Bring Down The Sky

Since 2011, Toronto’s Northumbria has been producing exceptional drone from an austere blend of improvised guitar and bass fed through an array of effects. On Northumbria’s album, Bring Down The Sky, Jim Field and Dorian Williamson open up new, expansive landscapes that, without the signposts of melody or rhythm, manage to avoid making the listener feel lost. While other drone artists—Locrian in particular—inject disorientation and terror into their work, Northumbria’s is more like stepping onto a vast plain where there’s no separation between the traveler and the massive sky for which the album is named. Whether such limitlessness is comforting or frightening is up to the listener.