2006年 Mar 29日 Wednesday, 17:48

I remember the first time I listened to Biogenesis. It's packaged as a lovely 3" CD in a gatefold sleeve, part of the "Cinema for the Ear" series on the French electroacoustic label Metamkine.

So this first time I listened to it, was on headphones lying on the couch with all the lights turned off and it just seemed the perfect way to experience it. I've done it again that way – in fact, it tends to be my favourite way of listening to a lot of drone music.

"Biogenesis" has a wonderful, and not particularly surprising, organic quality. After all, it is underpinned by the beating of a heart. As a whole, Radigue's drone is like a massive bed of warmth, all humming and pulsing. It's a bit disconcerting too, and some of that humming is a bit alienating (like the constant background noise which permeates Todd Haynes' film Safe, which is all about urban alienation). Mostly, though, it's about the warmth for me, about the feeling of sinking into a piece of music.

There's no drone I can recommend higher than this release by Ms Eliane Radigue.