Sometimes techno is all about the anticipation of the beat. So you have the evocative samples, the drone before the kick drum, the sampled female voices just prior to the high hat and so on. In this contribution to the week's Junto challenge I have created a track that is all about the anticipation before the beat. And when the beat finally comes, it is disappointing, disjointed and interrupted. Enough to clear the dance floor. Head to the bar. Or head for the door.

disquiet0582

When I think of surf, two things immediately come to mind - the sound of water lapping the shore and the Beach Boys. So after setting up a simple filter/lfo to simulate the sound of the waves, I hauled out my theremin. My first thought was to try and recreate the "Good Vibrations" theremin solo, but I'm afraid I'm not that skilled. So I ended up with whale sounds, which is good enough and in keeping with the theme. I added a melange of "drippy" sounds from the Wing Pinger and tamed the theremin with the granular setting in the Cosmos. The result is a moody, slightly trippy trip into the depths of the wide open sea....

disquiet0588

This is just a simple ambient solo using the Buchla Music Easel and Christopher H.M Jacques "Sleepwalker" patch for the Zoia. Hopefully it will be of some use to someone for the trio project.

disquiet0591

The most difficult part of this experiment was the task of choosing which composition to partner with. Every track is a gem! I eventually decided on Orbit_f's 7+7+7 double bass piece. I liked the sparseness of it, which I thought would work well with the tools that I had on hand since I'm away from my studio and up at a cottage in the woods. So all I had was a laptop and a phone to use as a microphone. The bird song, random scratches and rustlings and the sounds of passing boats were given a bit of menace with some modulated reverb and then woven into the spaces between and within 7+7+7. I'm not sure of the mix, since I left my headphones at home and had to rely on the little speakers on my laptop.

disquiet0592

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

disquiet0625

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

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

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

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

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

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

disquiet697

As usual, there is an abundance of fantastic pieces to collaborate with. I finally decided on Aaron Hofman's work, because there was something about its slightly off kilter ambience that seemed to suit the later spring rain that is settling in for a few days. I added just a bit of gritty drone, augmented with a bit of reverb to further set the mood. 

disquiet0698

The combination of the melancholic piano riff by Leon Clowes combined with the rising tension from Marco Marongiu made me want to add some equally rising waves of noise to the mix. To do so, I employed the Soma Ether which was "driven" by the magnetic fields created by the Ferrous from Landscape which then went through the Cosmos and Zoia, fed back into each other using the Matrix from Future Sound Systems. The resultant cacophony was then imported into Logic, tamed with granular effects, and then layered beneath the Clowes/Marongui combo. I tried my best to be subtle, so hopefully I did not ruin the combo!

disquiet699

I use Logic, especially with Arturia’s V collection as my go to software synth and recording experience. My first step was to create a pleasant, if rather banal, arrangement with an arpeggiator preset on the CS-80 emulation, accompanied by an ambient wash thanks to Arturia’s “voices” engine. Then I messed with the buses, sending inputs to inputs, outputs to outputs and creating such a horrible feedback loop that I almost blew out my headphones. The resultant cacophony was not really listenable, even if imagine as belonging to the genre of noise music. It was mess of distorted glitches, high pitched wailing and intermittent period of silence when my processor simply decided that it had enough.  To tame the mess, I imported the file into a new Logic session, massaged it vigorously with granular and time stretching effects, with a bit of panning and considerable volume control. The result, I think, can now be listened to without incurring ear damage. 

disquiet0702

This is an experiment with a Buchla 100 system that I recently built. Everything you hear is generated by the Buchla and fed through a spring reverb and then mixed live on a Tascam recorder to emulate the experience of recording directly to tape.

disquiet0711

If there is one thing that I excel at, its a lack of technique. So this is a perfect Disquiet Junto assignment for me. I just received the wonderful Chromaplane from Koma Elektronik, and after watching videos of Passepartout Duo's performances, I tried my hand at playing sequences on the Chromaplane where the errors quickly started to replicate themselves. There are missed beats, missed notes and variations on a theme that don't quite work. But I soldiered on to the end. On top of that mix, I added some ambient meanderings, again with the Chromaplane which were sent through the "Cinema Everything" patch on the Zoia. Both tracks were sent directly to my recorder without any further editing, thereby keeping the errors intact!

disquiet0715

For me, fog conjures up periods of quiet, interrupted by mysterious creaks, drones and transient melodies that appear and the drift away. I used the Instruo Pocket Scion (using my skin and not plants) to trigger midi instruments in Logic. At the forefront is the piano, which I imagined myself plunking away on as the fog obscured the keyboard and my hands. Hence it comes across as hesitant and unsure. 

disquiet0716

I imagine that my ancestors would have played disparate reflections in minor chords on an old piano as they awaited whatever fate would bring them. I happened to be at my cottage, where the previous owner has left an old piano, which I recorded with my phone, and then played back to the onbaord mic on an old Macbook, when was further aged using a "1920s" tape effect in Logic. The resultant track was looped a few times, subject to various effects and then layered behind variosu midi instruments triggered by an Instruo Scion, which I happened to have with me.

disquiet0717

Given the Disquiet theme of aliens, I opted to use the (B)Arp 2500, due to its appearance in Close Encounters. I set up a slowly evolving patch, augmented by various effects and then added some distorted noise courtesy of the Landscape Stereofield. Further effects were applied  within logic Logic. My first instinct was to make a dreamy, spacey track, but I opted for something more dissonant and disconcerting. 

disquiet0718

I found two tracks, each named by the default naming protocol of my recorder. So one file was poetically name "240315_001" and the other, even more evocatively, "241212_0001." The first is a sparse piece using just the wing pinger, with almost as much space as sound. The second is equally restrained, but darker and more properly ambient. I can't recall how I created that track or what instruments were used. The two tracks seem to complement one another with each filling in the empty spaces of the other. Minimal effects were added in Logic - mainly just some reverb with motion algorithms. For fun, I asked Chat GPT to use the two numbers to create a title and image for the track and among the suggestions was "Voltage Bloom," which seems rather fitting. 

disquiet720

The sound of rain in Belgrade Serbia, courtesy of Tomlija at Freesound. Accompanying the rain is a rhythmic beat created on a Buchla 100, with added noise from Soma's Terra. An extra layer was added with me "playing" the shortwave dial on a web based provided. The resultant melange captures, for me at least, the mix of melancholy, nostalgia and slight dread that comes from a good soaking. 

disquiet721

I imagined a couple of musicians, all given the same score, but who decided to not listen to each other and instead interpret things at their own pace. Hence we have one player with a sequence warbling happily along, until the groove is lost and then found, a drummer who can never get past hitting just a few pieces of his kit at random, a noodling pianist who is forever lost in his ambient haze, some dude who just discovered granular synthesis and an unnamed character who wandered in off the street with a Synthi who has no desire to listen to anyone. This is what I imagined, in any case. The track itself was created using just one midi sequence, sent to different instruments with a few effects here and there, mainly panning and reverb. 

disquiet0723

I was having some fun with the "Booga" plug in from Hainbach and Audio Thing and figured that it would serve as a good vehicle for this week's assignment. I created six rhythmic tracks, which took turns being brought entirely to the forefront. With each such instance I inserted a short line from a film. The result is not quite right, but I ran out of time. But it was a fun project.

More on the 725th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rack It — The Assignment: Change the “focus” of a track as it plays — at https://disquiet.com/0725/.

disquiet0725

I started with some noodling on the Omnichord site, playing with different chords and harp sequences, which eventually found themselves into Logic where there were subjected to granular and motion effects which eventually resulted in an ambient wash with occasional harsh undertones. The Latin beat from the Omnichord is left more or less intact, save for some panning and reverb using the "gong amp" plug in.  While the web based Omnichord was fun, it made me long for getting my hands on the real thing. 

disquiet0726

A simple, slow melody, reduced one note at a time as it recycled. In the background is an ambient wash courtesy of my (B)Arp 2500 clone, which never ceases to confound and surprise me. The effects are minimal -- some real, analog,  spring reverb and  the "gong" amp via Hainbach's plug ins, only on the ambient drone in the background. The piano is the "Black Forest" plug in from Arturia. I played with the panning, which sped up as the notes from the piano were extracted. 

disquiet0728

I was not familiar with Hans Kindler so I looked him up and learned about his prolific career and his untimely death, which some believed to be by suicide. Knowing this added a layer to melancholy to my approach which was only augmented by the gloomy winter weather. I started the task by manipulating the sample so that it manifested as an ambient drone. Added on top is the original recording, which emerges as faint whispers throughout the track. I sad little melody on an Emulator II (plug in) was layered on top. And finally, snippets from Kindler’s last interview, shortly before his final concert were inserted. 

disquiet0729

My take on "colour drenching" from a sonic perspective was to limit myself to the sound of one instrument, notably one without a lot of options. The KOMA Chromaplane seemed perfect, given that its sound output is the result of 10 identical oscillators. I moved the mic pickups of the Chromaplane very slowly over its surface, which resulted in gradual shifts in tone. Over top I layered my reading of a list of blue pain colours. Effects were added in Logic, mainly reverb and panning.

Andreas Kitzmann

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