It is not like the avant-garde to be quite so blunt and denotative in its choice of words, but “24-Hour Drone: Experiments in Sound and Music” could hardly be more level-headed and descriptive. Basilica Hudson inaugurates its first season with the first annual 24-Hour Drone. A collaboration with the Le Guess Who? Festival from Utrecht in the Netherlands, the Drone will make use of the sprawling main hall at Basilica and feature a full 24 hours of electronic, psychedelic, classical, non-Western and instrumental drone music.
The event has attracted genre-straddling leading lights of Minimalist, electronic and experimental music. The nominal headliner is Prurient, the nom de noise of the esteemed lo-fi recording artist Ian Dominick Fernow. Montreal’s SUUNS offer a Minimalist, serene drone/rock. Arone Dyer of Buke and Gase is one of many artists applying experimental sounds and methods to guitar pop. The guitarist and composer Patrick Higgins is lead voice of the outrageous ensemble Zs. The roster also includes ample on-topic local performers, including Ultraam and Alexander Turnquist.
24-Hour Drone occurs in conjunction with a recreation of what happened when Lincoln’s funeral train stopped in Hudson on April 25, 1865. Organized by local historian Carole Osterink, at 8:45 p.m. a reenactment will set forth from the outdoor grounds of Basilica, cross over the train tracks and honor Lincoln’s passing with a dirge sung by women dressed all in white. Timed to coincide with the very hour of Lincoln’s funeral train’s arrival 150 years ago, the original event was described by the train commander as “one of the weirdest ever witnessed.” Afterwards, Bobby Previte will conduct an ensemble of Hudson Valley musicians at Basilica, in his reimagination of Aaron Copland’s masterpiece Lincoln Portrait, narrated by Brian Dewan, the famed musical storyteller and album-cover artist and the composer behind the zither army of the Blue Man Group.
24-Hour Drone happens from Saturday, April 25 at 3 p.m. until Sunday, April 26 at 3 p.m. Early-bird tickets cost $15 and are available at https://24hourdrone.brownpapertickets.com. Basilica is a unique industrial setting with limited seating, the organizers recommend that Drone attendees bring camping pads, yoga mats and/or pillows; sleeping bags/blankets, comfortable clothes, bottles for refill at Basilica’s water fountain and endurance-enhancing snacks. Basilica is located at 110 South Front Street in Hudson. For more information, visit https://basilicahudson.com.
Join the family! 
