Kali Malone & Drew McDowall ~ Magnetism

Drone music seems to lend itself to the feeling of displaced time. You can, for example, put on a CD, and drift away from the conscious realm so completely that the 70+ minute running time passes in what feels like

ACL 2024 ~ The Top 20 Albums of the Year

This year, A Closer Listen received thousands of submissions and reviewed hundreds; today our international staff chooses twenty.  Three former chart-toppers appear on this year’s list, while one artist appears for the fifth time, but half are new, while our

ACL 2024 ~ Top Ten Drone

In each of the past six years, a female composer has taken the top spot in our overall year-end list.  If this happens again next week, the eventual winner may come from the land of drone, as seven of our

ACL 2024 ~ Music for Stained Glass

In our very first year (2012), ACL ran a year-end list called Music for Synagogues and Cathedrals.  Since then, the boundaries of spiritual music have greatly expanded.  From haunted organ to repurposed hymn, spoken meditation to abraded choir, these artists have experimented