;

drone

Generated with Claude

Drone is a genre built on sustained tones, deliberate sonic density, and the rejection of traditional musical progression. Emerging from experimental and minimalist traditions in the 1960s and 70s—drawing from La Monte Young's eternal frequencies and the Velvet Underground's textural experiments—drone eschews rhythm, melody, and harmonic movement in favor of immersive, slowly evolving sound fields. Artists layer guitars, synthesizers, strings, or processed recordings into thick walls of resonance that demand meditative attention, transforming listening into a physical, almost architectural experience. Where ambient music seeks to blend into the background and post-rock builds toward crescendos, drone occupies the foreground with unrelenting presence, holding single chords or tones until they reveal hidden overtones and psychoacoustic phenomena.

The genre splits into multiple approaches: guitar-driven drone (Earth, Sunn O))), slow-motion amplifier worship meets geological patience), tape-loop deconstruction (William Basinski's crumbling elegies), and synth-based atmospheric drift (Stars of the Lid's orchestral minimalism). Unlike noise, which weaponizes chaos, drone pursues hypnotic stasis—though both share an interest in texture over tune. It overlaps with dark ambient in mood but refuses that genre's cinematic narrative impulses, instead offering raw, unmediated sound as subject and object alike.

Drone rewards patience with transcendence. It strips music to its molecular level, revealing how sound behaves in space and time. Whether through the oceanic guitar swells of Windy & Carl or the suffocating bass frequencies of Nadja, this is music that doesn't ask to be heard—it demands to be inhabited. For those willing to surrender to its gravitational pull, drone offers an unparalleled journey into sound's slowest, most monumental possibilities.

Click column headers to sort

List updated:

Top Releases

#27
Earth 2
ByEarthReleased:1993-01-01
#56
Bloweyelashwish
BylovesliescrushingReleased:1993-07-15
#22
#19
ByAphex TwinReleased:1993-11-15
ambientdrone
#41
Selected Ambient Works Volume II
ByAphex TwinReleased:1994-03-07
#78
Phase 3: Thrones and Dominions
ByEarthReleased:1995-04-25
#70
Bowery Electric
ByBowery ElectricReleased:1995-08-16
#50
Soundtracks For The Blind
BySwansReleased:1996-10-22
#35
Beat
ByBowery ElectricReleased:1996-11-12
#31
Absolutego
ByBorisReleased:1996
#76
Jerusalem
BySleepReleased:1996
#54
The Ballasted Orchestra
ByStars of the LidReleased:1997-03-10
#60
Time Machines
ByCoilReleased:1998-01-26
#67
Depths
ByWindy & CarlReleased:1998-03-23
#32
Amplifier Worship
ByBorisReleased:1998-11-25
#36
Avec Laudenum
ByStars of the LidReleased:1999-12-07
#23
Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
ByGodspeed You! Black EmperorReleased:2000-10-09
#53
Aix Em Klemm
ByAix Em KlemmReleased:2000-10-26
#34
Flood
ByBorisReleased:2000-12-15
#46
The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid
ByStars of the LidReleased:2001-10-29
#95
Playthroughs
ByKeith Fullerton WhitmanReleased:2002-10-21
#94
Mount Eerie
ByThe MicrophonesReleased:2002-12-12
#16
Radio Amor
ByTim HeckerReleased:2003-03-25
#89
White1
BySunn O)))Released:2003-04-22
#12
Akuma No Uta
ByBorisReleased:2003-06-06
#5
Boris at Last - Feedbacker
ByBorisReleased:2003-12-25
#99
White2
BySunn O)))Released:2004-06-19
#74
Mirages
ByTim HeckerReleased:2004-09-20
#39
Jesu
ByJesuReleased:2004-12-08
#42
Talk Amongst the Trees
ByEluviumReleased:2005-03-01
#24
Black One
BySunn O)))Released:2005-10-03
#52
Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method
ByEarthReleased:2005-10-23
#21
Pink
ByBorisReleased:2005-11-18
#37
October Language
ByBelongReleased:2006-02-08
#45
Plume
ByLoscilReleased:2006-05-22
#85
Wide
ByGrouperReleased:2006-09-11
#20
Harmony In Ultraviolet
ByTim HeckerReleased:2006-10-16
#63
Altar
BySunn O))) & BorisReleased:2006-10-31
#91
Theory of Machines
ByBen FrostReleased:2006-11
#82
Cover the Windows and the Walls
ByGrouperReleased:2007-01-01
#47
Conqueror
ByJesuReleased:2007-02-02
#83
Touched
ByNadjaReleased:2007-03-13
#10
and Their Refinement of the Decline
ByStars of the LidReleased:2007-04-02
#75
Weighing Souls With Sand
ByThe Angelic ProcessReleased:2007-05-15
#80
Hippie Killer
ByBongripperReleased:2007-06-20
#62
Carte-de-visite
ByStars of the LidReleased:2007-11-20
#1
Deathconsciousness
ByHave a Nice LifeReleased:2008-02-21
#9
The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull
ByEarthReleased:2008-02-22
#26
Street Horrrsing
ByFuck ButtonsReleased:2008-03-17
#7
Inca Ore / Grouper
ByGrouperReleased:2008-06-03
#4
Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill
ByGrouperReleased:2008-06-16
#88
Eraserhead Soundtrack
ByDavid LynchReleased:2008-11-25
#98
An Imaginary Country
ByTim HeckerReleased:2009-03-09
#68
92982
ByWilliam BasinskiReleased:2009-03
#25
Monoliths & Dimensions
BySunn O)))Released:2009-05-18
#71
Infinity
ByJesuReleased:2009-05-28
#79
Wind's Poem
ByMount EerieReleased:2009-07-14
#29
Tarot Sport
ByFuck ButtonsReleased:2009-10-12
#81
By The Throat
ByBen FrostReleased:2009-10-19
#66
Russian Mind
ByOneohtrix Point NeverReleased:2009-11-01
#96
Going Places
ByYellow SwansReleased:2010-03-08
#93
Returnal
ByOneohtrix Point NeverReleased:2010-06-28
#86
Love Is a Stream
ByJefre Cantu-LedesmaReleased:2010-10-01
#13
Ravedeath, 1972
ByTim HeckerReleased:2011-02-14
#44
Angels Of Darkness, Demons Of Light 1
ByEarthReleased:2011-02-22
#3
A I A: Alien Observer
ByGrouperReleased:2011-04-11
#30
Tunnel Blanket
ByThis Will Destroy YouReleased:2011-05-09
#55
Kindred
ByBurialReleased:2012-02-12
#100
Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II
ByEarthReleased:2012-02-14
#77
The Narcissist II
ByDean BluntReleased:2012-02-19
#51
The Seer
BySwansReleased:2012-08-12
#28
ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND!
ByGodspeed You! Black EmperorReleased:2012-10-15
#59
A I A: Dream Loss
ByGrouperReleased:2012
#15
The Man Who Died in His Boat
ByGrouperReleased:2013-02-04
#43
Sparks EP
ByChrome SparksReleased:2013-03-04
#57
Flight of the Behemoth
BySunn O)))Released:2013-04-22
#61
Slow Focus
ByFuck ButtonsReleased:2013-07-21
#38
Virgins
ByTim HeckerReleased:2013-10-14
#65
The World
ByCroatian AmorReleased:2013-12
#14
The Unnatural World
ByHave a Nice LifeReleased:2014-01-27
#73
A U R O R A
ByBen FrostReleased:2014-05-21
#87
A/D, Music For Picture
ByLornReleased:2014-08-27
#6
The Disintegration Loops (Remastered)
ByWilliam BasinskiReleased:2014-08-29
#18
Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress
ByGodspeed You! Black EmperorReleased:2015-03-31
#64
Moonlust
ByThe Holydrug CoupleReleased:2015-05-12
#11
Radial
ByBenoît PioulardReleased:2016-06-27
ambientdrone
#40
小圈子
By輕描淡寫Released:2017-07-14
#48
Luciferian Towers
ByGodspeed You! Black EmperorReleased:2017-09-22
#33
Dead Magic
ByAnna von HausswolffReleased:2018-03-02
#92
Konoyo
ByTim HeckerReleased:2018-09-28
#17
somewhere in the distance, somewhere toward the mountains
ByFlatsoundReleased:2019-02-21
ambientdrone
#72
On Time Out of Time
ByWilliam BasinskiReleased:2019-03-08
ambientdrone
#97
Life Metal
BySunn O)))Released:2019-04-13
#49
All Thoughts Fly
ByAnna von HausswolffReleased:2020-09-25
#8
2003 Toyota Corolla
By2003 Toyota CorollaReleased:2021-03-19
#2
hurry up mixtape
ByAlvedonReleased:2021-08-01
#19
SINNER GET READY
ByLINGUA IGNOTAReleased:2021-08-06
#58
The Runner (Original Soundtrack)
ByBoy HarsherReleased:2022-01-21
#84
GLITCH PRINCESS
ByYeuleReleased:2022-02-04
#90
Living Torch
ByKali MaloneReleased:2022-07-07
#69
We're All Going to the World's Fair (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
ByAlex GReleased:2022-11-25

See related genres