At first glance, the gear being loaded into Error Records looks like it’s enough for two or three bands.

Band members from Bookmobile!, Withershins, ACKER, Tigerbeat, and other fixtures of the Champaign-Urbana scene make their way to the practice space. None of those bands are practicing tonight, though. This is Champaign-Urbana’s own all-star ambient-drone orchestra: The Marathon Guitarkestra.

The band is assembling at Error Records’ practice space in preparation for its Friday show at Mike N Molly’s in downtown Champaign. Marathon bassist Brandon Beachum turns to drummer Matt Yeates to discuss their set up — two drum kits, six guitars, one bass, and a dozen pedals and amps.

Yeates turns to Beachum, the band’s founder: “You think we’ll run out of outlets?”

Beachum shrugs. He, much like Marathon’s music, prefers to go with the flow.

The band’s current line-up consists of Beachum, Yeates, Bryce Hays, Luke Bergkoetter, Matt Wenzel, Keith McKenney, Michael Kramer, Constantin Roman, and Will Barker.

Marathon’s gear didn’t always take up half the room. Until very recently, Beachum managed Marathon as a solo project.

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Marathon’s story started in 2006.

Back then, a 19-year-old Beachum was recording the sound of vacuum cleaners in his bedroom.

After playing in punk and metal bands throughout high school, he began to explore experimental music as his teenage years dwindled.

In 2009, Beachum started performing live improvisations. Over the next two years, he gradually moved towards using more composed structures that he could improvise with at live shows.

“I still tried to keep up the idea of playing whatever comes out in that moment,” Beachum said. “It comes from a place of not thinking too much.”

After looking around the local CU music scene for interested musicians this past summer, Beachum assembled the Guitarkestra. The group played its first show in September at Thee Death Tower before making its Pygmalion Music Festival debut later that month.

“The band has been really well-received,” Beachum said. “Now that the project is so big, we’ve definitely become a spectacle of sorts to watch on stage.”

As for what concertgoers can expect from live shows, Beachum describes the experience as a journey rather than just a performance.

“The thing about improvisation is that even we don’t know exactly what’s coming next,” he said. “We’re experiencing it at the same time as the crowd.”

He goes on to recall seeing people meditating during their set, completely losing themselves in the noise.

The idea of “losing yourself” is one tied close to the band’s history.

“The word ‘marathon’ comes from that feeling you get when you run for a long time,” Beachum said. “You’re in a lot of pain and you feel like you’re going to die, but after a while, you can’t feel anything anymore and you just kind of keep going.”

The Marathon Guitarkestra benefits from the nature of drone music — a minimalist genre that lends itself well to getting lost in performance sustained and repeated sounds.

“Our music is like the last three seconds of a song when the music starts to slow down and the notes drag out longer and longer,” Beachum laughed. “Except for our music, it’s just the entire set.”

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Beachum said he’s hopeful to take the band’s ambient tunes on the road.

“I’d love for us to get out on the road sometime soon, but the logistics of organizing a tour with the whole band would be pretty crazy,” Beachum said of the group, which now features nine members.

Until then, the Marathon Guitarkestra will focus on enchanting CU audiences with their unique brand of ambient improvisation before worrying about other cities.

Back in the basement of Error Records, Beachum jokes around.

“What’s up, Urbana?” he shouts to the empty basement.

He hands out notes to the rest of the band, giving them brief outlines of what they’re playing, leaving the details up to them.

Seven amps line the walls, and a mess of cords and pedals cover the floor. The band takes up over half of the room — drummers Yeates and Bergkoetter face-to-face behind the rest of the band.

“Should we just go, or do you guys want to talk through the numbers?” Beachum checks with his band members before starting.

“Just go!” guitarist Michael Kramer responds.

A swell of noise fills the room.

Guitars blend together, the dueling drummers move in-and-out of synchronicity. Their performance is hypnotic — cathartic, even. It’s no surprise that so many concertgoers meditate at Marathon shows. It’s hard not to get lost in the music.

The musicians are impossibly loud. By the time practice is over, they’ve already blown out an amp.

Each member is in his own space, experimenting and improvising independently from the others. Still, the band never comes across as chaotic or disorganized — it exists as a whole.

In fact, the men of the aptly named Marathon Guitarkestra come together to create a new kind of symphony — one that discards the pretense of what music “should” be in favor of the raw experience that only improvisation can bring.

The Marathon Guitarkestra performs at Mike N Molly’s on Friday, November 14 with guests The Tazers, Bonzo Madrid, and Discoverer. Doors open at 8 p.m., the show is 19+, and cover is $7.