for this kind of thing. Ideally things on the more languid and less abrasive side of drone (i.e. no Tim Hecker, OPN, Fennesz etc.) Anything with SOTL, Hammock, Kyle Bobby Dunn as touchstones, really
You could do worse than starting here:
A few personal faves:
Bibio - Phantom Brickworks
1.25-ish hours of really crumbly predominantly tape loop / piano based stuff. Really atmospheric, and in a lot of places like the warmer moments on SAW2 (my favourite bits of that album btw). The theme of the album is the way that our memories can haunt locations, and as such it has that very contemplative Basinski-ish feel to it, conceptually and in terms of how that concept manifests.
Slow Walkers - Slow Walkers
Maybe leaning a bit more towards that abrasive side of things; it’s a collab album themed around zombies by Lawrence English and Liz Harris and has a real languid, post-apocalyptic feel to it. I wrote a little blog about it ages ago… The Channel Circle: Hallo Halloween II: Beelzebub Gets His Groove Back / Slow Walkers - 'Slow Walkers'
William Basinski - A Shadow In Time / For David Robert Jones
The latter of these two tracks might be my personal favourite where Basinski is concerned. I probably don’t need to say much about it bc, let’s face it, if you’re starting a thread about ambient / drone, you def know what Basinski sounds like
And if you haven’t heard the latest album from said club, it also fits closely
Aaaaaand last rec for now cause I got other stuff I need to get on with, but AIX EM KLEMM (members of SotL and Labradford) released a great album that I really should shell out for instead of just streaming it off Bandcamp
Thanks, I am familiar with both Basinski and Irisarri but definitely needed pushing in that direction. Slow Walkers and AIX EM KLEMM (drone supergroup?) sound intriguing so I will check them out
Good thread idea.
B.J. Nilsen - The Short Night
Nordic ambience, proper narrative feel to it.
Lowering - Post-Truth Politics
Glorious. New Racist Overlords will blow you away, in particular.
Oh yes, definitely Lowering…
Labradford
best band
Maybe Klara Lewis - Too, but could be a bit too droney
Have you listened to Radio Amor? It’s much more in line with what you’re looking for than, say, Ravedeath.
Most of Haunt Me as well, tbf, I’d say
One from this year
dné - Nothing Like Before
Oh and Hotel Neon! Context is the best but it’s all incredible. Best ambient act of the decade for me.
Some that come to mind that i think are primarily on the more chilled side are silent pyramid, willamette, tape loop orchestra, the humble bee, zvuku, saad, abul mogard, deaf center, chihei hatakeyama, olan mill, john Davis, Ekin fill, hakobune, a-sun amissa, Daniel w j Mackenzie, and ojerum.
I love that Aix Em Klemm album.
Yeah, love Radio Amor (though personally I think Haunt Me… is among his weakest), I just used him as an example of generally harsher sounds
Two words:
Sarah and Davachi!
Her last two records, All My Circles Run and Let Light Come On Bells End The Day are fantastic. The former is more stripped down and ‘acoustic’, with much simpler, less analog-synthy voicing for Sarah, the latter more typical for her and wonderful.
I have her forthcoming record on ore-ordered black and orange translucent swirl and am bloody excited!
Sarah is a ‘proper’ drone artist, for me. I like all the stuff listed above and love RAI, but for me he’s an (genius) electronic artist who uses drone elements etc. Sarah is one of the smaller group of artists for whom drone is almost the default framework for her work. And she’s amazing.
Ben
Solo Brian McBride from SOTL is worth checking out
Also Lawrence English
