Sheila:

Yeah. I think it's the same thing and I think everybody has their area of expertise, and the idea is that, I think, we're given this gift, this practical area of expertise where we can draw back into that serenity and perform at our optimum, so that we can grow in that area and let it overflow into everyday life and of course artists are notoriously bad at that.

John:

(Laughs) Well, let's hear how this particular artist deals with all of these ideas in "ABoneCroneDrone", Sheila Chandra's latest CD on the Real World label. This is the final track. "ABoneCroneDrone VI" on tonight's edition of New Sounds.

THE SONG IS PLAYED

So the CD, Sheila Chandra ends with the sound of the human breath, from which it all flows. Yeah... "ABoneCroneDrone VI" from the CD "ABoneCroneDrone". An exploration of really what is a very rich microcosm of the world of the drone. It's the basis of the most ancient forms of music making that we have and obviously, you know, there are some very highly developed musical traditions which are based on the drone.

Sheila:

Yes, and some very beautiful ones.

John:

And we've sort of forgotten it in the West but so is ours, absolutely.

Well, this recording strikes me as the kind of thing that probably has generated at least another album's worth of actual melodic material in your mind already. I mean, listening to these drones and, you know, hearing those melodies almost coming out. I mean, do you now have a store house of melodies that were suggested by these recording sessions.

Sheila:

I tried to keep these particularly simple, and I tried not to embellish them and to resist seeing them in emotional terms and just putting down faithfully what I heard without any form of arrangement or polishing. So - no, because, I've deliberately resisted that. But I know that the next time I put on the "McCrimmon" drone, next time a put on "ABoneCroneDrone II", or the basic drone for "ABoneCroneDrone III", I will hear a new set of things, so there is a kind of perpetual motion. It is almost a perpetual motion machine that will keep bringing things to me and it's wonderful to feel led. One could have this great worrying prospect as a composer that one approaches an emotional expressive problem, which is what we call 'the song' without any way to.... Well when it's unfinished, one has this problem as how to express this emotion in a way that's not overly clever and in a way that's simple and touching - which is what all artists want to do whatever, however, strange their musical structure maybe to the western ear - and one doesn't necessarily know that there's a solution. It's not going to be published in next week's paper. You know, if one is led and one feels that the song is complete or ready, then that makes it much much easier. It stops you being freaked out. This connection to the divine, stops you from being freaked out otherwise, when I hear the "Speaking in Tongues" pieces even I don't really believe I can it that fast, I never ever do when I hear the recording, and it's only when I connect, that I can do them that fast.