Genre: Drone / Ambient /Experimental

01 Amy’s Arms (14.44)
02 Metacollage (14:41)

Those that know me, or, have read other reviews that I’ve penned will know that I’m a sucker for a good, old-fashioned bit of drone. You know, music that has the ability to whisk you away on a languid, far out journey to distant shores on strange worlds in surreal vistas. So…..imagine my delight at receiving an innocuous slab of vinyl from Heathen Harvest HQ by a project, wholly unknown to me, that just happens to have the word Drone in their name !! Of course, I’m making a big assumption here that with a name like Drone Forest I’m not about to be assailed by anything other than what it says on the tin…..e.g. drone. Hopefully, two and two will indeed equal a solid four and a blissed-out sonic sojourn beckons……we shall see……we shall see.

So, a bit of background is in order, I think. Well, Drone Forest are, essentially, a group of musicians who engage in exchanging raw sounds over the internet and then use those sounds to individually construct music that describes and adheres to what they cite as a ‘group ethic’. Each of drone Forest’s full-length releases are, according to the helpful press notes supplied, assembled individually by one of the four members and that the character of the group is relayed via an individual expression that makes for four distinct facets of the group sound. Given birth in 2002 by Ian C. Stewart the other three members that make up the remainder of Drone Forest, Davie Blint, Mike Bowman and Chris Reider, began exchanging audio source material and set about manipulating and arranging the sounds toward a common set of ideals in their own studios, the fruits of which can be explored more fully at the groups website.

For 2007, Drone Forest have released their very first vinyl, 12” record on the Vuzh music label. The two tracks ‘Amy’s Arms’ and ‘metacollage’ fall just short of a combined 30 minutes in length and are “engaging and evolving drone-scapes that evoke strange and changing surreal scenarios”. Sounds promising, huh ?

‘Amy’s Arm’s’ occupies just under 14 minutes of strange, evolving drone-scapes and audio collage. A bed of bubbling, LFO driven pink noise ripples across the soundstage. Strange, fluid atmospheres and shrill whistles arc across the field of perception before a warm organic, droning pad makes its presence felt. Clouds of fluffy amorphous noise ebb and flow before evaporating and leaving a lull in the hiatus before the track begins to wander into even stranger and darker territories. Brief snatches of samples and found sound chop in and out in glitchy abandon whilst a sustaining peal of discordant bells play a random refrain sounding like a set of oddly detuned wind-chimes in the grip of some mischevious dust devil. A whistling and whining mistral wind envelopes the listener as the music becomes denser still, mutating into an ominous phalanx of sound. Warm, breathy pads comb the surface of this swirling pool of sonics skittering high into the air and then diving low. The final four minutes of the track assumes an almost magic and enchanting air with light and airy pads shining through the mists of sound. Distant, deconstructed and effected vocal snippets hang in the breeze calling out to be heard, their message and meaning lost deep within the depths of sound. This is a strange and beguiling track, ever changing and mutating, growing in stature and majesty before the final notes of sound fade away like the last rays of the setting sun, leaving only silence.

‘Metacollage’ is a searing wash of shimmering sound complemented by strange whale like cries emanating from below the enveloping waves of drone. A metallic, electric, fizzing guitar-like drone pierces the calm and surfs the warm rush of undulating sonics. Layers of sound snake around each other brightening and then darkening in timbre in an instant before the waves of sound suddenly give way to allow passage of a warm pad imbued with fiery sparks of high keyed sound. Strange melodies and fell voices filter through the warmth of this ever changing drone-scape and disembodied gongs sound out at random intervals imparting a ritualistic, ceremonial overtone to the proceedings. The heaviness of the sonics dissipates in the last few minutes to leave a gently thrumming background drone that carries the track to its final conclusion.

Drone Forest have constructed two tracks of deeply engaging drone-scapes that suck the listener deep within the sound itself. Where drone music can often be minimal to the verge of soporific somnolence, incorporating only subtle tonal and thematic changes, such as Wander, Drone Forest are not afraid to take the music into slightly more experimental and avant-garde territory before returning to more familiar paths. Not as relaxing or blessed-out as Closing The Eternity or even Cisfinitum this is more akin to our tried and tested reference, Troum, although more playful, adventurous and ‘out-there’.

This 12” is limited to 219 copies so, as always with these very limited releases get your order in to avoid disappointment. This is wonderful stuff and I shall be exploring the Drone Forest website in more detail as there appears to be a mammoth amount of Drone Forest material for free download. I would recommend you head over there yourselves and take the time to check out some more enigmatic and evocative drone music.