Today's drone alone drone is a contribution by Toronto based multi-media artist Erin Corbett. Read a bio and a description below:
Erin Corbett is a non-binary experimental electronic musician and digital artist originally from Kenora, Ontario. While known for making frenetic, narrrative-driven beatscapes, on “The Sleeper, The Creature”, they've scaled back dramatically, creating a series of slow-moving textures and melodies out of modular synth improvisations. The result is an almost 17 minute drone in three movements, reflecting on queer domestic life in the first week of an international quarantine.
As a gentle pulse sets in, indistinguishable voices can be heard in the far distance. Words like "book", "beautiful", and "really scary" poke out through the low hum. Someone coughs. Laughter is shared. Brittle plucks and pings start to arrive, cutting through the dull tension, but it soon gets warped into a thick swamp of electrical clicks & shuddering vibrations. A voice returns. A cat is getting his claws trimmed. He is unhappy, but he puts up with it.
"One more, one more!... You're free! See that wasn't even terrible! ...Now you get treats, come here." and then... "He's being a butthole...he's mad at me! Sorry, idiot."
We are all in good spirits as a taut, somber melody emerges. Synthetic strings loop while the timbre shifts, a steady, private routine of checking the news, checking in with our friends and family, trying to figure things out like... how long will this be? Do we have a job after this? Are we expected to pay rent come April? Or May? Or ever again? Finally, clusters of reverberant fireflies sparkle against empty space as one final drone rises. A thick buzz that softly degenerates into nothing, a degree of uncertainty that has built over the last ten years revealing itself in full.
Erin Corbett's discography can be heard at
erincorbett.bandcamp.com, and you can also support their work through patreon at
patreon.com/erincorbett
Track art contributed by Erin Corbett.