Last week, Pioneer Works — a hulking warehouse in industrial Red Hook turned concert venue, gallery, and co-working artist space — held an experimental music exhibition, hosting five sets from nine titans of the form. Headlined by Kali Malone and William Basinski, respectively, the two nights of sound presented radically different conceptions of the drone: the sustained tone that is one of music’s most ancient forms (along with the drum beat) but has been a consistent feature of its avant garde for the better part of a century.
