Live Ideas: Noon-Time Talk Series: Lou Reed: DRONES

Lou Reed’s DRONES is a three-hour-long visceral, emotional and spiritual installation during which audience members may come and go as they please. Featuring Reed’s guitars and amps in feedback mode, twenty-four strings create an amalgamation of three hundred and sixty partial harmonics colliding, cascading and uniting in sound. Introducing gain and sculpting sonic frequencies, a feedback loop is created with each guitar and its respective amplifier. 

The Velvet Underground embraced suspended notes sustained against musical changes. Both Lou Reed and John Cale were influenced by the work of La Monte Young, and in 1975, Lou Reed would play out the drone music that had been an early influence. Metal Machine Music album laid the foundation for ambient and industrial music. This album inspired numerous musicians and bands. The DRONES will be introduced and operated by Lou's long-serving former guitar tech, Stewart Hurwood.

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