Saskatoon artist Tod Emel features drone music

You've heard of the slow food movement.  This weekend you can try slow music.

A group of performers will mark National Drone Music Day at PAVED Arts in Saskatoon on Saturday. The event is one of dozens happening across Canada.

The day has nothing do with the increasingly ubiquitous flying machines, and everything to do with slow,  experimental music.

Tod Emel is one of the organizers of the Saskatoon event. He'll also be performing.

"I think [drone] takes more of a sustained listen, we're so used to having everything in discrete packages, immediate and right on our plate." said Emel during an interview on CBC's Saskatoon Morning.

While the sounds often have an otherworldly quality, Emel said people may have heard more drone music than they think. 

"The thing that people will be most familiar with is the bagpipe drone," said Emel. "There's always that note that kind of resides underneath it that's made up of a bunch of different notes that interplay with each other so you end up with this constant sound."

Emel said performers can take many approaches to creating drone music, using  things like  laptops, sound equipment, musical effects and traditional instruments to make long, evolving pieces.

For his own performance, Emel will use a short recording he made of himself playing a tin whistle. With software, he'll manipulate the musical snippet into a complex soundscape.

"It's going to require some... time to really hear these pieces unfold,"  Emel said.  "It's a very immersive experience... it's like a big hug with sound."