works inspired by 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

2012 all n4tural Junto tracks

colliding banter

The Assignment: Do a sonic version of Matt Madden's Exercises in Style

More on the project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/04/05/disquiet0014-oumupo/

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/ http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto Project 0014: Sonic Narrative

newest tracks. well, all of them actually, but in reverse chrono order. you get the idea.

This was a final project for my sound design course... six separate renditions of the same minute's worth of dialogue. 

My project was inspired by my dear friend Matt Madden's 2005 comic "99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises In Style" and before that Raymond Queneau's 1947 book "Exercices de Style". Check them out!!!

The dialogue is a mash-up of multiple, random eavesdropped conversation fragments overheard while making my way around NYC. So no... it is NOT necessarily a linear narrative!!! (Disclaimer: I am still editing several sections, so this is a work-in-progress)

Thanks to everyone for all the help!!!!!

So you can follow the bouncing ball:

- Oh. You.
- Yeah.
- I’ll take it that you’re not real hot on this.
- It’s just sand and a coral seahorse sticker.
- I was like “I’ve got nothing to lose, so…”
- It’s too loud. It’s too colorful.
- But it means so much to me.
- Wait, did you see that?
- See what?
- Oh my god, oh my god. I can prove it. It's really happening.
- You’re lying, right?
- You know, can you please just be quiet?
- Why can't I....why. Why? Why can't I bring it up?
- Because you would lose that argument.
- Apparently, I cannot share my opinion without being looked down upon.
- I just pull the trigger when they tell me to.
- I’m outta here.
- Well, this isn’t about you. I make the toys man! 

Exercises in Style (as a radio drama)

for the Disquiet Junto #4 
using stems donated by http://soundcloud.com/mapmap -- thanks!

http://mapmap.ch/
http://www.tenchrec.com/TCH05.html
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

As per the updated Junto FAQ, i include this statement on compositional approach
	My capacity for enjoying ambient mixes has been severely harmed by the three Juntos to date, which have been chock full of depressingly good ambiance to the tune of several hours' worth, so the only a priori goal i set myself in attacking this one was that it be hard, loud and dirty.
	no, wait. fast, hard and dirty.
	
	but then i fell in love with this loop i made (completely by hand in audacity! no SuperCollider!) by streching all the samples to the same length, condensing the result to 6.6 seconds (i don't know why anymore), appending a reverse copy, and downpitching an octave.
	So the return to my heavy metal days will have to wait for a future Junto.
	
	
	


Nearly There (Disquiet0004-mfischer nearly n4tural condensed milk Remix)

My track submission for disquiet #14.

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

"Timelapse" - [disquiet0014-oumupo]

This is a track for the Disquiet Junto. 

All sounds, samples, beats and rhythms were cutup and programmed by hand. Full details below.

The first minute is a straightforward sonic re-telling of the comic strip mentioned below, and the rest of the track is a kind of journey into the mind of the character in the comic strip, before, during and after he opens the fridge.

If that sounds confusing, read on to make some sense of it...

The assignment for this week was as follows:

"You will re-tell a very short and simple story utilizing sound. It will take the form of a single audio file uploaded to your Soundcloud account. You will construct this track in any manner you choose: with field recordings, music, effects, dialog, or a mix thereof. The story you will be re-telling is this single-page comic strip by Matt Madden:

http://www.artbabe.com/exercises/images/exercises/01-template.gif

"(Matt Madden's single-page comic is the template for a book he created titled 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. In the book, Madden told that same story 99 different ways, each in a different comic-book style.)

"In the process of re-telling the story through sound, you may interpret it in any way you choose. You can do it as straight narrative, or do an abstract rendition, or retell it from another point of view, or contribute a score as if it were a movie, or a record series of foley cues. The choice is yours."

--

I decided to create, as close as possible, a sonic version of the comic strip, and then to adapt and morph the sounds into something musical, as a way of exploring the sounds and the comic strip itself (along with some of its 99 variations).

I already had a few recent field recordings that could be used - contact mic recordings of door handles, a wooden bed, and a chair being scraped. I recorded a few more pieces with contact mics: my fridge door opening and closing, bottles in the fridge, and my laptop being turned on and off, as well as some typing with the keys. I also recorded my two daughters drawing, using the onboard mic on my Zoom H4n. I recorded the sound of their pencils and pens fairly closely.

However, these recordings were not enough, so I also used elements from all of the following samples on Freesound:

Shoe Slide and Scuffle.aif by ftpalad -- http://www.freesound.org/people/ftpalad/sounds/119931/
shuffling_in_tennis_shoes_on_carpet.wav by daboy291 -- http://www.freesound.org/people/daboy291/sounds/138063/
watch_alarm.aif by Corsica_S -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Corsica_S/sounds/18632/
Tschenuhr.mp3 by Bidone -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Bidone/sounds/66376/
Uhr.wav by Bidone -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Bidone/sounds/65796/
Geology Pinecone and Bars.wav by Razzvio -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Razzvio/sounds/78995/
HorrorStaircase.wav by treyc -- http://www.freesound.org/people/treyc/sounds/123915/
congélateur craquements.wav by darkunst -- http://www.freesound.org/people/darkunst/sounds/84350/
8_fridge_eggbox.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8888/
11_fridge_margtub_3.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8856/
3_fridge_search.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8883/
fridge01.wav by bigD -- http://www.freesound.org/people/bigD/sounds/49540/
4_fridge_beer.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8884/
fridge_back.wav by Cambra -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Cambra/sounds/102690/
1_fridge_open.mp3 by harri -- http://www.freesound.org/people/harri/sounds/8865/
opening_fridge.aiff by KlankOntwerp -- http://www.freesound.org/people/KlankOntwerp/sounds/106489/
FridgeHum.wav by timdrussell -- http://www.freesound.org/people/timdrussell/sounds/51836/
old fridge.wav by Marec -- http://www.freesound.org/people/Marec/sounds/22683/
opening_fridge_door.wav by tschapajew -- http://www.freesound.org/people/tschapajew/sounds/103544/
generator_room.wav by j1987 -- http://www.freesound.org/people/j1987/sounds/73025/
R09_0005B.wav by andysm -- http://www.freesound.org/people/andysm/sounds/76580/
fridge open and close with hum.WAV by uwesoundboiz -- http://www.freesound.org/people/uwesoundboiz/sounds/60393/
refrigerator01.wav by fonogeno -- http://www.freesound.org/people/fonogeno/sounds/17638/


No, really, I actually used something from ALL of the above sounds. I downloaded a few more that I ended up not using...

I then recorded myself speaking the text from the comic strip. 

I also liked two of the other pages that are viewable on the website:
http://www.artbabe.com/exercises/images/exercise/85-difftext.gif
http://www.artbabe.com/exercises/images/exercises/20-thirtypanels.gif

So I also recorded the dialogue from the first one (difftext.gif), and was inspired by elements of the second one (thirtypanels.gif).

I cut up all the samples in Audacity, and passed the vocals to a Roland SP555 sampler, and the foley-type noises to a Korg Electribe SX1. I modified my voice using the effects on the SP555, and resampled the vocal snippets on the Electribe. 

On the Electribe, I arranged all the sounds into a one minute direct interpretation of the comic strip, and then followed that with a kind of percussive meltdown of all the noises and sounds.

Once the track was assembled, I played it back in full, twice, through a Korg KP3 Kaoss pad, using a 'tape delay' effect, which I played live. I recorded a 'dry' track direct from the Electribe, and combined the 3 tracks in Ardour (digital audio workstation).

Ugh. Then I wrote all this up for reference and went to bed. Probably spent too much time on this - I reckon it took up a full day from beginning to end (about 20 hours). AND it wasn't what I intended to do - I wanted a much slower piece that evolved more over time. Might re-work it one day, in some fashion...

The image for this track I adapted in GIMP from Matt Madden's original image, as linked to above. The morphed thumbs in the middle remind me, happily, of a Foetus (JG Thirlwell) album cover.

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

Oumupo [disquiet0014-oumupo]

My interpretation of Matt's work is one of the juxtoposition of the sense of time being both escaped and in escapement. 

By not using my own field recordings, I feel like a bit of a cheat with this week's Junto. Using Freesound.org was the only way I was going to be able to participate.
My trusty ZoomH4n was not to hand :(

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:

http://mattmadden.com/
http://exercisesinstyle.com/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

Samples used...

http://www.freesound.org/people/WIM/sounds/18037/
http://www.freesound.org/people/digifishmusic/sounds/32937/
http://www.freesound.org/people/acclivity/sounds/30608/
http://www.freesound.org/people/andriala/sounds/16651/
http://www.freesound.org/people/fabe/sounds/3128/
http://www.freesound.org/people/Tomlija/sounds/75372/
http://www.freesound.org/people/avventura2046/sounds/147387/
http://www.freesound.org/people/alp1254/sounds/52622/

Thanks to the providers of the above recordings and snippets.


escapement-disquiet0014-oumupo

Disquiet Junto 0014: Sonic Narrative
 

Subject: This project, the 14th in the weekly Disquiet Junto series, is about sonic narrative. 
 

Instructions: You will re-tell a very short and simple story -- an anecdote really, an everyday slice of life -- utilizing sound. It will take the form of a single audio file uploaded to your Soundcloud account. You will construct this track in any manner you choose: with field recordings, music, effects, dialog, or a mix thereof. The story you will be re-telling is this single-page comic strip by Matt Madden:
 

http://goo.gl/6P7eL 
 

In the process of re-telling the story through sound, you may interpret it in any way you choose. You can do it as straight narrative, or do an abstract rendition, or retell it from another point of view, or contribute a score as if it were a movie, or a record series of foley cues. The choice is yours.
 

Background: Matt Madden's single-page comic is the template for a book he created titled 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style. In the book, Madden told that same story 99 different ways, each in a different comic-book style. For example, he told it as a superhero comic, he told it as a manga, he told it as experienced from upstairs, and he told it as if it were overheard at a bar. Madden did this in homage to the French writer Raymond Queneau's own Exercises in Style, which is a key text of the literary movement known as Oulipo. Oulipo approaches the act of writing with intentional constraints, and the movement's approach to creativity was a strong influence on the development of the Disquiet Junto. Oubapo is the name of the comics version of Oulipo. What we're up to is the musical version: Oumupo
 

Length: Please keep your piece to between two and seven minutes in length.
 

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term "disquiet0014-oumupo” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
 

Download: As always, you don’t have to set your track for download, but it would be preferable.
 

Linking: When you post your track, please include this information:
 

More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at: 
 

http://mattmadden.com/
 
http://exercisesinstyle.com/
 

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info

what the hell was i looking for anyway [disquiet0014-oumupo]

My first contribution to the Disquiet project, all done in one single day (busy Bank Holiday weekend).

Maybe a bit too repetetive. Should have given myself more time, but there we go.

Lazy Day (disquiet0014-oumupo)

This is something I created for the latest Disquiet Junto project. The assignment involves creating a sonic narrative for a comic created by Matt Madden. We had a lot of freedom to do whatever we wanted – straight narrative or abstract rendition.
 
The piece 1:15 am is constructed of a coil recording of my laptop, drones and tones, and a field recording of my refridgerator at the end. I also used the mac speech feature to record the dialog, but ended up granulating and delaying the sound, which you will hear midway through. My goal was to express the strange feeling of 1:15 am, especially when you’ve lost track of time.
 
More on Matt Madden and his book 99 Ways to Tell a Story at:
http://mattmadden.com
http://exercisesinstyle.com
 
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

1:15 am [disquiet0014-oumupo]

http://soundcloud.com/yuko-parris vs. http://soundcloud.com/all-n4tural

fixed rhythmic syllables applied to moving sets of sounds



turntable sounds from http://soundcloud.com/all-n4tural/random-coil-all-n4tural-my // http://soundcloud.com/random-coil/all-n4tural-random-coil-i-don

yuko n4tural: haikus

&rarr; <a href=http://echolab.de>echolab</a> & all n4tural OSC-based videocousmatic livecoding (quartz composer & supercollider), v0.0002

please see video, it's at least half of the fun: http://vimeo.com/54617039 

for Disquiet Junto #48: Fraternité, Dérivé (disquiet.com/2012/11/29/disquiet0048-libertederive )


sources used:
“Unloop Hullaballoo” off The Fleet’s Lit Up by Alex Charles and Richard Sanderson
http://threelegsduck.bandcamp.com/album/the-fleets-lit-up 
“Etude” off Emosphere by !Kung
http://threelegsduck.bandcamp.com/album/emosphere 
“04:54AM” off Four AM at Dusk Jérôme Poirier
http://threelegsduck.bandcamp.com/album/four-am-at-dusk

echolab & all n4tural [disquiet0048-libertederive]

for Disquiet Junto Project 0050: -…….–.-..-…-


"Junto till you drop"

&rarr; (http://morsecode.scphillips.com/jtranslator.html) (thanks!)

&rArr; ".--- ..- -. - --- / - .. .-.. .-.. / -.-- --- ..- / -.. .-. --- .--."

&rarr; <pre>(
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;~morsedurs = { |morsestring|
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;var durs;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;morsestring.do{|x| 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;durs = durs.add(switch (x.asString, 
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;".", {1/16},
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"-", {1/8},
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;" ", {1/4},
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"/", {1/4}, {} ));
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;};
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;durs;
&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;};
)</pre>

&rArr; [ 1/16, 1/8, 1/8, 1/8, 1/4, 1/16, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/4, 1/8, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8, 1/8, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/8, 1/4, 1/16, 1/16, 1/4, 1/16, 1/8, 1/16, 1/16, 1/4, 1/16, 1/8, 1/16, 1/16, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/8, 1/8, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8, 1/8, 1/4, 1/16, 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/8, 1/16, 1/16, 1/4, 1/16, 1/8, 1/16, 1/4, 1/8, 1/8, 1/8, 1/4, 1/16, 1/8, 1/8, 1/16 ]

Those are my beats (for aesthetic reasons i ended up adding a \stretch of 2, so everything's twice as long; bar length 2 * 9.8125 seconds).

There are two voices playing these beats:

↻ turntable sounds recorded with http://soundcloud.com/random-coil (for <a href=http://disquiet.com/2012/08/16/disquiet0033-turntable>Junto # 33 & 1/3</a>) (http://soundcloud.com/all-n4tural/random-coil-all-n4tural-my // http://soundcloud.com/random-coil/all-n4tural-random-coil-i-don )

↻ http://soundcloud.com/ecut/aeolian-hang-of-ecut-free -- impossible to count the countless hours of fun this recording has provided me. thanks, http://soundcloud.com/ecut !


Disquiet Junto Project 0050: -…….–.-..-…-
This week’s project explores Morse Code for its rhythmic content. The instructions are as follows: Select a word or phrase. Encode that word or phrase by the Morse method. Record a rhythmic foundation in which the dash is represented by a long beat and the dot by a brief one. Use that rhythmic foundation as a loop for the length of your track, at the speed you desire — speed can vary over the length of the recording. Record accompanying drone/melodic material that takes the underlying rhythm as its compositional foundation.

More on this 50th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2012/12/13/disquiet0050-morsebeat 

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

junto till you drop [disquiet0050-morsebeat]

so i have this mindboggling toothache -- funny story, last time i had one was exactly one year ago, same place, same people, same christmas eve -- and i'm whiling the night away and @Troente sends over this http://soundcloud.com/troente/reutels-na-kerstmis

So this is me howling at the moon mother of godawful why do i need to suffer this are we not in the 21st century psalm 69.



Trönte & all n4tural: Reutels en Keulen na Kerstmis (hymnal)

for @Disquiet Junto Project 0052: Bump Foot CC 

i used the first 20 seconds of all three, because it didn't seem fair to the Bongo otherwise. 

thanks to Bump Foot label and the artists for an enjoyable sunday afternoon and series of mistakes and misunderstandings between brain, fingers and supercollider that led here.

1. The first 20 seconds of "Bongo" off the Aguas Tonicas album Los Desposeídos: http://archive.org/download/foot212/foot212_09-aguas_tonicas-bongo.mp3 
2. "Broken Robots" off the Gridline album Red Music: http://archive.org/download/foot211/foot211_03-gridline-broken_robots.mp3 
3. "The Cat in the Ocean" off the Pics Frunk album Low Voltage: http://archive.org/download/foot206/foot206_01-pics_frunk-the_cat_in_the_ocean.mp3 

This Disquiet Junto project was done as a celebration of the efforts of the Bump Foot netlabel, and to support its employment of licenses that allow for derivative works. These Junto netlabel remix projects are intended to promote reworking as itself a means of music distribution. This track is comprised of three pieces of music, all originally released on Bump Foot: "Bongo" off the Aguas Tonicas album titled Los Desposeídos, "Broken Robots" off the Gridline album titled Red Music, and "The Cat in the Ocean" off the Pics Frunk album titled Low Voltage. More on the Bump Foot netlabel, and the original versions of these tracks, at http://www.bumpfoot.net 

More on this 52nd Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2012/12/27/disquiet0052-bumpcc 

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info 


_____________________________
pic: http://www.bumpfoot.net

Broken Bongo Ocean [disquiet0052-bumpcc]

i like http://soundcloud.com/groups/word-music and http://soundcloud.com/groups/ill-field recordings
_________________________________

headphone music alert!
a financial failure to date, i rarely listen to my tracks via normal loudspeakers. Please enjoy them via headphones. (Accounts of pleasant extra-headphone affairs graciously received.)
_________________________________

all is explained:
<a href="http://disquiet.com/2011/04/12/chopped-off-the-think-all-n4tural">The Self-Cutting (Up) MP3</a>
<a href="http://disquiet.com/2011/07/01/all-n4tural-beyond-the-ken">SPLENDIDLY ANEMIC FUNK</a>
<a href="http://disquiet.com/2011/12/15/all-n4tural-helpless">REVEALING THE GLITCH IN VOICE</a>
<a href="http://disquiet.com/2012/06/20/rawore-all-cousmatic">UNDER THE BRIDGE, REVISITED</a>
_________________________________

51 anonymous downloads &minus; no plays &minus; from Senegal today. Is there a black market for all n4tural tapes?
_________________________________

newer! 
<a href="http://flamingpines.com/releases.htm">Rivers Home: the final five</a>
a <a href="http://soundcloud.com/flaming-pines">Flaming Pines</a> series

with smashing artwork
worth the price alone.
Support hyper-independent labels!

a taste: 
http://soundcloud.com/flaming-pines/sets/rivers-home-final-five 
_________________________________

new! <a href="http://flamingpines.com/releases.htm">Burning Palms</a>. a <a href="http://soundcloud.com/flaming-pines">Flaming Pines</a> compilation [confusing, huh!]
Now here, too: <a href="http://flamingpines.bandcamp.com/album/burning-palms">Burning Palms</a>
_________________________________

&equiv; <a href=https://donate.greenpeace.org/hpp/pay.shtml>https://donate.greenpeace.org</a>
&equiv; http://www.amnesty.org/en/donate 
&equiv; https://supporters.eff.org 
__________________________________

thanks for the kind comments, kemosabes!
_________________________________