Listeners smitten with the sound of the drone who haven’t made the acquaintance of Eleh are in for an utter low-end treat. On the scene for two decades, the project of John Brien has stood apart from the tide of like-minded artists in this rewarding field, in part through intensity and the robustness of the tones he sustains. Eleh’s debut, Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis I, was released in 2006 through Important Records, the label Brien has run since its beginnings in 2001. Important remains the source of this album’s very welcome reissue, which is out now on vinyl and digital.
It wasn’t until 2020 that John Brien made it publicly known that he was the person behind Eleh. By this point, the project had released a significant number of albums. Even if exactly who was responsible for Eleh (one person? More?) wasn’t a burning question or a built-in aspect of the project’s allure (ala Jandek before he came out of the shadows), learning who was responsible was still appreciated. Drone music is human music, after all.
Eleh’s reclusiveness did bring an air of mystery that widened the distance between his work and others in the drone field. This isn’t to equate calculated anonymity with insularity. A sizable number of records in the Eleh discography are splits, with those sharing a side of vinyl with Brien including such major figures as Pauline Oliveros, Sun Circle, Nana April Jun, Ellen Fullman, Duane Pitre, Tara Jane O’Neil, Christina Kubisch, Richard Chartier, and Caterina Barbieri.
Drone music, like minimalism (and indeed, the desire to drone is often a minimalist impulse) and other forms of avant-garde music, is often perceived as a forbidding valley in the vast landscape of sonic possibilities. Now, there are locales in the tapestry of sound that are adequately assessed as “difficult listening,” but drone music doesn’t automatically fit that description.
To the contrary, the drone is more often mentally soothing as it can promote physical relaxation and increase focus. These fortifying and healing properties are an, um, Important aspect in this reissue’s promotion, and that’s cool, especially since there is no time like now to soak up some mental and physical strengthening.
If it reads like Eleh is inhabiting a new agist sphere, that’s a negative. Eleh isn’t even new age adjacent (and this isn’t a knock on new age, a genre that has undergone an image rehabilitation over the last couple of decades). Eleh is in the tradition of La Monte Young, the foundational minimalist drone scientist for whom Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis I is dedicated.
This record won’t be mistaken for the work of Young, however. The attention to low frequencies is immediately distinct, and Brien likes to play around with pulsing in a manner that’s not Youngish, or easily comparable to another artist in the field. It’s true that drone specialists share qualities that can lead to natural comparisons (similar to bluegrass banjo pickers and post-bop tenor saxophonists), but certain dronesters resonate a vibe that’s decidedly punk in nature. That’s the case with Elah.
This likening might inspire some eye rolling, but the comparison is assuredly not because “anybody can do it.” That’s not true in either case. Drone music does favor the openness of sheer creativity over the rigidity of exclusionary practices, and Eleh’s Floating Frequencies / Intuitive Synthesis I is an exceptional example.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A
