What's On / Bristol Gigs / drone/noise

Drone, Noise & Experimental

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Bristol's Drone/noise Scene

Bristol’s drone and noise rock scenes are some of the most awesome musical niches found in this city. Small packed-out gigs, captivated crowds and performers pushing the boundaries between music, white noise and sound art. While international names like Tim Hecker and the Haxan Cloak have made appearances in Bristol, it’s local label Howling Owl Records and promoters Cacophonous Sarcophagus who are leading the way here. Keep your eyes peeled for gigs at the Arnolfini gallery, The Cube cinema, The Exchange and small events spaces like the Scout Hut and Centre Space.

Intimate Drone/noise music in Bristol
The Bristol drone/noise scene, it’s not just the Bristol Hum like you’d think! Bristol drone and noise gigs can be some of the most intimate around, the crowd all huddled in silence in one of Bristol prestigious venues (like the newly rebranded Bristol Beacon). Although lacking big local names to rival international drone artists like William Basinski or Tim Hecker, there’s been a recent increase in ambient gigs, nights like Dark Alchemy and Lust Pattern have taken the beat out of music but still made it droney and noisey, and just very Bristol.

Buy tickets for drone/noise events in Bristol

Our recent drone/noise recommendations

Double bill of intimate folk fulfilment: Tartine De Clous weaves exultant sea shanties from a forgotten past, ploughing the deep history of the French Atlantic coast in rapturous three-part harmonies, alongside Toby Hay & Aidan Thorn’s pastoral double bass / guitar wonderment. An evening of traditional music & song from France & Wales.

Sell out warning! Strange Brew are truly spoiling us with this magnificent double-bill! NTS Early Bird angel and folkloric dream-pop experimentalist Maria Somerville meets avant-garde supergroup Good Sad Happy Bad - the woozy art-rock project Mica Levi reformed from the ashes of Micachu. Seriously unmissable FFO: Relaxin’ Records, James K, Moin, Grouper, Space Afrika, AD93. Double headline show! Whimsical kraut punk and art-rock experiments from the band formerly known as Micachu and the Shapes (comprising CJ Calderwood, Marc Pell, Mica Levi, Raisa Khan) + starry eyed pop, and hypnotic drones with trad Irish motifs from Maria Somerville

Spring has finally sprung and multi-visual, multi-media crew Cellar Door are celebrating the shedding of our winter cocoons with Lipworm’s wiggy psych-rock, swooning dream-folk shoegaze from Ladylike + Rabbitfoot’s sprawling electronica, baroque-pop and post-rock fusion. Essential FFO: Black Country, New Road, bdrmm. Audio-Visual & arts jamboree spanning folk, shoegaze, baroque pop, noise-rock, jazz and electronics. Music across 2 floors, exhibition in the cellar!

SSP returns from their near death experience to shake Kino with sonic oblivion through the Chewing Glass Subs. Inside: Severin Black’s isolationist drone landscapes and Nic Krog’s spoken word hardware confessionals. Delectable outsider clobber FFO: Pan Sonic, Biosphere, Nick Klein, Pavel Milyakov, Dale Cornish. ...are you healed yet?

What our editors say

“Brown's solo work is heavily electronica-based utilising analogue synths alongside tape machines, piano, strings and walls of ambient atmospherics. His work focuses on the analogue side of capturing and creating sound in the real world with physical hardware.”
From: James Adrian Brown

“Where do we go from here? With WRNTDP’s sound making graceful stretches outwards into folky minimalism, shimmering IDM and languid ambient there is no way to tell for sure, but it’s a guarantee that wherever it may go, Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan’s Music is perfect for soundtracking the building of a new world, or the ending of an old one.”
From: Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan

“Jackie-O Motherfucker's music draws from a variety of subgenres including various folk musics of the world, drone, free jazz, psychedelia, and noise rock, and is heavily improvisational in its nature.”
From: Jackie O-Motherfucker + special guests

“The Confederate Dead are a London-based five-piece crafting reverb-drenched songs of colour. Weaveing together elements of ’60s psychedelia, garage rock and neo-psychedelic drone, drawing influence from The Doors, The Stooges, Galaxie 500, Joy Division, and The Brian Jonestown Massacre. Live, they deliver immersive performances filled with smoke, electronic elements, strobe lights, driving rhythms, and stark contrasts between loud and quiet tension.”
From: The Confederate Dead

“Fluid in genre and form, with a leaning towards cinematic ambient, downtempo electronic, skewed pop, neo-classical and musique concrète sensibilities, their works evolve from memory, dialogue, dreams and ongoing explorations into loss, selfhood, human behaviour and its coalescence and tensions with the non-human.”
From: Bristol PRIDE - t l k / Wol