“Nobody is more surprised than me that drone music has made a comeback”, says longtime drone experimenter David First, speaking to Clive Bell in an interview for The Wire 442. The multi-instrumentalist's most recent project – David First & The Western Enisphere's The Consummation Of Right And Wrong – is a two and a half hour long album of drone music, released via Important. “The album is a reconciliation of opposites, a culmination”, First explains. “It resolves a lot of things I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I love writing melody, and there’s a lot of melodic writing in there, even if the melodies are over a 12 minute piece and the notes are all 20 seconds long, there’s still a melodic contour going on.”

Here, First collates tracks from many of his previous solo and collaborative releases dating back to 1976, as well as a selection of pieces from The Consummation Of Right And Wrong and a recent self-released single featuring Mazz Swift and Dashon Burton. Read the full interview with First in The Wire 442, in print or online.

David First
“Pulse Piece” (1976)
From Electronic Works 1976-77
(Dais)
D1st: Buchla 100 modular synthesizer

The Notekillers
“The Zipper” (1980)
From 1977-81
(Ecstatic Peace)
D1st: guitar, Heathkit square wave generator

David First
“Beatbox #2” (1981)
From Data Dump #1
(Bandcamp)
D1st: Guitar & Maestro Rhythm King MK-1

David First & The World Casio Quartet
“Strange Over” (1989)
From The Complete Gramavision Session
(Pogus)
Casio CZ 1000 digital synthesizer

David First
“Keylights In A Palace Balloon” (1990)
From Resolver
(OODiscs)
Joseph Kubera: piano

David First
“A Bet On Transcendence Favors the House” (1998)
From Privacy Issues
(XI)
D1st: Ebow guitar

Matter Waves
Gots (2012)
From Matter Waves
(New Atlantis)
David First: guitar/midi-guitar controller/laptop electronics
Kid Millions: drums
Rhys Chatham: violin/trumpet/pedals & loops
Bernard Gann: bass

David First
“Flat Core” (2015)
From The AM Radio Band
(Robert & Leopold)
D1st: General Electric SuperRadio II transistor radio, Silvertone SR2400 transistor radio, Emerson PH3795BP Super Sensitivity transistor radio, Soundesign 2236BK transistor radio, Philco E976 tube tabletop radio

David First
“Étude #3” (2016)
From Études for Acoustic Guitar
(Fabrica)
D1st: Guild D-40 acoustic guitar

David First
“Lamentations For The Killed” (2017)
From Civil War Songs For Solo Harmonica
(Fabrica)
D1st: Hohner XB-40 harmonica

David First & The Western Enisphere
“Scene 14” (2020)
From The Consummation Of Right And Wrong
(Important)
D1st: Ebow guitar

David First & The Western Enisphere
“Scene 15” (2020)
From The Consummation Of Right And Wrong
(Important)
D1st: slide whistle

David First & New Party Systems feat Mazz Swift and Dashon Burton
“Energy Prayer” (2020)
From The Best We Can/Songs By David First
(Bandcamp)

All compositions/programming by D First ©Silent Graph Music/ASCAP.
All albums available at davidfirst.bandcamp.com