SHEILA CHANDRA
ABoneCroneDrone
RealWorld

The final saga in her trilogy of vocal incantations finds Sheila Chandra at the very creative edge. Herein are six simple works, really, that rather than depend on multi-culti references and broad slow melodies have been distilled to harmonic essence. The harmonic is the note formed by the notes themselves, those strange overtones you hear when a sustained sound builds with intensity in the space it is made, the second, unsung sound you hear in your own head when you chant or whistle. Chandra has always been fascinated by these sounds, and with each ensuing album has tried to come closer and closer to recreating the actual cranial noise a singer hears in her own head.

ABoneCroneDrone is six rooms of sound, each trying to find a different harmonic, but each so alike because the head that hears them is the same. This is a near impossible album to do anything other than listen to. It is, after all, completely antithetical to the idea of "idea." So we poor journalists (who take a bit of a hit in the liner notes) are twice put in our place, by the artist and the music. - Cliff Furnald

Hollow Ear copyright 1996 Cliff Furnald