BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

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Late Junction

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Journeys in music, ancient to future. The home for adventurous listeners

Late Junction: Sounds of the Universe

Sounds of the Universe

BBC Radio 3 - Late Junction, Sounds of the Universe

Verity Sharp tunes into the universe with music writer Harry Sword on the power of drone.

From the ancient Greeks on, drone has been associated with the divine. Writer Harry Sword joins Verity Sharp to explore its heavier manifestations in the music of the 20th century.

Throughout human history, drone music has been associated with the divine. The ancient Greeks thought the music of the planets, or the ‘universal music’, was one extended tone. In Hinduism Om is the primordial sound from which all existence springs and it’s the first thing we hear in the womb. But what role does it play in the radical music of the 20th Century? Ahead of his book on the subject, writer Harry Sword joins Verity to explore the heavier manifestations of drone. He shares pieces which challenge the idea that drone is always meditative, taking a look instead at the artists who are marrying metal and drone while still attempting to transcend the self. 

We tune into the universal hum with pieces from current minimalist composer Sarah Davachi, heavy drone overlords Sunn O))) and ancient instrument player Barnaby Brown who uses vulture bones and prehistoric pipes to play Celtic drone.  Verity also reflects on the recurring presence of the note C within drone. Engines often idle at C. Her coffee machine drones a C, as do bees in a hive, and Terry Riley famously focused on the note for his ‘In C’. 

Elsewhere  Verity picks out some anti-establishment electronics from Swiss Togo duo Yao Bobby and Simon Grab and we play new music from Mica Levi, which snuck out late last year. 

Produced by Alannah Chance and Zakia Sewell
A Reduced Listening production from BBC Radio 3

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

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