Sheila Chandra

A Bone Crone Drone (Real World)
by Clarendon Lavorich

Let me take a moment to explain the music of drone. To a novice listener, a drone is one note, repeated endlessly, which tends to become very boring. But if you can get past the boredom, you’ll find myriad melodies inside that note. As the note is repeated, different harmonics arise out of the single sound, melodies exist for a brief and stunning moment and die away, harmonies emerge and fade, rhythms form out of beat patterns between notes. An entire symphony can be found in a single note, when listened to in this way. This is what Sheila Chandra does on A Bone Crone Drone. With a starting base of only one or two notes, perhaps a chord, perhaps on a sitar, she lets this base form the rest of the composition. Over a period of several minutes, she introduces and expresses what she hears in the drone, gently, smoothly, softly. She lets the drone fill most of the space, evoking different melodies in the listener, and then eases into singing a certain short passage that she hears in the drone. In this way, she develops two melodies: one that she sings for us, and one that we hear in ourselves. We develop counterpoint to her simple lines, we can hear it in the drone itself. This act of spontaneous creation engages the listener in the pieces, makes him or her an integral part of the music. A Bone Crone Drone is not complete until it is listened to and interpreted. She knows completely what Brian Eno means by “the vertical color of sound;” that is, the timbre and texture of the sustained notes are interesting enough to call a song in itself. The music that is created recalls both Stockhousen’s Stimmung and Eno’s Music For Airports, while forging new ground above each. It is difficult music, I know. It forces the listener to think. It’s not passive in the slightest. Sheila Chandra opens new doors, offers up whole new landscapes for us to actively explore. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t rock. You’re right, you won’t be able to mosh to it. Hey, y’know what? Grow up.