My take on this week’s topic is based on the idea of an evolving eco system and how individual organisms contribute to their environment.

In my case, the environment is my small studio in the attic of my house and the individual organisms are the various synths, modular and otherwise, that are all connected to one another in some form. More specifically, my method is as follows:

1) I have selected a single tone or very simple sonic element that I think best represents the character of a particular synth, module or a self contained patch;
2) Each of these tones or sonic elements are triggered and fed into a chaotic looper, in my case the Soma Cosmos in combination with “Airport Looper” created for the Zoia, which are fed back into each other via a matrix mixer;
3) I wait to hear what happens;
4) The aim is to resist triggering further tones and sonic elements but since evolution is not a predictable or rule based process, I might do so. After all, I am also part of this eco system, and as such, cannot keep silent.

Instruments used: Buchla Easel Command, 1010 Music Synthbox, Arp 2600, Arturia Drumbrute, Microfreak, Microbrute 2s, Lyra-8 and the Inner.

Disquiet0580

I find it hard to break out of drone mold, especially given the excellent drone due created by @ray_cobley and dantante. So I added some more, using the Easel and the Cosmos set on granular.

disquiet0593

This was a fun one. As it was a cloudy day, I was moodier than usual. So I opted for some dark and melancholic sounds from the Lyra, Buchla Easel and a bit of brightness from the Wing Pinger. The Easel and Wing Pinger where fead into a decaying tape loop effect. For the recording I set up my phone in another room, a zoom recorder in the studio, my laptop (recording directly into Logic) and direct to my Tascam recorder. I then played back part of the result and recorded with a really crappy dictaphone from the previous century and then played that back into another channel on Logic through my laptops internal microphone. Aside from minimal panning, I did not add any effects and decided to keep the squeaks and rummaging noises as I went from place to place to turn on the various recorders.

disquiet0598

I recently got my hands on the Terra from Soma and, well, I haven't been able to keep my hands off of it. So I decided to use it for this challenge employing the arp mode with the timing regulated by an external clock. There are three, roughly 1 minute segments to this track. The first runs the Terra through an Eno style airport looper, with 4 intersecting loops. The second does the same, with a little help from the granular mode on the Cosmos. The third Terra arp is just run through the Cosmos delay mode. The first track uses an arpeggio with about 5 notes, the second about 3 and the last only 1, with the "sun" knob on the Terra creating some tonal variation. Hopefully at least some of this will be useable!

disquiet0609

I decided to use the pieces by Forelight, Fake Genius and RadMusicLab which I loaded into my 1010Music Bitbox. After slowing them all down to half speed and subjecting them to some granularity I basically did a couple of improv sessions, triggering portions of the three samples using the touch interface of the 1010 and then adding some melancholic notes from the Terra, along with a bit of electric shocks from the Landscape HC-TT.

disquiet0610

Given all that is going on in the world at the moment, I thought "anxiety" would be a good word to choose for the first half of the track. Of the many words conveying the same thing, I chose "botheration," mainly because I liked the sound of it, but also because it also captures the annoying aspects of our current time. So, "botheration" takes over at about the half way mark. As for process, I began with a nervous and somewhat chaotic drum sequence and then augmented that with a  few mournful strums from the Terra and then fired up my Landscape Stereofield for a bit of noise. Halfway through the drum beats give way to some darkness, again thanks to the Terra and ends with a flourish of pure noise.

disquiet0616

Some leftover arpeggios, filter sweeps and simple drum beats.

disquiet0621

disquiet0625

I decided to make this a slow dance of tones, working mainly with the timbre on the Buchla Easel, which provided one of the tones and the modulation "blobs" on the Terra, which provided the other. Both were tuned to the same frequency. I used Logic "Space Designer" to modulate a bit of movement but aside from the internal reverbs in both the Buchla Easel and Terra, I resisted the urge to thrown even more effects at the final mix. So, that's it. A couple of tones dancing slowly with one another, moving up to a climax and then fading away.

Disquiet0631

So many choices and such great pieces! My finally decided on alanblip's "leftydrone" which I thought would go well with a conversation that I recorded from a shortwave radio. I removed the static and duplicated a few key phrases, but otherwise left it as is, aside from a bit of reverb and a few contributions from Meng Qi's beguiling Wing Pinger.

Disquiet0637

I added a bit of static to CoralineAda’s and Leon Clowes’ mezmerizing duo as an attempt to heighten the tension of the “missed connection” implied by the vocal sample. The static was created with the Landscape Stereofield and tamed somewhat by one of Hainbach’s presets for the Zoia.

Disquiet0638.6

disquiet0663

I'm fortunate to have my own little forest in the wilds of Georgian Bay Ontario where life in any form is always a struggle, whether as a result of invasive species, weather, fire, nature or the stupidity of humans. So what would my forest like to listen to? I suspect something utterly different from what usually emerges from the boom boxes in cottage country. So no reggae, EDM or 70s throwbacks. I opted for a mix of sounds - randomness from the Buchla and Wing Pinger, with a bit of texture from Arturia's versions of the CS-80 and Synthi to create sonic representations of what a forest might hear - insects, notably the pollinating kind, the ever present drone of life itself, the punctuations of the disruptions caused by weather, large animals and the things that go bump in the deep night. The melancholic line that rises and eventually ends the track reflects the mood that my little forest is likely in at the moment. Winter is coming, pine beetles have left their mark and there has not been enough rain. 

disquiet669

As per the instructions, the track starts and ends with the sound of a turn signal, which is then processed, cut up and re-arranged and then over ruled by a funky beat. Except the beat is interrupted by the occasional failed connection, to remind me of the dodgy sound systems I had in my car when I was young. And then the beat stops, the turn signal returns, first in bits and then steady and strong. I turn into my driveway, and I am home.

disquiet270

Nothing like a good drone to pass a winter's day. My go to instruments for droning are the Arp 2600 and the Buchla Easel, both of which were tuned to the same pitch. I let them drone on, playing with the resonance, timbre and filter controls as time went by. A third channel was recorded with the two routed through the Cosmos and the "cinema everything" patch on the Zoia. Once in Logic, further effects were added, notably Arturia's Motion and Fragments, along with a lot of panning and faders going up and down. The result is, well a drone, best heard on headphones while under a blanket. 

disquiet0675

A slow drone with a hint of melody coming through, using only the Terra. I layered two versions of this in Logic, subjecting each of the tracks to different effects and panning - mainly reverb based effects and Arturia's Motion. There is a bit of noise in the mix. At first I struggled to isolate it but then grew to like how it added a bit of grit and also triggered interesting pops and sparkles in the Zoia patch I was using in the initial mix. So, I'm going to consider it an aesthetic choice for now.

disquiet0676

An ice cube dropped into a glass - that is the starting point. Aside from the melancholic drone via a CS-80 emulation, all the sounds are derived from the original sample, with the processing being done via Arturia's Fragments and Motions plug ins. 

disquiet0679

I imagined a walk in the woods, which starts out blissfully enough and then ends in darkness and a tangle of aggressive branches and unseen monsters. Hence the cheery sequence, all in C major, that starts off the track which then begins to break down, first with a bit of dissonance before being completely taken over by a low drone that takes the hapless walker into the dark lodge of their dreams. All this was done in Logic, using Arturia's "mallets" plug in and granular effects.

disquiet0681

How to unring a bell? I had a hard time with this one and not enough time to properly think it through. I eventually came up with the idea that an un rung bell would be a drone where the initial attack of the clapper is removed, leaving only an endless release of a ring that never was. The track is the result of only one sample - a ring of a single church bell - which is fragmented and granulated, with only a hint of its original sound located somewhere within.

disquiet682

The track starts off with simulated bird sounds, courtesy of the Wing Pinger. Gradually, a C+ chord emerges, which is then joined by a bouncy sequence and eventually a rather standard techno beat, which will hopefully get one out of bed and onto the sidewalk for a good morning run. 

disquiet0684

I took the pickup sticks task literally. The first step was to select 20 previous disquiet submissions at random and throw the collected pile into Logic. I then chopped up the tracks, again at random, before gradually removing them, one by one, stick by stick, until only one remnant was left. There was no additional processing, other than a bit of reverb at the end to soften the cut of the final “stick” removal.

disquiet0685

The “catch your breath” project got me thinking. All living things on this planet breathe, at least in one form or another, with some of us breathing in what others breathe out and vice versa. In that regard breathing is a kind of planetary feedback loop, constantly inhaling and exhaling. So, that inspired the first step in setting up my sonic palette: patching my “Barp 2500” to establish a slow oscillation. The output was fed into a tape looper effect on the Zoia which was then sent into the Cosmos, which were routed via a patch pay so that they fed back into each other. The combined audio was sent to my mixer, where additional feedback was added via the aux sends. After importing this into Logic, motion effects were used to create various forms of spatial movement. The final touch involved manually adding fade in and outs which became further and further apart and, eventually falling into silence when the breathing finally stops.

disquiet0687

The “Quiet Zone” sign is one that I regularly see and adhere to during my commute into work, which is displayed on the upper decks of the “Go Train” that heads into Toronto. While most of the passengers comply with the request to keep their sonic level at a minimum, there are always those who seem blissfully ignorant. This was the case on my latest trip into town, where a young woman sat behind me and promptly started to engage in a cheerful and lively phone conversation for the entirety of the trip. I resisted the urge to scold her and instead got out my phone and hit record. The resultant recording was far too noisy to use in its original form, so I subjected it to various forms of granular synthesis in an attempt to mimic my own audio experience during my commute. This usually consists of an ambient soundscape sent to my headphones, which never seems to completely obscure the rumble of the train, the sound of the announcements, the rhythmic click clack of the tracks and the noises made by passengers ignoring the “quiet zone” message - all of which are rendered in a stylized form in this track. Everything you hear is derived from the four minute recording made during my trip.

disquiet0688

Again, I took the assignment literally. Two of the supporting elements in my studio are the tables burdened with gear and my chair. One set of sounds is the result of me tapping a simple rhythm on the metal legs. The other is the chair rolling back and forth. Once imported into Logic, they were subjected to granular and motion effects, with a glitchy arpeggio added in to add a bit of harmonic interest. 

disquiet0689

This week's task is rather serendipitous in that I am actually engaged in some minor wood working this weekend. I recently built a small Buchla 100 system (and its case), consisting of what is shown in the image and the as yet unhoused (and not shown) 114 touch control module, which is what the piece of unstained pine sitting on top of the Buchla is destined for. I selected pine because my woodworking skills are still rather rudimentary so working with higher priced and more difficult lumber makes me nervous. Plus, there is something comforting about pine's ubiquity and approachability. Making a mistake with pine seems excusable. Doing so with walnut or oak less so. That said, I got to thinking about the pine that I picked up at my local lumber shop in terms of the conditions under which it is grown and the vast quantities of trees that are stripped from the land so that people like me can make boxes for their vintage synthesizers. Sonically, I imagined this as a somewhat discordant drone, with peaks and valleys and occasional moments of harmony. The trees grow, mainly in a state or quietude, before they are cut down and processed to the sound of chain saws and saw blades. And then everything goes quiet again as the next crop is planted.  Graphically, I notated this imagined scenario as a series of constant lines, punctuated here and there with peaks, valleys, bright and dark spots, representing in part the knots and impurities in the pine but also the experience of the piece of wood in its transition from tree to commodity. Everything you hear was created on my humble System 100, which was first fed through the Empress Zoia pedal using the "soft focus" effect created by Christopher H.M. Jacques and then further transformed in Logic using "fragments," and "motion" from Arturia, with hints of the unprocessed Buchla emerging here and there. And there was panning. Lots of panning, so headphones are the preferred listening approach.

disquiet0690

I was a bit lazy with this one and also pressed for time. I basically ran the original file through a number of granular plug ins, fading and mixing them against each other and towards the end rendering the mix into an ambient wash. Hints of Ravel remain, moving in and out, here and there....

disquiet0691

I could not find any existing tracks that had a straight 4/4 so instead I created a simple 4 beat sequence on the Buchla 100 I recently built. This occupies the first minute of the track, with little augmentations here and there. After the one minute mark, a 5th beat comes in, again with augmentations here and there by way of the dual attack generator. After a while, the "sleepwalker" patch on the Zoia kicks in, which eventually renders the track into an ambient wash. Throughout , the Space D plug in for Logic is used to add, well, space. And there is my usual trick of panning.... 

junto0694

This one got my head spinning, in a good way. It so happens that this week’s challenge coincided with the arrival of the Ferrous from Landscape FM, which is basically a spinning magnetic disc that can be used to create resonances with iron based materials, such as steel strings. So I took the literal route on that one. Dryers spin. So does the Ferrous. The second step was to imagine what would be cast off and what would be left behind should I send my music through a metaphorical dryer. I decided to focus both on what would be left behind and what would be cast off. First, the heaviest instrument in our household would be left behind, which happens to be a concert grand piano that my partner inherited from her father who used to play jazz standards on it - something that no one else in our household can do, sadly. Also left behind, would be anything that I could fit in my pocket and clutch onto, which happens to be the ferrous. And cast aside — all the other instruments, cables and fluff that clutters most electronic studios. Remaining are only two elements - the grand piano and the Ferrous in my pocket, which together are the sources for what you hear. The sounds were captured with a field record (which I could also cling to), which include fumbling and traffic noises. There is one effect “Fragments”— the only one that I could hang onto. And that’s it. There is something to be said for lint.

disquiet0695

This is ten independent tracks on me noodling on the CS-80 Arturia plug in, channeling my inner Vangelis with various sequences, stabs, ethereal meanderings and occasional periods of dissonance and noise. Initially I just kept adding layers and keeping the volume up for all tracks as I proceeded, which resulted in a might cacophony when I finally got to track ten. For the mix, channels fade in and out throughout with the result being something that is reasonably listenable.  I do love the sound of the CS-80, even in its cloned form. 

Andreas Kitzmann

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