Earlier this week I visited the grave of writer W.G Sebald who is buried not too far from my home (about 20 miles). I’ve visited this place and made field recordings for about 6 years since I moved to this part of England. This was my first trip since December 2019.

That day (Tuesday 20th April) I made 2 field recordings which were about 15 minute each in length at this graveside location and tonight I loaded them up and let them play in full.
I improvised along in 1 take with the field recording playing. I used with 3 seperate low volume ambient sounds, letting them each loop after a few minutes. I only listened back one time, making slight adjustments to the volume levels but didn’t change or make any edits.

This seemed to fit the mood of Earth Day for me.

Memories Of Earth [disquiet0486]

This weeks prompt really intereted me...  I recorded the sound of my coffee grinder as I ground my morning beans on Friday morning. I had just read the Disquiet email a few minutes earlier after waking up and knew later on Friday I would have time to take part in the challenge if I wanted. I quickly made a recording of my morning grinding of coffee but wasn't till after I noticed I had left the radio playing in the kitchen.

After lunch on Friday I sat down and began to make this, cutting up the sounds of the coffee grinder and transposing the sounds and adding other musical sounds. I wanted to do something upbeat and fun and quite noisy! 


Disquiet Junto Project 0487: Carillon Quotidian
Assignment: Turn a recurring sound from your life into music.

This project was developed by Marty Petkovich (aka K Joule) as part of the celebration of the upcoming 500th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project.

Step 1: Identify a recurring sound in your daily life that isn’t generally considered musical. Try to locate a sound that you would normally ignore: the hum of the dryer, or the way the car trunk resonates when you drop it closed, the sound your boots make on certain stairs, the sound of the water coming out of the kitchen tap, etc.

Step 2: The goal is to explore the innate musicality of the sound you identified in Step 1. When recording the sound identified in Step 1, please keep in mind the effort may require some production techniques, because you want to try to isolate it as best as possible.

Step 3: Make an original piece of music employing the sample you recorded in Step 2 of the sound you decided upon in Step 1. Transpose the recorded sample and compose a short theme to use as the central voice in your composition. Complete your piece with other instrument lines as needed.

Quotidian Coffee Grinder [disquiet0487]

Opening track from a forthcoming CD on TQN-at label.
Released via bandcamp on 7th May 2021.

CD SOLD OUT / DOWNLOAD

20th Century Sky

This is my remix from the :zoviet*france open remix project. 
I enjoyed working on this track as I'm originally from close to the area where these recordings were made but live in a different part of the UK now so it felt special to work with these sounds. 
 
For the remix project, see below for more details. 
-----------------------
This is an open remix project with 11 original, downloadable 24 bit / 48kbps field recordings we captured to create the track Hidden-by-the-Wall (included in this playlist). We invite anyone to take these and use them to create something new. If you do, please post it here on SoundCloud and let us know – we very much want to hear what you do with them.

Hidden-by-the-Wall is a new soundwork by :zoviet*france: commissioned by Green Croft Arts as part of its Collision and Conflict project.

Collision and Conflict is a GPS-triggered geolocated sound walk, presented through the Echoes phone app, that follows a circular route between Walltown and Green Croft in Northumberland, UK. The route runs alongside and close by Hadrian's Wall, a vast Roman defensive fortification that runs east/west across northern England, marking the northwestern frontier of the Roman empire. While following the route, walkers can listen to each of the 14 new music, sound and spoken word Collision and Conflict compositions at the locations to which they've been allocated along the way. Hidden-by-the-Wall can be found along a stretch of open country between Walltown and Thirlwall, a high point from which the distant Scottish borders to the north and the North Pennines to the south can be seen.

In devising Hidden-by-the-Wall we set out to capture hidden and unnoticed sounds in the vicinity and recreate lost sounds that would have been heard decades ago but have now gone forever. The original field recordings that form the hidden and unnoticed sounds are here in this playlist. More about each track can be found in the description on its page.

More on Collision and Conflict:
www.greencroftonthewall.com/collision-and-conflict

The recordings are made available under creative commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/)

:zoviet*france - Hidden By The Wall (Audio Obscura Remix)

I was actually just messing around for a few hours with some sounds and thinking of the heat wave we're having here in the UK. This was bubbling along and  I was playing some dead sounds on the piano when the Naviar Haiku came along, it seemed to fit the mood and the words. I then started a new arrangement to further focus the sounds on the words and meaning of the poem. Quite pleased with this. Not taken part in the Haiku challenge for a while so seemed a good time to come back to it.
-----------------------------------
    having a dream
    is part of the job …
    rain in spring

    Arii Shokyu-Ni was a haiku poetess during the Edo period who began a wandering life after running away from her husband at 29 with the haiku poet Kohaku. Just like Matsuo Basho, “the Nun Shokyu” traveled to to the Deep North of Japan.

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

    Deadline: 28th July 2021

    haiku by Arii Shokyu-Ni https://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2007/03/shokyu-ni.html

    picture by Corey Hearne https://unsplash.com/@socialcorey

     

    TO PARTICIPATE

    - Make a song in response to the weekly assigned poem (a new poem is published every Wednesday)

    - When choosing a title for your piece also include the assignment number, for example “Title of your track (naviarhaiku394)”

    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. www.dropbox.com/request/JvKyUfuCSzJ3gRNRocZz

    Your track may be included in Naviar's weekly podcasts and free (pay-what-you-want)compilations. If you can, please set the track as downloadable on Soundcloud and allow others to remix/reuse it by using a Creative Commons License.

    For more information visit http://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

A Dream... Of Rain (naviarhaiku394)

I had a nice recording of an FM radio falling out of tune recorded outside on a Autumn morning with the rain failing off a tent. Its quite evocative so I took this and added some background music. I sent this recording into various channels and effects and with some nice synth sounds it felt like the classic era Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works sound. So added some low key beats chugging away in a very 90s ambient house sort of way! 

The haiku and the sounds match in my mind.. the synths are the summer and the rainbows fading and the beats are the years progress and the hiss and static and rain are the damp days of Autumn.

A day of rainbows
As Summer gives way to the
Damp days of Autumn

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: 13th October 2021

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

picture by Dewang Gupta https://unsplash.com/@dewang

Summer Gives Way to Damp Days [naviarhaiku405]

A nice loop for a calm state of mind... this is my imagining of a waiting room designed to calm.

I played something nice on my synth and sent the midi to various other synth sounds... That was it, very simple but I like it!

Disquiet Junto Project 0515: Talking Cure
The Assignment: Write music for a psychotherapist’s waiting room.

Step 1. Imagine that you are about to consult a therapist. You are sitting in the waiting room of his/her/their office.

Step 2. Picture some comfortable chairs, abstract artworks on the wall, and some large plants in the corners of the room. The perfect music for this moment is playing out of a high quality, vintage-looking speaker. You are ready for your appointment.

Step 3. Create a piece of music that you imagine hearing in this situation. The duration of the piece is up to you. If you are OK with your work potentially being excerpted, please license it with a CC license that permits derivative works (i.e., any CC license that does not include ND, “no derivative works”).

Background: Selected results from this assignment will be included in the soundtrack of an experimental video series The Talking Cure, currently being produced by visual artists The Big Conversation Space. The Talking Cure will be projected in the group exhibition The Real Show at the contemporary art museum CAC Brétigny, France from January through April 2022 and broadcast on YouTube. The video series will also feature the Disquiet Junto through interviews with Marc Weidenbaum and other Disquiet Junto participants and supporters. The Junto participants whose work is included will be credited by name in the videos.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0515” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0515” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0515-talking-cure/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Music ForThe Waiting Room [disquiet0515]

No Sooner [Naviarhaiku411]

23 is a new mini album released on 23rd January 2022 on the Courier Sound Label. 

A 5"CDr with applied decal housed in a gatefold cover with stenciled acrylic detailing. Included are two text inserts and a unique 'postcard' insert made with photographs of one location in Norfolk, all made from recycled card stock and hand assembled by Stuart Bowditch. 
An edition of 23 - which went on pre-release today but is not sold out. 

A response by Neil Stringfellow to the 23 series conceived by Alastair Johnson (Alien).

Neil Stringfellow has been recording under the Audio Obscura name since 2014 and released a number of albums merging field recordings, ambient soundscapes and experiemental electronic music. He has created music for films and adverts and has performed across the UK. Neil has released music on lables such as Bibliotapes, Naviar Records, Cloudchamber Recordings and TQN-aut Label.

'In 2016 I started making a series of 20 second tracks, an idea that eventually led me to creation the 20x20 Project which released 20 albums by 20 different artists in the year 2020. In the end I never released any of my 20 second tracks for that project but once I got to know the 23 series I was drawn to the idea of making 23 tracks across 23 minutes. I revisited the 20 second pieces and re-recorded these with the 23 concept in mind, fleshing out the more promising tracks and making new field recordings and recording new works around the older ideas. About half this album is thus a variation of re-worked older 20 seconds tracks and half newly developed pieces.’
credits
releases January 23, 2022

Digital / CD Sold Out

Kicking Against The Cliques

Tomorrow (8th June 2019) is the 70th anniversay of the piblication of George Orwells novel 1984. On the same day Bibliotapes will release  my soundtrack for the book 1984 on limited edition cassette (84 copies only) 
There is no bandcamp release - order direct from here... https://www.bibliotapes.co.uk/

From the book: Memory Hole was the name of the tubes inside the Minstry of Truth where incorrect information was sent to be destroyed.

Tape On Sale today

Memory Hole

I came to this track through a long process and three session each two hours long - with sleep and family activities (swimming) in between - as well as a phone call from BT saying they were going to cut my internet access! 

1st Session: I took the various field recordings and loaded a few up into Ableton. 
I started by making a few loops and adding effects. I then saved these and opened them up in Simpler and played them on keys. I then mixed this piece down and reopened a whole new Ableton session.
 
2nd Session: I took the previous mixed down session and played the whole thing through Max For Live IOTA effect which I love but haven't really used.  I recorded two versions through IOTA and reopened these into yet another new Ableton session and then added the earlier mixed down versions and began editing with a whole new arrangement in mind. At this point a added a few other of the original source sounds, unedited and unwarped. 

3rd Session: I changed the arrangement and added a few send tracks to ush through a few extra effects. I then added a drum rack and edited some of the source audio (esp the bits from the skate park sounds) from here to create little drum sounds (short edits of EQ and Amp effects, trimming then to make drum-like hits) and some of the glitchy sounds you here near the end, the last 30 seconds or so. 
Then gave up / thought it might be finished. 

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0399: Edges & Echoes
The Assignment: Make sonic art for a space with the sounds of that space.

This project is the second of three that are being done in collaboration with Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 11 through 15. For this reason, a German translation is provided below. We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects will be played publicly as part of the Rauschlabor Schützenmatte (musikfestivalbern.ch) or broadcast on the festival’s radio show, Radio Antenne (radioantenne.ch). If you don’t want your recording to be used in this way, please note so wherever you post it.

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the German word “rauschen,” the theme for this year’s festival. Understand that “rauschen” is noise in the sense of white noise, waterfall noise, background noise, static, wind in trees, rain, etc. The blurred, diffuse, continuous kind of noise, not short individual non-tonal sounds.

Step 2: Provided are several recordings capturing the sounds of the empty performance space for the festival. Access them at the following URL and listen to them:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jy7ou2ssdvl8til/Bern%20Audio.zip

Step 3: Create a piece of sonic art intended to be played back in the festival performance space utilizing only the source audio.

Berge oder das... [disquiet0399]

I created a little melody and stretched it out to around 30 seconds. I then copied this (as a midi file) and added an extra layer for each of the 7 stages of man (as given by William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It.) Each time around the melody ends and pauses before the next stage comes in and is altered in some way, stretched or pulled apart or extra sounds added to reflect the stage of life - i.e. noise and manic drums for the 'soldier' stage. 
Quite pleased with how it turned out, it certainly has the 7 stages fairly well located.  

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0404: Seven (St)ages
The Assignment: Record a piece of music that follows the arc of Jacques’ “All the world’s a stage” speech from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It.

Step 1: This project is inspired by a famous speech from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. The speech is the one that begins “All the world’s a stage,” and is spoken by the melancholy character Jacques.

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the speech, in which Jacques lists the “seven ages” that people move through over the course of their lives, should they lead full and long ones: the infant, the student (“schoolboy” in the play), the lover, the soldier, the justice, old age, and the final decline (likened to a “second childishness and mere oblivion”).

Step 3: Consider how those seven ages might be explored in musical terms. Consider concepts in the original text, such as how in old age “his big manly voice, / Turning again towards childish treble, pipes / And whistles in his sound.”

Step 4: Record a piece of music that occurs in seven stages, following the seven ages of Jacques’ speech. One possibility is to have seven related pieces of music, as i na suite, that represent the ages. Another is to have one consistent source audio throughout, but to treat/filter/process it in accordance with each successive (st)age.

Seven Ages... [disquiet0404]

I happened to be playing around with some strings sounds from my Spitfire Audio Solo Strings and pushing then some effects earlier on today.I saved this jam without really listening back to it. I then read this weeks Naviar Records Haiku challenge and these weird sring sound seemed to fit quite well with the words of the haiku. I took these basic sounds and started a new recording and arrangement. I was quite happy with the results.



    Innumerable stars
    Looks like floated algae
    In my mind

    Dakotsu Iida trained under Takahama Kyoshi, and was chief editor of Unmo until his death. His son Ryuta Iida, a famous haiku poet himself, took over as the editor of Unmo after his father’s death.

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

    Deadline: 27th November 2019

    haiku by Iida Dakotsu https://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.com/2007/03/iida-ryuta.html

    picture by Cristian Palmer https://unsplash.com/@cristianpalmer

     

    TO PARTICIPATE


    - Make music in response to the assigned haiku.
    - If you're a Soundcloud user, upload the track on Soundcloud and message me privately with the track's URL; alternatively you can send me your composition directly via Dropbox
    - Include the assignment number in the title of your track - “Title of your track (naviarhaiku307)”

    Please use a Creative Commons license for your track and set it as downloadable if you wish to be included in the podcasts and compilations.

For more information visit http://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

In My Mind (naviarhaiku307)

I liked the idea of this weeks project and had a free morning. I remember I had a nice recording of a workman's electric saw I recored in the summer. It was recorded at ditance and thus had a nice sound depsite being quite a brutal tool. I selected a piece I liked and created a long loop. I also looped a 2nd bit from the same recording of inaudible chatter from the workmen and the sound of sand paper rubbing on wood. Together it gave a nice feel I thought. I added some synth and other background sounds and spent some time sending it into some effects. It was certainly the idea of trying to use the sounds to compose a suite (as per the suggestion in the challenge (see below)) 



Disquiet Junto Project 0414: Mod Cons
The Assignment: Compose one or more sounds for an appliance/device/gadget of your own choosing.

Thanks to Junto member Iain Holmes for having proposed this project.

Step 1. You’re going to create sound for an appliance. Choose the appliance. Maybe it’s something you own, maybe something you don’t, maybe something that doesn’t exist and you made up. A washer, a game console, a microwave, an electric skateboard, a jetpack, whatever you’d like.

Step 2. Decide what sound or sounds you’re going to compose. Maybe it’s the start-up tone, or an alert, or maybe you want to come up with a whole suite of related sounds.

Step 3. Consider the environment in which the device from Step 1 is employed.

Step 4. Compose one or more sounds for the device you decided upon in Step 1, taking into consideration the context of Step 2.

The Appliance [disquiet0414]

I sat down at my computer shorty after 9pm UK time. I was thinking of making some music but wasn't sure what to work on... I have a few things I am working on but nothing lept out at me and demanded my attention. An email pops up... Disquiet Junto 0476. 
It's been ages since I took part and this seemed perfect... 
I went with the flow with this one... I went with some foggy sounding synth and pulled out an old field recording from the A11 dual carrageway by the Norfolk / Suffolk border. I let the field recording play and just improvised some synth at once over the top. I recorded that in 1 take and then went to the arrangement. 
I added a drum rack - an effect on the whole thing... making a nice dubby slow rhythm. It picks up a level or two and I added some other elements of synth and ambience. It was quick and simple to make. This was a good fun experiement to do.  

This weeks instructions are as follows;

Disquiet Junto Project 0476: IAH Forecast

The Assignment: Here’s your next single’s cover. Now record it.

Step 1: This is the cover of your next single:
IMG_20210209_070546_260
IMG_20210209_070546_2603096×3096 851 KB

Step 2: Now record your single.

Note: The photo was shot in Houston, Texas, by Robert Boyd and is used with his permission.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0476” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0476” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0476-iah-forecast/

Step 5: Annotate your tracks with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Forecast [disquiet0476]

"Light is to the camera obscura as sound is to audio obscura." 
 
Odd electronics for the ears, making music covering the wide spectrums of electro-acoustic music, musique concrète, idm and occasional field recordings, with post-classical minimal leanings but beats and bass as well!.  Someone described it as "experimental easy-lsitening" which I like. 
For a while I collaborated as part of a collective under the name Sound Celestial Orchestra but that is no more!  (see, https://soundcloud.com/sound-celestial-orchestra)
I'm always keen on remixing other Soundcloud users and like a challenge.

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