Name: SONG 80 - DisquietJunto0690 - Knot Bad by Boundary Objects in Disquiet Junto Project 0690: Knot Bad
Duration: 5 min 22 s
Description: More on the 690th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Knot Bad — The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0689/

Disquiet Junto Project 0690: Knot Bad
The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score.

Step 1: Find a piece of wood, the grain of which captures your imagination.

Step 2: Consider how the shapes of the grain might be interpreted as a graphically notated score. (If you are not familiar with the concept of a graphic score, read up.)

Step 3: Record a piece of music in which you interpret the grain of the wood you selected in Step 1 as a graphic score.

Deadline: Monday, March 24, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: https://disquiet.com/0690/

Disquiet Junto Project 0690: Knot Bad

More on the 690th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Knot Bad — The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0690/

disquiet0690

The graphic score used, featured as the cover art, is a photo I took of part of a wood-panelled ceiling in my home. The track, in four continuous sections, comprises a mix of layered electronic sequences created using Pure Data with additional sounds and editing carried out using Audacity.

Knotty Pine Perusal (disquiet0690)

Ooooh good ... Here's another track that the SoundCloud algorithm refuses to recommend to potentially interested listeners ... If you're interested in music that a robot doesn't consider 'music', why not give it a listen! 😜

More on the 690th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Knot Bad — The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0689/

more halF unusuaL

halF knoT [disquiet0690]

This week's Disquiet Junto prompt instructed us to find a piece of wood with interesting grain, and interpret it as a graphical music score.

My music desk is a pretty solid piece of furniture, and the dark stain makes the wood grain stand out prominently. I noticed that the grain on one side of the desk contained two interlocking swirls, and the radiating pattern reminded me of a magnetic field. So I decided that this week's composition would be played with wood and magnets.

I used a contact mic to record the percussion part, playing the top of the desk like a hand drum. Then I recorded three layers of guitar played with an ebow: an electromagnetic "guitar pick" characterized by infinite sustain. Ebow has the drawback of making dynamics difficult but I was able to make it growl and howl enough to get some texture and noise out of the performance. 

The bass layer was played on a Schecter Damien 7-string guitar with an altered tuning. I managed to play the bottom string freehand with the ebow, floating rather than resting on surrounding strings, which required multiple takes unfortunately. I just really, really needed that low B♭. The other two guitar layers were played on the St Vincent guitar. 

Offboard, the guitars went through my standard bank of stomp boxes, including an Eventide Harmonizer, Keeley Halo, ARP-87 and Julia pedals from Walrus, and a trusty RAT distortion pedal. DAW effects were mainly reverb and Chromaglow, plus a stereo delay and EQ on the percussion part.

More on the 690th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Knot Bad — The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0689/

Lost in the Ironwood (disquiet0690)

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.

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0690: Knot Bad. The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0690 discussion thread on Lines:

This was inspired from a live edge black walnut board I’ve had for many years. I used to do some woodworking, and this is a souvenir from those days. I might someday incorporate it into an art or craft project, but for now, I keep it around as something to be simply admired.

I used the horizontal grain patterns and the imperfections in the middle of the board, as the graphic score. First, I assembled a Morphagene reel using slices from various pieces I created as well as field recordings I had. Included in the samples was a recording of the sounds of a piece of wood being lightly dragged across the surface of the board that included the imperfections. This created a drone like foundation using the modular synth. I then created some tracks in Ableton Live following the “notation” of horizontal center grains and notches. Used Slate+Ash Cycles for instruments and Valhalla Delay for effects. I also added an outdoor field recording from our front yard. 

I imagined sights, sounds, music and other memories that the tree might have experienced when it was alive.  Those things, embedded within the grains of wood, are released here with this soundscape as a remembrance of those years. At least, that was my intention.

More on the 690th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Knot Bad — The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0690/

Memory From A Walnut Grove [disquiet0690]

More on the 690th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Knot Bad — The Assignment: Interpret wood grain as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0689/

SONG 80 - DisquietJunto0690 - Knot Bad

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]

My track notes regarding the creation of this track can be found here: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0691-un-ravel/71303/7

**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](https://bit.ly/un-ravel)

The original source is the Internet Archive: [Capet String Quartet - Ravel (Col. D 15057-60) 1928 : Capet String Quartet : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : 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.

[Disquiet Junto 0691] Liminal Maurice

I selected the 4th movement of the quartet, chopped it up and remixed it to a stereo track. Then, by means of many adjustments and various effects, I converted it to a modern atonal/microtonal composition.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Ravel Revamped (disquiet0691)

Ravel from the 1920s, timestretched in ableton, then converted to midi and combined, fx etc

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

un-ravel +3 mix [disquiet0691]

Following this week's Disquiet Junto project this track was created using a historic recording of the Ravel string quartet from 1928.
This is the sound of a dream, dissolved beyond recognition, but still present as the conscious cause of this unconscious music.

The audio was transformed using spectral synthesizers and effect chains to create this dreamlike rendition. No other sounds or instruments were employed.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

rêver  (Disquiet0691)

My track notes regarding the creation of this track can be found here: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0692-combust-a-move/71387/7

**Disquiet Junto Project 0692: Combust a Move**  
The Assignment: Make music using fire for the rhythm track.

There is just one step for this project: Record a piece of music in which the sound of fire — match, burner, cigarette, etc. — provides the primary source for the rhythmic track.

[Disquiet Junto 0692] Wentworth Callback

Dunes serpent

This is a collection of dark, ambient dronescapes created entirely with outboard synths and guitars. These edgy, unsettling and tense tracks are perfect for those spots where more "musical" drones or standard production music fare is inadequate to capture the desired emotion.

It's Plucking Peculiar

Inspired by Naviar Haiku 609:
https://www.naviarrecords.com/naviarhaiku609-revealing-in-the-dark/

Thanks to Marco Alessi from Naviar Records for the weekly challenge!

Photo by zenbytes (Bretagne, France, 2020)

revealing torch - Naviarhaiku609

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.

Exploring music theory and ambient electronics.

SONG 80 - DisquietJunto0690 - Knot Bad

Boundary Objects

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