From my earliest days of composing experimental ambient music I have been fascinated with the modern incarnation of the musical drone. David Reck writes, in “Music of the Whole Earth”: “The reinforcement of tonal centers by one or more notes of a continuous drone is found in Euro-America, Africa, eastern Europe, central Asia, the Arabic-influenced belt from north Africa to Malaysia, and in the pockets of tribal culture in southeast Asia. Elements of the drone can perhaps be found in every musical culture of the world.” And as with traditional musical forms, so too with modern music. Around the tonal center of the drone, the musician is free to find expression along the full range of simple to complex harmonies and overtones. The drone acts as a structural scaffolding, and the satellite subsidiary tones of the melody circle around the tonal nucleus (as Curt Sachs has put it) “like butterflies around a flower.” “Evening Air, Freeway Birds, No Wind Birds” was built around a slow rhythm meant to support deep breathing, a pattern of 3 breaths per minute. This rhythm was built up from a hand played vinyl record, something like a hip-hop DJ in super slow motion. Surface elements of Rhodes piano, synthesizer and dense clusters of raw electronic sound come and go in a random evolution of combinations, since each element is of a different length, and is repeating continuously. Finally, the whole piece was mixed in three differing arrangements, and each of these were intercut, and crossfade from one to another over 30 seconds, resulting in pockets of calm and clusters of activity. Because of it’s slowly pulsing core and drone center, I’ve found this music to be an excellent accompaniment to gentle exercise, meditation, sleep and (not personally!) childbirth. It is no coincidence that the work was composed for my wife to listen to during labor and delivery of our son, Finn, and it has played no less than twice a day for several hours at naptime in our home for the past 17 months. I have yet to grow tired of listening to it, which I consider the greatest success.