The Medieval Drone Society by Laura Cannell

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The first release of 2026 by Laura Cannell is here! LISTEN & STREAM HERE

THE MEDIEVAL DRONE SOCIETY is the new solo release from UK Composer, Performer and Improviser Laura Cannell. Fragmented sounds of a medieval world are channeled through the cello and bass recorder as Cannell layers improvised recordings over each other in single takes. She creates a connection between the centuries by echoing the ghosts of medieval players who would have sounded these original melodies. 

Sleepless at the turn of the year and during the darkest of January days, Laura Cannell sinks into rasping strings and breathy oscillations taking 13th century monophony as a starting point for improvisation and drone. Playing and forgetting, letting passages re-emerge through broken sequences, fading thoughts, memories and repeated motifs. 

The short days of winter are embedded in the music. A meditation on the sound of old and the new co-existing. You cannot have one without the other. The cello is not medieval but it’s string and bow are a vessel for the fragments of 700 years ago. The Medieval Drone Society is a way of creating a new yet ancient secular space to bathe in.

The fragments began as 13th Century French ‘Lyric Lais’ – secular & sacred monophonic songs, the secular being tales of adventure and romance, the others of well-known sacred stories. Through a process of re-imagining and improvising this set of 8 tracks were recorded, performed and produced by Laura in her Suffolk studio on the week beginning 5th January 2026 under the Wolf Moon.

This release follows on from her 2025 album Brightly Shone the Moon which had 3 placements in the Official UK Charts in December 2025 and January 2026, and was Folk Album of the Month (December 25) in The Guardian.  

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released January 30, 2026

Brightly Shone the Moon Album by Laura Cannell

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BRIGHTLY SHONE THE MOON is the 13th solo album from the UK Composer/Performer and Improviser Laura Cannell. Growing up in the marshes in rural Norfolk there is a natural leaning towards the stark landscape and nostalgia of winter’s past. In the village she grew up in carols were sung in the methodist chapel, the church, the village hall and outside people’s doors. Later on, around the piano with her sister playing the right hand and Laura on the left, the tunes were always there, but maybe not the words. This album takes some essence from the past but is firmly rooted in the present. These songs are still embedded in the season and the rural countryside but they have become their own tradition, they belong to each of us if we want them.

Christmas melodies disappear into densely packed woodland copses where half remembered carols are played on the fiddle and the merry organ, but none are what they seem. Brightly Shone the Moon is alternative Christmas music for those who love and mourn in a season where darkness is everywhere. A time when the winter sun is shy, but the moon lights our nights and encourages our strange songs, traditions and hopes for the unfurling of a new and better year.

The 9 tracks on Brightly Shone the Moon were recorded in Laura’s home studio, with duo partner André Bosman guesting on tracks 2, 7 and 8 on synths, and sampling Laura’s violin.

“The sound of ancient carols drift through a deep green winter forest. Branches are heavy with snow. Just out of sight is the sound of a strange rural village band processing over the crunchy pebbles of the churchyard and into the medieval church.

Violins and pipe organs glitch and echo, as half remembered melodies sweep towards you on a bluster of icy wind. Traces of familiar festive songs flicker around you, almost cosy but they are distant as you stand, boots in deep snow, alone.

The moon shines brightly as twinkling ice crystals land silently, softly, on your woollen sleeve. It is that time again, where joy and heartache try to exist together. Traditions come in and out of focus as the winter leaves its mark.”
Laura Cannell October 2025