The Problem of Modulation in Deleuze and Guattari: Re-orienting the Ritornello Vis-à-vis Droning

Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari argue that while it is sometimes necessary to get caught up in more molar and stratified expressions of subjectivity, part of the art of philosophy is to extract intensities beneath territorialised forms of existence, and to know how to do so without succumbing to lines of death and destruction. Such minor modes of expression require an entirely different kind of logic, one of stuttering or AND … AND … AND …, which they theorise as paradigmatic of a generalised chromaticism, or the capacity to immediately establish connections between heterogeneous elements. For Deleuze and Guattari the modular synthesizer provides an especially good example of how this works in practice, though it remains unclear exactly how modular synthesizers can teach us to produce refrains in life that provide enough consistency for continuing experimentation. Bringing attention to the the action of making drone music and the method of Deep Listening – a meditative sonic practice of experience developed by Pauline Oliveros – I address this question, as well as the aporia of modulation in Deleuze’s oeuvre.