Earth Drones

Earth Drones was my first sustained exploration of durational music, context-based recording, and the relationship between sound, body, and environment. The album consists of long-form acoustic works recorded in isolation across Arkansas, Missouri, and Washington - places carrying deep personal and generational memory.

The project centers on slow listening and physical sound, using harmonium, shruti box, cymbals, drums, and on-site field recordings. The recordings were made in forests, caves, beaches, and remote interiors, often alone, allowing vulnerability, fear, and presence to enter the sound naturally.

Earth Drones was recorded during a period of intense personal transition. I had recently ended a long relationship, was preparing to leave Arkansas after 23 years, and was in the process of rebuilding a sense of identity and grounding. The work became a way to remain present with uncertainty rather than resolve it—to sit inside change without forcing narrative or closure. Many listeners have described the album as carrying a sense of beauty and grief simultaneously, a response that closely mirrors my own experience of making it.

This album, and later Below Diorite Waters, were monumental experiments in testing my own courage and reforging my relationship with myself after losing a sense of what that meant. This underscores my practice of site-specific recording, as these works were created in complete isolation. In some situations - such as during Impermanence - this involved confronting deep fear and vulnerability while camping alone in unfamiliar landscapes, exposed to the elements, dreams, and wildlife throughout the night.