Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before

The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time.

Step 1: Think of something difficult you were trying to accomplish, something music-related that you just couldn’t get to work. It may be a piece of software, or a playing technique, or a part of a musical work-in-progress.

Step 2: Block out time and dedicate that time solely to putting a lot of effort into doing what you previously couldn’t. Even if you don’t solve the problem this time around, you will likely make some form of progress.

Step 3: Record something that reflects, expresses, or otherwise involves the effort you expended in Step 2 above.

Deadline: Monday, June 23, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: at https://disquiet.com/0702/

Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before

Samples:
The Sopranos SE4E2
In Mcdonald's and Dog Shelter by Burial (2007)

Street Walk

Disquiet Junto Project 0613: Test Drive
The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do.

A few weeks ago, a friend was having really bad pneumothorax problems and sent me a short video on how to use something called a triple-ball breath-training device. Despite the negative circumstances (and the friend is doing better now), I liked the sound of the video clip (a single breath followed by three clicks and a release) tremendously and have been trying to use the sample for weeks. I've certainly got a handful of unfinished tracks with that sample .... but none finished yet. Today I started fresh and loaded the sample into ye good ol Fieldscaper - and liked the result. I did some post-processing on the two instances of the sample in Reaper. The track is now completely based on the sound of the mentioned sample. Have fun with it.

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More on this 613th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Test Drive (The Assignment: The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do), at: https://disquiet.com/0613/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0613-test-drive/

Bandcamp

Triple Ball Breathing Trainer [disquiet0613]

The assignment: Think of something related to making music that you’ve been meaning to finally get around to. I choose to make a song with emphasis on bass frequencies.

More on this 613th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Test Drive (The Assignment: The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do), at: https://disquiet.com/0613/

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-0613-test-drive/

tumult [disquiet0613]

This track was inspired by the Disquiet Junto Project 0613: Do something you’ve been meaning to do!

This prompt gave me the inspiration to finally dive deeper into the Koma Field Kit. In this track a smartphone- and a dictaphone-recording of shopping in the supermarket are routed to speakers fixed to an acoustic guitar. In parallel a solenoid motor fixed to the strings is triggered if a certain gate-level is passed by the volume of the recordings. All these sounds are recorded with a contact microphone fixed to the guitar.
In a second take an improvised piano melody was recorded via this detour of speaker and contact microphone fixed to the acoustic guitar.

More on this 613th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Test Drive (The Assignment: The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do), at: https://disquiet.com/0613/

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

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/ 1

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0613-test-drive/

Poppy Field Kit  (Disquiet0613)

@olxm333
@sslgd (cover by him)
@miragegarcon

mix by olam

xanb0tt0m w/ olam prod. mirage

Original sounds provided by @s3r3n3gr4c3
Samples are all field recordings/conversations

Fiende

Riffing around the sound of Suzuki Swift Sport indicators.
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More on the 670th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Right of Way — The Assignment: Music for turn signals — at https://disquiet.com/0670/

contraindication (disquiet0670)

This is my submission to this week's Disquiet Junto assignment. 

More on the 674th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Cerberus Sample — The Assignment: Make a song not just with but from just one sample — at https://disquiet.com/0674/ 

241129 [disquiet0674]

thank you @ectogenesis the goat forever
#HXE

Somadril ft. ectogenesis

Made for Disquiet Junto 0685 -"Treat a set of sounds like a game of pick up sticks."

More on the 685th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Pick-Me-Up — The Assignment: Treat a set of sounds like a game of pick up sticks — at https://disquiet.com/0685/

STICKSandSTONES(disquiet0685)

Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before

This one’s been sitting on my hard drive for 16 months. It came from a session with my friend and collaborator Bobby Rangell — we had recorded some flutes for a job, then took advantage of being in the studio to jam a bit: bass and flute, sometimes with a drum machine click.
It was a super productive day. I later revisited and shared many of those flute-based tracks… but this one?
Like the others, it was just two tracks: mono flute and stereo bass, with a 2-bar drum machine loop. But I made a patching mistake that day — the bass came out super thin and low, and mixed weirdly with Bobby’s long reverb. So I just… deleted my bass track. Why? No idea.
Months later, I went back to it — and found only Bobby’s flute and a 3-note Roland 707 kick pattern. No idea what I originally played. Worse: Bobby’s blowing was super abstract. I couldn’t even figure out the key. Still can’t.
Then I got Marc’s email this morning and thought, why not try something different?
Instead of trying to remember what we did, I improvised on top of Bobby and the 707 kick playing electric bass, just following my own ideas and added some drum loops that weren’t there when we played, then I played a Fender Rhodes and some synth textures following my new bass, trying to structure what was probably and abstract free impro.
instead of trying to figure out what key were we playing in (I recall in all our impros we just kept one steady key) I introduced chord changes, played around with modulations, and laid down harmonies that don’t necessarily match what Bobby was playing. So now you hear his flute moving freely over harmonies that were never there in the original — sometimes clashing, sometimes strangely aligning. I liked the tension it created.
I spent a full day in the studio doing this. Honestly, I don’t think it’s done, but I’m leaving it here for now.
Side note: if anyone asks “what’s the point of the Junto challenges?” — this is it.
Sure, I could have called Bobby back and spent the same 8 hours creating something much more polished and coherent from scratch. But we never would have ended up with something like this. And without this challenge, I never would’ve bothered digging into a broken, abandoned track like this.


Performed by Daniel DIaz (June 2025) and Bobby Rangell (March 2024)
Photo by DD, Carilo, Argentina. 2025

That’s How You Got Killed Before (disquiet0703)

More on the 703rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, That’s How You Got Killed Before — The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time — at https://disquiet.com/0703/

disquiet0703 - Environmentally-Sustainable Victorian Home

This week's Disquiet Junto prompt challenged us to revisit something musical—a piece of software, an idea, a technique—that we couldn't get to work in the past, and to dedicate time to improving it, capturing the result in music.

I decided to go with my Sequential Prophet-6 analog synth. I had inherited it from an ex who moved out of the country, and for complicated reasons just never really connected with it as an instrument. Intellectually, I knew that it was a fantastic synth, but I didn't know how to make it mine, if that makes sense. I couldn't speak through it. What's worse, the last time I had fired it up, it exhibited a rare but not unknown bug where every sixth note would be extremely loud, rendering it unplayable.

But today I decided to try again, to give it a second chance. I set aside time to just play around with it, experimenting with patches and tweaking parameters. I realized that the volume bug wasn't happening, the synth was being cooperative. Eventually I landed on a set of ideas that I think work well together. Most importantly, I feel like I can hear my voice in this piece, through an instrument that I couldn't do that with before. I'm even playing the lead synth like I do an ebow guitar. 

What a great prompt and a great experience.

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More on the 703rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, That’s How You Got Killed Before — The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time — at https://disquiet.com/0703/

I Don't Trust This Prophet (disquiet0703)

I always keep a quantity of unfinished, discarded or 'dead' material which I attempt to resurrect from time to time. In this case, after considering and experimenting with various possibilities, I eventually combined two contrasting electronic sequences (drone and random noise), slowed them down by a quarter and added a touch of delay, etc.

More on the 703rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, That’s How You Got Killed Before — The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time — at https://disquiet.com/0703/

Quarter-Speed Resurrection (disquiet0703)

too long between waters - disquiet0703

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

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.

disquiet0703

Andreas Kitzmann

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