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

A walk through my mother's parking garage; a short elevator ride; snippets of a preacher's sermon; radio static; mysterious voices and glorious feedback from an Enner and a PolyD. This and more found its way into my Polyend Tracker and then into Logic with a few feedback loops using a bus trick I learned from Youtube. Hallelujah!

Disquiet0590

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

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

It was hard to decide on which track from Marcus Fisher to use for this piece as I found them all quite evocative and inspiring. I settled on "worn path," mainly because the size of the file allowed it to be uploaded into the Polyend Tracker, which I then used to augment the original recording, along with some additional samples. I decided to keep things minimal and sparse.

disquiet0600

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

I went with Lily Makes Sounds' "empathy factor" which really captivated me. I did just a bit of layering and then added parts of an interview with Emily Haines from the band Metric, whose voice, whether singing or speaking, I really love. In the background, I added some ambient drones from my trusty Terra and a bit of reverb here and there.

disquiet0620

Some leftover arpeggios, filter sweeps and simple drum beats.

disquiet0621

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

To me drones in daylight suggest, obviously, brightness but perhaps also a kind of straightforward simplicity and purity. For me, the sine wave rendered in the major scale represents these qualities. Hence this track is the result of a one lone sine wave oscillator tuned to the C-major scale. There is of course lots of looping and over looping and the requisite reverb.

disquiet0647

The sound in this case found me. It was loaded into my Qbit Nebulae which when switched on was caught in the  rhythmic loop that ends the track. I cut up portions of the loop using the Qbit and then fed some of that into a sampler for further manipulation. Parts of the sound were also manipulated live into the recorder with a bit of help from some granular effects.

disquiet668

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

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

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

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

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. 

disquiet0696

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

I seem to have difficulties with "groove boxes," with my current one being the Polyend Tracker, which is full of incomplete projects and strange samples. Despite many attempts, I  find it difficult to get into any sort of creative flow, so my sessions tend to be made up of many stops and starts, fiddling with dials and presets and general feelings of disappointment. I had some time to myself and set as my goal the creation of an ambient sound experiment on the Tracker, which arguably is not what it is designed for. The first attempt fizzled away, and I just ended up making myself a gin and tonic instead. The next day, a storm rolled in, so I started again, using some familiar samples in my little arsenal. Perhaps it was the weather, the gloom and rolling thunder, but something clicked and I ended up with a piece that did not drive me to drink. And then the clouds parted, the sun came out and my little track was finished. That seemed to call for a celebratory beer.  

disquiet0703

This was a challenging one. At first, I had no idea of where to source 8-bit sounds from my set up, until I thought that maybe my MicroFreak might have something. Sure enough, there was a preset called “8biit fi,” which is what you hear at the beginning of the track and then throughout , rising and falling. I sent the same preset through the “cinema everything” patch on the Zoia and then again on the “soft focus” patch, again on the Zoia. All tracks were recorded directly onto my Tascam Model 12, which I then mixed “live” as if it was 1980 and my Tascam was the 4 track version with the cassette tape. Since I live in a part of the world with volatile weather patterns, the track  is edgier than what the white fluffy clouds on the video might imply. Here in Ontario clouds can swiftly switch from the benign to menacing and thus bring with them various measures of Stürm und Drang. The very end of the track, which is quite blissful, is, well, I'm not sure. It is something left over, which, if this was 1980, is exactly what would happen to me since I had to reuse my tapes for new material, which often left some residues at the very end. So, I left it, as part of the general spirit of the exercise.

disquiet0704 2

The track starts with a simple sentence of my simple approach to music, eventually layered, then granulated to the point where it took on a medieval vibe. Everything was done in Logic, using Arturia's "Fragments" to manipulate my voice. And panning, of course. Can't get enough of that. 

disquiet0707

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.

Andreas Kitzmann

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