Mere months after releasing their debut album, Liminal Mass (review here), through guitarist Brad Frye‘s Desert Records label, the drone duo Droni Eye Omi — Frye (also of Red Mesa) and noted flamenco guitarist Ronalda Baca — follow-up with Live at Guild Cinema. The announced-today/out-today live outing runs three songs and 68 minutes — consistent with the studio debut — and in the third cut, Baca and Frye bring on Roman Barham of Red Mesa, fellow Albuquerquian Steve Schmidlapp of Blue Heron, and electric violinist Kristen Rad for what’s been called a “Drone Circle.” Welcome to your next meditation.

As I read it, this was the first Droni Eye Omi show. Call it an adventurous start, to say the least. The PR wire has it as follows:

Droni Eye Omi ‘Live at Guild Cinema’ – Releases August 20th, 2025 – Desert Records

Bandcamp: https://dronieyeomi.bandcamp.com/album/live-at-guild-cinema

Streaming: https://found.ee/dronieyeomi_liveatguildcinema

On March 7th, 2025, Droni Eye Omi performed live for the first time ever. This immersive and powerful heavy drone set was recorded in the iconic theater, Guild Cinema (Albuquerque, NM). The music was magically synced up with the intense psychedelic video art projected on the movie screen by Quannumthrows (Michael Pino).

To celebrate the release day of the band’s debut album ‘Liminal Mass’, the drone duo of Ronaldo Baca (Swing Magique) and Brad Frye (Red Mesa) pummeled the Guild Cinema with the “loudest performance in the history of the theater” according to the cinema’s owner.

Ironically, it’s also the quietest and most dynamic electric guitar performance Ronaldo and Brad have ever executed on-stage in their musical careers, as you can hear the guitar pedal clicks on the soft parts of certain tracks.

Chromosphere (Live) is the opening track from the band’s debut album ‘Liminal Mass’. More dynamic than the studio version, the track shows the interplay between the two guitarists.

Guitar Gongs (Live) is a new Droni track showcasing a quiet and gorgeous side of the band. The duo has been working on the technique of making their guitars sound like bowed or resonating gongs.

The band invited their friends to join them on the set’s last song “Drone Circle”. Roman Barham (Red Mesa), Steve Schmidlapp (Blue Heron), and Kristen Rad (long-time collaborator with Red Mesa) brought their talents via drums, electric guitar, and electric violin respectively.

Immerse yourself in 68 mins of meditative and ambient drone music through a wall of amplifiers and a slew of guitar pedals.

Track listing:
1.Chromosphere (Live) 28:02
2. Guitar Gongs (Live) 18:58
3. Drone Circle (Live) 21:26

Recorded on a Zoom H6 by Droni Eye Omi at Guild Cinema (Albuquerque, NM)
Mixed and Mastered by Ronaldo Baca
Album cover photo by Adam DeBary
Design by Brad Frye and Stephanie Seibert
Layout by Dave Walsh

Droni Eye Omi:
Ronaldo Baca – Electric Guitar
Brad Frye – Baritone Electric Guitar

Guest Musicians:
Roman Barham – Drums (“Drone Circle”)
Kristen Rad – Electric Violin (“Drone Circle”)
Steve Schmidlapp – Electric Guitar (“Drone Circle”)

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Droni Eye Omi, Live at Guild Cinema (2025)

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Heavy drone duo Droni Eye Omi will make their debut on March 7 with the two-song full-length, Liminal Mass. Carving a place for itself with mountainous tonality and a drumless, often-howling expanse, it’s being released through Desert Records, whose Brad Frye (also Red Mesa) comprises half the lineup alongside flamenco guitarist Ronaldo Baca, and as you’ll see in the release info below, they go so far as to call it a “migration to thyself.”

Anybody remember Inner Space? Go look it up if you’re under 40. Or better, don’t.

“Chromosphere” (29:53) and “Black Flare” (14:13) make up the record, and as a new project, it drones hard. Very definitely self-aware in the Earth 2 nod, and I mean, we’re talking about interwoven layers of guitar noise as a genre, so a given listener might hear all kinds of things in the reaches of the material. I can’t say I’m all the way on board with the band’s decision to keep the release 100-percent free of flamenco guitar (not even a little?), but they’re just getting started and have a clear and expressive purpose as showcased in these initial audio slabs. Both tracks are hypnotic and meditative, but not actually still.

The opener and longer of the two (immediate points) is of course awash in distortion, but it writhes in that, one guitar howling and feeding back as they push toward the 10-minute mark while the other sets a foreboding backing ambience, soon to join a building fray. There are notes, held, distinct, but Baca (who also mixed and mastered) and Frye are exploring here as well, and the sense of improv — a palpable ethic of “let’s try this” overarching the songs — adds to the motion of the listening experience. As destinations go, “thyself” may or may not be a place you want to end up, but terms of being transportive in sound, Liminal Mass is no lightweight.

And this gets us a little closer to understanding what the mission behind the instrumentalist search here actually is. “Black Flare” feels stately and is a little more patient in its unfolding, changing less but still oozing into a resonant wail before letting go to a more subdued ending, but it’s heavy, and that’s a distinguishing feature. Droni Eye Omi are of course not the first to make drone feel oppressive, but Liminal Mass feels like a counterpoint to trends toward floatier sounds. Just because it’s ethereal doesn’t mean it can’t feel like it’s collapsing your sternum.

One more distinguishing feature? No pretense about it. Frye and Baca made the thing in a day, recorded live — they even had a light show to ritualize the mood — and clearly aren’t going for the SunnO)))-style drone metal avant-garde positioning in naming the project like they were a bong metal band. This character is something one doesn’t often encounter with drone: fun. And in the context of the tube-burning noise Droni Eye Omi are making throughout what might be the beginning of a broader journey with heft to spare in terms of style, somehow the admission that they might actually have enjoyed the process of putting the album together feels daring. Drone is weird. So is life. If you’re still reading, so is thyself in all likelihood. Might as well have a good time with it.

“Chromosphere” — duly scorching — premieres on the player below, followed by the PR wire background on the project as mentioned above.

Take a breath, open your mind, and enjoy:

DRONI EYE OMI – Debut album ‘Liminal Mass’ releases via Desert Records on March 7th, 2025.

Two guitars, one from Brad Frye (Red Mesa and Desert Records founder) and a second one from Ronaldo Baca (renowned New Mexican gypsy jazz band Swing Magique and flamenco guitarist) bring you a dense electric guitar drone mixed with psych and space minimalism, and meditative heaviness.

However, desert/stoner rock or gypsy jazz/flamenco this is not!

This is true drone and minimalism inspired by Lamonte Young’s “Composition 1960 No. 7” and Earth’s “Earth 2”.

The band takes these primary influences and sends them straight to the cosmos.

Take a journey to the outer realms of your inner thoughts and sentiments. Droni Eye Omi are the cosmopilots that steer the celestial cruiser of sound into the vast universe of your mind.

Fear not of uncertainty, for nothing is certain with the settling of souls, here and beyond. Hear not the redundant questions of man, but experience the answers known to sound and vibration. Let the high voltage guitars rumble your chest and rattle your ears to an intoxicating sphere of bliss and realization.

You are on a migration to thyself!

CREDITS
Recorded by Droni Eye Omi with a Tascam Model 12 on 5/31/2024 at Bingo Studios in Albuquerque, NM.
Mixed and Mastered by Ronaldo Baca at Orange Cat Studios
Album cover by Diogo Soares

Droni Eye Omi:
Brad Frye (Guitar One)
Ronaldo Baca (Guitar Two)

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