In drone and minimal music, the sonic conditions that develop in the middle of a piece, be it a recording, performance or composition, often come to define the work in a more pronounced manner than how the work begins or ends. This ‘middle’ region is inherently temporal, but because of the extended and sometimes marker-less durations one encounters in minimal music, it proves to be elusive – and thus one, while listening, often has a continuous sense of being inside of a potentially boundless sound.
Depending on your point of view, the composer, writer and conductor is either a purveyor of cold-hearted didacticism, or a creator of glittering musical worlds
‘This emergent style is not so much a genre as a sensibility – an approach to rhythm, texture and referentiality that stands apart from long-established modes’
