The Drone Cycle 2000 @ The Ambient Ping - Po Boys Club
July
25th, 2000 - dreamSTATE with Steven Sauvé (F#) - photo by
Mario Georgiou
The Drone Cycle 2000 was a series of concerts in which dreamSTATE visited one note of the chromatic scale each month of the year as a foundation for ambient improvisations with a rotating cast of special guests. The drone note was not omnipresent and was only implied at times, but was a home and harbour while venturing into unrehearsed experimental ambient improvisations with each guest before a live audience. They began in C and ended in B. The series was hosted by THE AMBiENT PiNG - Toronto's then-weekly live ambient performance event. In 2012, on the "Chromatic Anniversary" of The Drone Cycle 2000, dreamSTATE launched The Drone Cycle 2012, with new special guests performing with them on a wide variety of instruments, as they traversed the scale back downward. In 2024, to celebrate the second "Chromatic Anniversary" dreamSTATE are releasing music from each month of the Drone Cycle 2000 on the dates of the original concerts, until a 12-track album, The Drone Cycle is completed on December 5th. The first track The Man from Callisto is with special guest Wally Jericho and was released on on January 25th, 2024. All the current tracks can be found (for free) at Bandcamp. Below you'll find copies of the original street posters, designed by Jamie Todd and Mario Georgiou, the individual track images - hand embroidered by Lynn Harrigan, and more information about the guest artists. New photos and information will be added each month of 2024. ~ Scott M2 |
January 25th, 2000 ~ NIGHT OF THE LIVING DRONES ~ C
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Wally
Jericho - January 25th, 2000 |
Wally Jericho helped us launch the Drone Cycle in an evening of improvisations around the note C. Knowing Wally's abilities on trumpet, bass, minidisks, loops and treatments, his good nature and his feel for ambient music meant we had a high confidence level for the night ahead. Wally had re-tuned his bass to all Cs and Gs which lead to some extra low bass drones and lovely harmonics. He told me later that he left the bass tuned that way for months after the show as he enjoyed the new possibilities. Wally is best known, however, for his trumpet playing, so we ensured than his Drone Cycle album track, The Man from Callisto featured his spacy trumpet prominently. The track's cover image is an impression of Jupiter's moon Callisto by fiber-artist Lynn Harrigan and is a nod to Wally's beautiful piece Callisto 1.0 which is available on the streamers on his EP Preface. Find Wally's music on Bandcamp, and also the streamers like Spotify and Apple Music. |
February
22nd, 2000 ~ RETURN OF THE LIVING DRONES
~ C#
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Kurt
Swinghammer - February 22nd, 2000 |
February's drone was C# and our special guest was Kurt Swinghammer. Kurt is well known around Toronto as a visual artist (murals, paintings, set design, CD covers, etc...), a unique pop singer, a guitar ace (Sarah Slean and Ani DiFranco are two gigs) or a video art director (Maestro Fresh Wes, Colin James, etc...) but few would suspect he's also a creative electronic musician/experimentalist with a wicked arsenal of devices and a good feel for ambient. I've worked with Kurt on a number of musical projects, however, and knew he would be an excellent ally in our attack on C#. This night he brought along his new Steinberger guitar, Omnichord, Moogerfoogers and a variety of other processors and loopers. The night started simply and beautifully and seemed to get darker and more chaotic as it evolved. Highlights for me were sections where Kurt employed slide or E-bow on his guitar and some strange computer data noises coaxed from his Omnichord. We chose a beautiful, spacy selection with guitar and looping for The Drone Cycle album. ~ Scott M2 |
March
14th , 2000 ~ VALLEY OF THE DRONES ~
D
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Michael Rockwood - March 14th, 2000 |
March's drone was D and our special guest was Michael Rockwood. Michael Joseph Rockwood has moved his focus from musical to visual art, so we're very happy to share some beautiful music created with him in his musical prime. Michael's mixed media artwork can be viewed online at his Instagram page. I
first crossed paths with Mike when we both played at a Planet Of The
Loops event (a long-running, live-looping based event which preceded
even THE AMBiENT PiNG). I loved his musical vibe and later invited him
to join us for a Drone Cycle concert. He kindly invited dreamSTATE
to open for his band Zoebliss a few days before and joined our
set - which gave us a taste of the good things to come. |
April 18th , 2000 ~ RESERVOIR DRONES ~ D#
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Mark Thibideau - April 18th, 2000 |
April's drone was D# and our special guest was Mark Thibideau. Mark Thibideau (aka Sedative aka Crave) is a crack electronic musician, best known for his techno and house music but who also delves into the ambient realms, minimal techno and dub. Mark and his twin brother Matt (also a crack electronic musician - who joined us for The Drone Cycle in November 2000) have an amazing collection of vintage and modern synths and samplers and are skilled programmers. For this show, Mark brought out a Prophet 5 synthesizer with a Boss BF1 flanger and a Yamaha analog delay. ~ Scott M2 |
May 16th , 2000 ~ A FISTFUL OF DRONES ~ E
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Eric Hopper and Arnold Sprogis - May 16th, 2000 |
May's drone was E and we had two special guest guitarists: Eric Hopper and Arnold Sprogis. Arnold Sprogis (Sprogis Audio) is one of the founders of THE AMBiENT PiNG and is an electronic musician, guitarist and visual artist. We loved his use of a very large vintage hard-drive ring to bow his guitar and made sure to include a selection featuring this technique for The Drone Cycle album. Eric Hopper (Sylken) is an old musical friend of Scott and Jamie and they used to play together, pre-dreamSTATE, in an electronic project called Radio Silence. He'll be appearing as a guest on several upcoming dreamSTATE albums on synthesizers - but on Stringology he's adding his clean guitar tones to the mix. Eric's main musical project, Sylken, was originally called Random Act and featured Arnold, Wally Jericho, Steven Sauve and other dreamSTATE friends as early crew members.~ Scott M2 |
Next
Chapter coming on June 13th, 2024
...
2000
~ The Drone Cycle 2000 ~ Ted's
Wrecking Yard
1999 ~ Feedback Monitor 3rd Anniversary ~
Planet Of The Loops ~ THE
AMBiENT PiNG
1998 ~ World Electronic Music Festival ~ Interference
Orange
1997 ~ waveforms
at The H5 Project ~ Symptom Hall