August 2022. A new start on Soundcloud. 
Playing the Ether Waves.

Audio Obscura Is Playing In The Ether Waves

the fall
of memory
leaves

Jim Young [haigo – Oyoguhito] is an old poet writing from his beach hut on the Gower peninsula, Wales, UK.

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

Deadline: 23rd November 2022

haiku by Jim Young https://haikueye.blogspot.com

picture by Annie Spratt https://unsplash.com/@anniespratt
 

TO PARTICIPATE

- Make music in response to the assigned haiku.

- When choosing a title for your piece also include the assignment number, for example “Title of your track (naviarhaiku463)”

To submit your track:

- If you’re a Soundcloud user, upload it on Soundcloud and send me the URL via private message, or tag me in the track.

- If you upload your music on Youtube, Bandcamp or anywhere else, upload your submission and then send me the link by email at marco@naviarrecords.com or contact me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

- If you don’t use any music platform, upload it to this Dropbox folder and I’ll include it in the weekly playlist. If you choose this option, make sure you include your name in the track’s title.

Audio Obscura - The Falling (naviarhaiku463)

A track I originally made in Summer 2020 with North American writer Francisco Cantú.  For the re-recording of this track I kept the lockdown themed Spoken word by Francisco but created a whole new backing music, much more stripped down then the old verion.
Very pleased with how this sounds.  
The original track can be heard on this album. 
https://audioobscura.bandcamp.com/album/love-in-the-time-of-the-anthropocene

--------------------------
Disquiet Junto Project 0579: Memory Serves
The Assignment: Rerecord a piece of music.

Step 1: The goal of this project is to simply perform and record again something you’ve performed and recorded previously. Think about something you’d like to revisit.

Step 2: Now rerecord the piece of music you decided upon in Step 1.

Audio Obscura  - Three Sisters (with Francisco Cantú) [disquiet0579]

It's the half term school holidays in the UK this week, I'm sitting at home with two young kids and I read this email from Naviar for the Haiku challenge as it pops into my inbox.  I love the image this haiku creates. Outside my window at home we have tree branches that are winter bare. I was filming these the other day for another project. 
I had an idea for the music straight away - a 'bare' sort of sound to reflect the image of branches.  I started on this straight away. The kids are happy playing so I progressed and made this in about 2 hours. 

Birds in a bare tree
Dance on windswept branches
Their waiting ballet…

John Hinks, aka FlownBlue, is a prolific and talented composer, and a regular participant in the Haiku challenge. Aside from his solo project, John is also involved in three improvising duos: ‘Windfall Light‘ (with Jim Tetlow), ‘Abstract Blue‘ (with Kevin Buckland) and ‘Light Fragments‘ (with Steve Escott).

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

Deadline: 22nd February 2023

haiku by John Hinks https://soundcloud.com/flownblue

picture by Robbin Huang https://unsplash.com/@ikarishinjigao

Audio Obscura - The Ballet Of Birds On A Windswept Branch (naviarhaiku476)

Disquiet 0581 - this weeks challenge was to download a rhythmic field recording and make it part of a track or incorporate it somehow.

Thanks to Scott Fletcher for having provided the original material. It is used thanks to a Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0). Original track at: https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/helsinki-downspout/

I loaded the field recording into Ableton and put it into a drum rack. I then took all the bits between the beats (hiss and non rhythmic parts) and started to mess about with these, adding filters and effects and also playing them as drum hits - that is how the track opens. 
I them loaded all these hiss parts into a synth and stretched and played them as keys, creating the additional synth sounds with effects changing the sounds somewhat.  After jamming about for 30 / 40 minutes I hit reccord and laid down a fairly basic arrangement. 
I tweaked this slightly, adding a little more effects until I had a nice short experimental track i'm pretty happy with!

More or less the whole track was made with the source sounds but it's debatable if the original sound is recognisable?  However I took the prompot to "to sample and rework the source material" as a guide! 

Disquiet Junto Project 0581: Helsinki Downspout

The Assignment: Use a rhythmic field recording as the foundation for a new track.

Step 1: This is a shared sample project, one in which all the participants will utilize the same provided recording, about a minute and a half long, as the rhythmic element for their own music. Access the track, originally recorded by Scott Fletcher and used with his permission, here:

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/helsinki-downspout

Step 2: Listen to the provided track several times. Think about ways to map its content, perhaps making notations about when certain unique, momentary aspects surface.

Step 3: Record an original piece of music for which the provided music is the underlying rhythm. You might take this quite literally, using the source as it is, resulting in a track that is precisely 1:35 long. Alternately, you might elect to sample and rework the source material. If you go the latter route, make certain that the original sound is, at least at some point in the finished track, recognizable.

Step 4: Because this is a Creative Commons resource, be sure to identify Scott Fletcher as the original recorder of the source material, and include a link to the source track. Identify the license as: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0).

Audio Obscura - Helsinki Downpour [disquiet0581]

Lazing in shadows,
Conceding the drawing room
to moonrays
-------------------

When I thought about this haiku, the 'drawing room' made me think  about the place I make music, my music room which I call the blue room as its painted blue.  But as it happens I'm shortly leaving this room so my partner can put her easel up in here and paint where the light (south facing room) is better and I'm moving my music stuff to the north facing side of the house - where I can make music in the gloom!    So this haiku to me seems to sum up my move to a different room in the house, perhaps a change of room will hopefully help my creativity!?

More about this haiku.... 

Written by:  Natsume Seibi (1749-1816) was the son of a wealthy Edo rice broker and was acquainted with a number of other famous poets, including Oshima Ryota and Kobayashi Issa. In addition to his poetry, Seibi left behind a number of fine examples of haikai prose. 

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

Deadline: 6th September 2023

Haiku by Natsume Seibi

Picture by Sebastian Mark https://unsplash.com/photos/L7T7afz-eTc

Audio Obscura - Lazing In Shadows (Naviar Haiku #504)

A track from my forthcoming tape;  
'THE XENAKIS STATION'  
released on UK label Woodford Halse, released 6th October 2023.

---------- The Xenakis Station. A long abandoned research station. A place always officially denied. The place now a fiction where shards of disputed truth remain.

The location still not de-classified. Remnants destroyed.

Last winter we got a phone call to say graffiti on an abandoned building on Redpoint Sound states" 'Xenakis broadcasts were made here' but official enquiries are still met with silence.

Faint memories remain like distant static or bursts of shortwave. --------------
credits
released October 6, 2023

Sounds by Neil Stringfellow (Audio Obscura)
Additional shortwave radio samples from Marchers Action, Scotland (with thanks to Stuart McLean)
Photography by Spenser Robinson
Mastered by James Edward Armstrong

Original Woodford Halse livery - Nick Taylor
Layout and Additional Design - Mat Handley

Audio Obscura -  Sjælland Sound

This weeks Haiku challenge was inspiring from the moment I read it and I just knew I had to make something. 
I've had a busy week but had an idea a few days ago and followed it to this point.  I'm very happy with sounds I've made, I created a texture and feel that is new to me.  I made use of a lot of Spitfire Audio VST for this, cello and bass sounds and celeste and other sounds. The rain comes from a field recording I made some years ago in my ongoing recordings of 'storms' - see my recent LIFEFILES album for more of the same...  https://mortalitytables.bandcamp.com/album/lifefiles-lf11-the-naming-of-storms

----------------
in pre-dawn darkness
the avant-garde soundtrack
of orchestral rainfall

Elliot Carson is a teacher living in Japan who doubles as an artist/designer/translator in his free time. He writes haiku under the pen name EKC and is currently working to self-publish his first book of haiku.

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku
 

Deadline: 18th October 2023

Haiku by Elliot Carson https://www.instagram.com/i.write.haiku/

Picture by Lazarescu Alexandra https://unsplash.com/photos/vRiylUiR6ew

The Avant Garde Orchestra Play A Soundtrack Of Rainfall In Pre-Dawn Light (naviarhaiku510)

I was moved when I read this weeks Haiku from Naviars own Marco Sebastiano Alessi.
There was an idea in my head almost straight away, a repeating piano set to a echo delay effect that could potentially never end. Anf then the feeling of an empty house, an old distorted 78rpm record playing as if from a distance (of time?) and the feeling of a place of memory but now all gone.

-----------

Endless echo
footsteps on an empty house
once full of life

Third poem written by me that gets featured in the haiku challenge. As always, I hope you’ll find it inspiring.

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to participate visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

Deadline: 1st November 2023

Haiku by Marco Sebastiano Alessi

Picture by Raya Mal https://unsplash.com/photos/closed-window-ggeI8TyPeZM

Audio Obscura - Echo Footsteps (naviarhaiku512)

A track from my forthcoming album;
Music For Airports In The Age Of Climate Change.
Released via Bandcamp on Friday 2nd Feb. 

----------------------------

The world has changed a lot since Brian Eno's 1978 album 'Music For Airports', not least the spectre of climate change but also, as composer Ambrose Field observes,  “notions of what constitutes the ambient environment in our information saturated, everyday existence, is considerably different than that of the 1970s” 

Part of Eno's original conception for Music For Airports was that it could be played over speakers within airports in part to aid anxious flyers. Released just a year before the launch of the Walkman, music has now become personalised and 'consumed' in our headphones, cancelling out the aural space. The anxieties of flying have become extrapolated to global anxiety about the environmental damage of flying itself and the wider danger of Co2 emissions in the age of climate change.  

Music For Airports In The Age Of Climate Change is therefore created with two aims, first as a piece of art music within the continuum in which Eno created the original; as an ambient soundscape, to be listened to in your own time at leisure.  Secondly it is also conceived to be used as a soundwalk, to be listened on headphones whilst navigating the modern airport and to contemplate the act of flying in the age of climate breakdown. Thus the next time you're transiting through an airport and onto a plane, you're encouraged to download the files and use the soundscapes as a guide when you're manoeuvring through an airport to catch a flight.

Audio Obscura - Departures

How do you interpret the literal translation of karaoke - empty orchestra? 

Well I had a go; started with opening the BBC orchestra Plug in - spitfire audio - violins.  Made something very simple and looped it.
I had this playing through my main stereo which my decks are plugged into.. I let this playing on a loop and went down the hall in my house and used my digital tascam recorder to record from the far end of the house. I left this recording. 
I went back to the decks and selected an old classical record - Ketelbey Orchestral Concert - Bells Across the Meadow. I played this slowed down as low as my turntable can go, with no bass and treble to full... slowly faded this in. Near the end I pulled the 'earth' cable out the back of the mixer so it goes a bit crackly and caused one of the speakers to cut out. Perfect! 

That was more or less it. I opened this recording back up in Ableton and edited for a bit longer, reversing bits and adding extra effects. 
 ------------------


Disquiet Junto Project 0646: Empty Orchestra
The Assignment: Interpret the literal translation of “karaoke.”

Step 1: You may or may not be familiar with the literal meaning of the word “karaoke.” The first two syllables are the Japanese word for “empty.” The final two syllables are an abbreviation of the Japanese word for “orchestra.” Consider how the term “empty orchestra” connects with the idea of karaoke.

Step 2: Think about the term “empty orchestra” on its own, apart from its association with karaoke. Come up with a new meaning for it. What kind of genre or musical form would “empty orchestra” be on its own?

Step 3: Record a piece of music exemplifying the ideas that arose to you during Step 2.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0646” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0646-empty-orchestra/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Disquietly an Empty Orchestra From Down the Hall [disquiet0646]

I've not posted a Disquiet Junto track since project #646 about a year ago but did try in January but was locked out of this Soundcloud. I'm at home today with a bit of free time so thought why not - now i've been able to get back into Soundcloud. Enjoyed making this, the idea to unravel Ravel was too good to pass up. I imagine my approach isn't very original- I just cut up the source audio and added effects and cut some frequencies in the source. I then slowed the tempo down as the tracks progresses which created gaps and space in the audio clips which I had already locked in place. The gaps fill with the reverb and delay and late on I added some choir sounds to give the piece a new dimension and direction which I liked. 

More info on this challenge here: 
Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Step 1: Download the first movement of the Ravel string quartet at this URL: https://bit.ly/un-ravel

The original source is the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Step 2: Listen to the track closely.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0691” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0691-un-ravel/

The Great un-Ravel-ing [disquiet0691]

The 700th Week of Disquiet Junto! 
Just after lunch I read this weeks challenge and was looking at my computer the window directly ahead of me! I snapped the photo and decided to record out the window for about 10 minutes. 
You don't see much from my window, a green fence / shed with a defunct biomas unit inside, part of my car is visable. The windows are quite dirty, there are trees at the top of the photo. 
I live in a rural spot, nothing about expect fields and trees and I was drawn to the addiotnal line of info 'Brief can be neighborly'  - As I have no neighbours I wanted the field recording to be central and the wind was nice but I put some effects on these sounds and just started to play around with notes and keys until this nice slow track took shape.  There is a nice airplane about 2 minutes in.  I was looking out the window all afternoon as I made this, watching the leaves and branches swaying away!   

Disquiet Junto Project 0700: View Frame
The Assignment: Share the view and some sounds inspired by the view.

Step 1: Take a photo out your window, with a little bit of the frame in view. Show people a glimpse of your world.

Step 2: Record a short, simple piece of music inspired (or otherwise informed) by what you see.

Window Looker [disquiet0700]

A 'sedate' 8 bit track to soundtrack Cory Angel Super Mario Clouds ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCmAD0TwGcQ)

Recorded for  Disquiet Junto Project 0704: Right on Cumulus

The Assignment: Compose 8-bit music inspired by a Cory Arcangel / Super Mario video.

Step 1: You’re going to record 8-bit music (or something approximately like it). If you’re not familiar with means by which to do so, read up a bit. Also, there may be some discussion on the Lines (llllllll.co) message board for those new to it.

Step 2: In 2002, the media artist Cory Arcangel created a work of art titled Super Mario Clouds, which removed everything from the 1985 Super Mario Bros. video game except the blue sky and passing clouds. This means that Arcangel’s video was silent, because also excluded was Koji Kondo’s classic score. Read up about the work, which is well-documented.

Step 3: Part of the reason that the original Super Mario Bros. music wasn’t included in Super Mario Clouds may have been to do with how it, naturally, wasn’t aligned with how sedate the Arcangel hack turned out to be. Please now record very sedate 8-bit music that does feel aligned with Super Mario Clouds.

More on the 704th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Right on Cumulus — The Assignment: Compose 8-bit music inspired by a Cory Arcangel / Super Mario video — at https://disquiet.com/0704/

Going out for chips [disquiet0704]

Music for / inspied by the first line of Crime and Punishment, which reads as; 
At the beginning of July, during a spell of exceptionally hot weather, towards evening, a certain young man came down on to the street from the little room he rented from some tenants who lived in Stolyarnyi Lane, stepped out onto the street, and slowly, almost hesitantly, set off towards the Kokushkin Bridge.

I picked that line, in part because its the beginning of July as I make this and also we've had a spell of hot weather. I read this book probably 25 years ago and read it again at the start of this year.  
For this track I jumped onto Freesound.org and got some street sounds from St. Petersburg and the horse drawn carriage sounds - this seemed to fit the 19th century feel. I new then the music and field recordings should merge together. I wanted tension and the sense of the character in the book being alone with the music I added - soft tension strings and ambient keys. 



Raskolnikov's Walk [disquiet0705]

My other account.. since I stopped my paid account and somewhere to upload bits and bobs

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