THE MEDIEVAL DRONE SOCIETY II is the 2nd part of a new project from UK Composer, Performer and Improviser Laura Cannell. Following on from part one (January 2026) – Fragmented sounds of a medieval world are channeled through Cannell’s re-interpretion and improvisation on Cello, Violin, and her signature ‘Overbowed’ Violin playing.

Part II is inspired by the 14th century polymath Guillaume de Machaut (1300-1377), a composer whose music has been a mainstay in Cannell’s score collection for over 2 decades. Her interpretations are not arrangements of old music, but an embodiment of emotion through the smallest of fragments. Stretched and pulled the notes are given space to form a new body, and a new identity.

Some tracks have multiple layers and some feature polyphonic ‘Overbowing’ in which Cannell perform all of the parts at once in real-time. The eerie all encompassing sound of drones lead us to an ancient time, a visceral sense of being connected with the past. The use of the ‘overbow’ which is shorter than as regular violin bow gives the sense of faster, raspier breathing, bringing a grainy vocalisation to the music. 

Inspired by fragments of Machaut’s poetry and melody, embedded in his music there is a constant yearning. Cannell gives herself permission to go deeper into the 14th century composers work during the crucial Ars Nova (New Art) period of the Late Middle Ages. This release is a meditation on the sound of old and the new co-existing. You cannot have one without the other. This is not medieval music, but it carries the DNA through its 700 year old fragments. The Medieval Drone Society is a way of creating a new yet ancient secular space to bathe in.

This release follows on from her January release of part 1, 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.