Disquiet Junto Project 0627: Just Ice Society
The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.

Welcome to a new year of Disquiet Junto communal music projects. This week’s project is as follows. It’s the same project we’ve begun each year with since the very first Junto project, way back in January 2012. The project is, per tradition, just this one step:

Step 1: Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

It’s great if you can record your own ice sounds, but if you want some help, the always awesome Jason (Bassling) Richardson has provided some source audio:

WAV:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/e8qpnf0i1r2xhw1/bassling_-_pindari_glasses.wav/file

MOV:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/swq09kq409qhecg/bassling_-_pindari_glasses.mov/file

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single-sentence assignment — “Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it” — as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series back on the first Thursday of January 2012. Revisiting it at the start of each January ever since has provided a fitting way to begin the new year. By now, it qualifies as a tradition. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it’s helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a regular if not weekly habit. It can be beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

. . .

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 8, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 4, 2024.

. . .

More on this 627th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Ice Society — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at: https://disquiet.com/0627/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

Disquiet Junto Project 0627: Just Ice Society

An Individual Conditional Expectation (ICE) is a type of plot that demonstrates the deviation from a predicted occurrence when some aspect of it changes. Resembling statistical visualizations popularized by Edward Tufte in the 1980’s, ICE plots represent information as a series of lines each representing a separate, unique data point.

Every new year brings a period of reflection, inevitably coupled with an optimistic array of good intentions. One might be compelled to plot these on an ICE or similar chart detailing progress toward a given milestone. For Suss Müsik, the 2024 plan includes critical objectives like “be nice, mostly” and “try to avoid hospitals.” The bar is admittedly set low around here.

For this recurrent Junto project (one of Suss Müsik’s favorites), the sound of ice in a glass was sampled and run through a sort of handmade grain synth. This weird rhythm makes its appearance later in the piece, following an organ prelude accompanied by an arpeggiated bell/harp pattern. The voices were digitally stretched to resemble nothing more than long breaths, perhaps metaphorically representing the deep exhale one emits after a challenging year.

The piece is titled 2101.06986, in tribute to the filename of a 2021 paper by three authors describing the use of slice visualization to model machine learning algorithms. (Another Suss Müsik 2024 goal is “title more pieces after numbers,” because why not).

More on this 627th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Ice Society — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at: https://disquiet.com/0627/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

2101.06986 [Disquiet0627]

More on this 627th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Ice Society — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at: https://disquiet.com/0627/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

Thanks to Bassling for the Ice recording see his submission here .. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHp3Igh7JSg

Chilling With Ice (disquiet0627)

A response to Disquiet Junto 0627: Just Ice Society.

The vocals were created using AI-enhanced text-to-speech, using content adapted from WikiHow. 

Recorded and produced at NOSIGNAL Multimedia Labs, The Shambles, Chicago, IL USA.

About Disquiet Junto 0627: https://disquiet.com/2024/01/04/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

Disquiet Junto

Making Ice at Home May Seem Overwhelming (disquiet0627)

More on this 627th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Ice Society — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at: https://disquiet.com/0627/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

Slicing The Ice (disquiet0627)

More on this 627th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Ice Society — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at: https://disquiet.com/0627/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

Just Ice Society

Disquiet Junto | Just Ice Society - disquiet0627

For some reason I wanted to capture the sound of ice melting and rattling, which took a bit of experimenting.  After capturing the audio, I created 16 short samples for my 1010Music Bit box which I then trigged with the Torso T-1. I added a layer of moody ambience from the Terra and subjected everything to the effects lurking in my Zoia.

Disquiet0627

Combining elements of Meccaniche del Sueno´s  contributions to the past two disquiet junto projects plus adding some music I created is how I made this track

Wilfried Hanrath - Mechanics of Dreams, with Meccaniche del Sueno (disquiet0699)

I filled my gap with Alain Badiou ... for a change ... Excerpts from the brilliant European Graduate School video of Badiou lecturing in English on the Subject of Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBxf_hncrN8

More on the 701st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Gap Ear — The Assignment: Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces — at https://disquiet.com/0701/

more halF unusuaL

halF voiD [disquiet0701]

Prompt 701 of the Disquiet Junto had us break a piece of music into segments and fill the gaps with something new,

My contribution is an interpretation of Scelsi's "Quattro Pezzi su una nota sola", its four pieces interrupted by narrative interstitials. Features ebow on slide steel, piano, and organic vocals. The script was adapted from https://www.allmusic.com/composition/mc0002378353.

More on the 701st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Gap Ear — The Assignment: Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces — at https://disquiet.com/0701/

Scelsi's Piano (disquiet0701)

Here's my musical resonance to this week's haiku from excellent @naviar-records.

spring dream… not becoming unhinged
is what’s unbearable

by: Konishi Raizan

https://www.naviarrecords.com/naviarhaiku596-spring-dream/

Spring dream (naviarhaiku596)

Recorded, edited, mixed & mastered on 28 May 2017 & 06 Jun 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA. 

Synths, effects

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, 06 Jun 2015 & 06 Jun 2025, Massapequa, NY, USA 

©2015, 2025 Jim Lemanowicz

---

This original version of “Usually May Disappear” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0701: Gap Ear. The Assignment: Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces.

More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto/

More on the 701st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Gap Ear — The Assignment: Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces — at https://disquiet.com/0701/

Usually May Disappear (disquiet0701)

The Assignment: Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces — at disquiet.com/0701/

Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (1909) 2. Mässig

Musescore Midi file.

Schoenberg: Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11 (Pollini)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeTFxbsVGrI

4 sequencers (Reaktor Rhosyn - Polyrhythmic Sequencer Block)
4 instruments (Piano, Synplant, Derailer, Visco (drum machine)

Reaper FX

Doubles [disquiet0701]

spring dream…
not becoming unhinged
is what’s unbearable
by: Konishi Raizan
https://www.naviarrecords.com/naviarhaiku596-spring-dream/
Komposition1072 Elektronik3a

spring dream… (naviarhaiku596)

I 'misused' Microsoft Word to create this ... see the accompanying visuals at https://youtu.be/6dIBIYtLmE4 ... and hear the 'spinoff' track at https://soundcloud.com/half-unusual/half-akjhdjsdmnn ... I think you'll agree, it's the best use of the word akjhdjsd,mnn to date ... 😁😜 ... Oh, and lead vocals by the Word robot! 🤖

This project is the second of three that are being done by the Disquiet Junto in collaboration with the 2025 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 3 through 7. The festival topic this year is « Kette » — which translates, as the organization explains, to “Chain”: “Chains connect but they also bind. They create relationships but also restrictions. As a gift they look nice, feared when used in vice, and yet they can span bridges across fire and ice.” All three Junto projects will engage with the work of Svetlana Maraš, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2025 festival.

We are working again at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the seventh year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.

More on the 702nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Applications — The Assignment: Make music by misusing a piece of music software — at https://disquiet.com/0702/

visuals (YouTube)

halF wrotE [disquiet0702]

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0702: Chain of Applications. The Assignment: Make music by misusing a piece of music software. This project is the second of three that are being done by the Disquiet Junto in collaboration with the 2025 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 3 through 7.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0702 discussion thread on Lines:

I rarely use the metronome in Ableton Live, even when recording on top of a rhythm. Maybe it’s the lack of experience with it but I find the sound too distracting. For this project, decided to not use the metronome as a rhythm aid but as a sound source to be sampled and manipulated into an experimental composition.

First, recorded the sound with a Panasonic microcassette recorder. I then recorded it back into Ableton Live. The output connection on the recorder was picking up some static and noise but used the recording anyway, From there I used Audio Damage Circa to loop and mangle the audio. Used Imagiro Autochrome, SoundGhost Jumble and ValhallaRoom for effects. The result reminds me of a chorus of frogs, insects and other creatures in some wetland at night.

More on the 702nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Applications — The Assignment: Make music by misusing a piece of music software — at https://disquiet.com/0702/

Metronomia Chorus [disquiet0702]

this one is again for Disquiet project
More on the 702nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Applications — The Assignment: Make music by misusing a piece of music software — at https://disquiet.com/0702/

So i decided to use my browser i use dozens of times a day and for turning what the web has to offer into music i gave SORA (ChatGPT image AI) this prompt: "i want to synthesize image content into a soundscape so i need some original spectral image to  load into visualans"
images i got which i loaded into PaintShop Pro i often use for my photographic work (Olympus E 520 and Nikon D3500) to crop, resize and sharpen softly
These resulting images were loaded in to WarmPlace.ru 'VisualANS' image resynthesis and exported to .WAV i could arrange in Ableton. Some of those sample material was chopped and arranged into beats to top two layers of retroish, oldschool, early era of electronic music sound layers.

Vintage Chain -- Sound Art -- Disquiet0702

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album <i>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</i> was published in 2014. The book was one of the top 5 bestselling titles for the calendar year, and in 2015 was ranked by Pitchfork as one of the "33 best" of the 100-plus books in the 33 1/3 series. It has subsequently been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018)

Since 2012 I have moderated the Disquiet Junto group, which began on SoundCloud. More at disquiet.com/junto. 

I've written for Nature, Pitchfork, The Wire, Down Beat, Boing Boing, NewMusicBox, Red Bull Music Academy, Art Practical, the website of The Atlantic, and many other publications. 

I've exhibited sound art at galleries in Los Angeles (Crewest), Manhattan (apex art), and Dubai (DUTAC), and I had a audio-visual installation at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its 45th anniversary.

And since 1996 I've run the website Disquiet.com about the intersection of sound, art, and technology.

Disquiet0627

Andreas Kitzmann

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