Shorter recordings, mostly snapshots of longer explorations.

short takes

hill koan

For this Disquiet Junto assignment I revived my Dreadbox Lil' Erebus - most sounds and effects in this jam from this module with some percussion added - it was one of the first DIY modules I built (and it shows). As a result it's been living in the Bardo Drawer with other modules that are on their way out. 

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More on this 510th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Cold Turkey (The Assignment: Record one last track with a piece of music equipment before passing it on) – at: https://disquiet.com/0510/ 1

Thanks to @atomboyd for having come up with the idea for this project.

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 2

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0510-cold-turkey/49338

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by Richard Hemmer, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

https://flic.kr/p/7ri9hk

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

disquiet0510 - katabasis

Long take.

Original piano recording frozen in Beads, overlayed with field recording of distant traffic. Semi-random triggers from Turing Machine pinging the frozen piano tape with some random CV modulating the Beads playback heads. Slow Rampage modulation filtering the field recording. Direct output to Tascam, minor volume adjustment.

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Key equipment:

Expert Sleepers Disting Mk4
Music Thing Modular Turing Machine
Mutable Instruments Beads
Gods' Box Humpback
Befaco Rampage
Tascam DR-05X
Audacity

agricole

Room recording - snapshot of patch exploring different length gate/CV sequences from Turing Machine and Marbles feeding into each other. Rings excited by Radio Music.

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Key equipment:

Music Thing Modular Turing Machine, Control, Radio Music
Mutable Instruments Beads, Rings, Marbles
Tascam DR-05X
Audacity

open reel

Noisy Rings feedback patch. 🙃

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Key equipment:

Gods Box Humpback
Mutable Instruments Rings, Beads
Tascam DR-05X
Audacity

feedback noise

Getting lost in the sauce trying to find sweetspots where delay (Beads) phases nicely with Rings. 

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Key equipment:

Mutable Instruments Beads, Rings, Marbles
Tascam DR-05X
Audacity

phasing delay

Chaotic trigger sequencing from Compare 2 to ping filters. 💢

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Key equipment:

Gods Box Humpback
RYO Aperture
Erica Synths Black Hole DSP
Joranalogue Compare 2
Tascam DR-05X
Audacity

trigger cascade

Semi-chaotic filter pings patch with chord bursts.

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Key equipment:

Gods Box Humpback
RYO Aperture
Erica Synths Black Hole DSP
Mutable Instruments Plaits, Beads
Joranalogue Compare 2
Tascam DR-05X
Audacity

filter pings and chords

Prompted to "[use] stereo as a compositional tool" took this in the generative sense and built a patch on my modular system centered around a 'swap sides' event where two hard-panned sequences swap over to the other stereo channel. This swap event is triggered by a clock divider when a certain number of note events from either sequence is counted. 

Technical detail ... the swap switches between a simple -5V/+5V voltage source (run through a slew limiter to have a brief 'crossover' period in the middle!) and the 2xVCX takes care of most of the logistics. The swap signal also intentionally patches to the DSP rate so you hear a bit of wobbliness on entering and exiting a swap. Also running the slew limited swap signal through Compare 2 deriving some latched gates feeding into character of the two voice sequences.

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RYO 2xVCX
Joranalogue Compare 2
Mutable Instruments Marbles, Plaits, Rings
Live 10

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More on this 549th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Sidelines (The Assignment: Get intentional with stereo) – at: https://disquiet.com/0549/ 1

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0549-sidelines/

disquiet0549 - side exchange

wash of looping sampled ambience

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More on this 591st weekly Disquiet Junto project, The Loneliest Number (The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio), at: https://disquiet.com/0591/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 1: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0591-the-loneliest-number/

disquiet0591 - patchouli wash

Building on Marcus Fisher's (https://soundcloud.com/marcus_fischer) tracks 'hands held', 'worn path' and 'walking' - the first two of these combined and frozen in a granular sampler's buffer (beads), and hits from the third used to excite a resonator (rings). Some arrangement and processing in ableton, with 'hands held' bookending the final track.

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More on this 600th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Reaching Out (The Assignment: This is a shared sample project. Rework a set of seven WAV files provided by Marcus Fischer), at: https://disquiet.com/0600/

Please credit Marcus Fischer when posting your track.

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-0600-reaching-out/

This project’s cover image is a detail of a photo by Marcus Fischer.

disquiet0600 - ha/wo/wa

o_c benispheres shredder + plaits chords + passive lpg

chords, lpgs

manual switch - main gate - into logical gates letting through a sequence of regular triggers
- main sound source is a pitched down sample being played back on repeat
- sample goes into beads, which is triggered by a delayed version of the main gate
- main gate also steps through a sequential switch, sending modulation to different destinations

photo of clouds taken on 29 july 2023

field recording layered in + some automation and processing in ableton live

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More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0604-heavens-gate/

disquiet0604 - gates kept

pitched down sample being played back repeatedly via a filter and granular delay/reverb, going into two feedback loops
- one immediately feeds output back to input of rings, which dumps its output back into the filter
- another copy runs via a high pass filter into a delay, with envelope opening at regular intervals, again back into the main signal

recording gradually hands over more emphasis to the feedback signals away from the original sample loop 

some editing in ableton live

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More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357 3

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-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

disquiet0611 - riemann loops

using the rings module as the 'percussive instrument', played by marbles - eight different recordings, each using variations on marbles settings (rate, jitter, ...) - snippets recorded using tascam in room instead of directly - arranged in ableton live, specifically adding panning, some filtering, dynamics

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More on this 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

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-0612-drum-vector/

disquiet0612 - "the conversation"

samples and voices triggered by sequences of various lengths mainly driven by Marbles all going into a delay/reverb with its wet/dry gated by another sequence

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More on this 619th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Beat Accrual (The Assignment: Rebuild a complicated rhythm from scratch), at: https://disquiet.com/0619/

About the Disquiet Junto: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0619-beat-accrual/

disquiet0619 - provisions

picked a Tascam recording from a quick palette noodle from earlier this month - some arrangement in live, added an older field recording for ambience + recorded some noisee plucks from my eurorack system

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More on this 621st weekly Disquiet Junto project, The Leftovers (The Assignment: Use recently discarded material to make something new), at: https://disquiet.com/0621/

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-0621-the-leftovers/

disquiet0621 - departure

number of items:
- two modules (marbles and beads) 
- or five modules (if you count mults)
- or sixteen patch cables
- or ...

usually the built in wavetable mode for beads annoys me by switching on unexpectedly, but here it's the main voice. 

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More on this 630th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Creative Sufficiency — The Assignment: Count your tools in advance of employing them — at: https://disquiet.com/0630/

This project was proposed by Alex (aka XHG) from Switzerland, who also drew the cover image.

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 1: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0630-creative-sufficiency/

disquiet0630 - two (or five, or sixteen, or)

start with the longer train recording, process in ableton live so rhythm is more evident (rather than that bell) - record additional material on eurorack, sort of a call-response thing - burst into rings, then gate seed of beads, all clocked by a tap in tempo derived from the train sample

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More on the 635th weekly Disquiet Junto project, ’Round the Bend — The Assignment: You’re in a duo, and your bandmate is a train — at https://disquiet.com/0635/ 1

The image associated with this track is a photograph by Todd (Toaster) Elliott, who also provided the field recordings of the train.

disquiet0635 - level crossing

collab with https://soundcloud.com/lazenbeeindustries/bass-flurry-disquiet0636 / @LazenbeeIndustries

playing along with the original - set up a patch to manually trigger slow enveloped old recording pitched down, with delay - manual control of granular wet/dry - added field recording in live afterwards

panned hard left/right as per instructions

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More on the 637th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Right (2 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the second third of an eventual trio — at https://disquiet.com/0637/

disquiet0637 - bass flurry underground (with LazenbeeIndustries)

with https://soundcloud.com/raincat-306596410/idiophones-disquiet0637-w-xhg by @xhg and @raincat-306596410

filling in imagined blanks - background field recording + sample based patch w granular processing

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More on the 638th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Center (3 of 3) — The Assignment: Complete a trio begun by two other musicians — at https://disquiet.com/0638/

disquiet0638 - bells/idiophones/swells (with xhg and raincat)

looping+arranging older recording from eurorack modular system

千代田線 (r minus seven)

shorter & rearranged version of https://soundcloud.com/caustic_gates/r-minus-seven

千代田線 (r minus seven) (radio edit)

starting with https://soundcloud.com/blaaroed/disquiet0636-left-tt16tt, followed the branching paths in the trio of projects sequenced in a linear form

arranged in ableton live mostly drawing volume envelopes and a delay send at the end of each segment

based on these excellent contributions:
- https://soundcloud.com/blaaroed/disquiet0636-left-tt16tt
- https://soundcloud.com/user-807707609/left-and-right-mirage-disquiet0637
- https://soundcloud.com/raincat-306596410/metal-mirage-disquiet0638-w-blaaroed-he_nu_ri
- https://soundcloud.com/merlebardenoir/the-middle-path-disquiet0638
- https://soundcloud.com/encym/wc2h-8lh_disquiet0638
- https://soundcloud.com/alanblip/part-2-disquiet0637
- https://soundcloud.com/dandante/disquiet0637-right-2-of-3-suborbital-hang-glider
- https://soundcloud.com/analoc/0324-disquiet-junto-638-midways


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More on the 639th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Path Ways (4 of 3) — The Assignment: Rework musical trios using the constituent parts — one of two ways — at https://disquiet.com/0639/

disquiet0639paths - full house

revisited a longer recording from my modular system, made a few weeks back - and picked a ~5min segment to focus on

addition - recorded a repeating loop with some granular processing from my modular system to sit in the background (low end)

arranged in ableton live - some automation (mainly filter cutoff)

added a stereo pair of field recordings (referenced in title)

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More on the 641st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Re-re-re-re-revise — The Assignment: Take an old track and make it better — at https://disquiet.com/0641/

disquiet0641 - cais do sodré

recorded a basic dub techno inspired patch and slowed it down to half speed, then recorded some glitchy percussiony things over it

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More on the 645th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Speed Trap — The Assignment: Record something, slow it down, and then record over it — at https://disquiet.com/0645/

disquiet0645 - radial velocity

"Thinks of things you consider unbreakable rules when you make music" ... pretty much without fail, pitch cv goes through a quantiser; and pretty much without fail, there's some regular tempo or timekeeping... so skipping both these rules for this krell patch.

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More on the 653rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Break a Rule — The Assignment: Stop doing something you always do — at https://disquiet.com/0653/

disquiet0653 - unquantified / unqualified

exported a 10s snippet from a recent recording i made and loaded it up on my disting. three layers make up the final piece, 1) low end rumble from pitched down (-2 oct) granular scrubbing through the sample on beads 2) high end texture from pitched up (+1 oct) granular scrubbing 3) more intentional slicing/triggering of the sample to get more of a rythmic/tonal thing going. triggering the sample frozen in beads with short decay gets a kick like thing going.

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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/ 3



disquiet0674 - clicks and chords, resampled

inspired by snakes and ladders - main idea here was to take a longer sequence (16 steps, limited by length of the phazerville shredder app) that randomly resets back to square one. resets triggers a beads granular fill suggesting tumbling down (???). voice is rings with plaits as input noise source. some field recordings added in post.

image from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snakes-and-ladders.png 

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More on the 677th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Jeux d’enfants — The Assignment: Make music inspired by a children’s toy or game — at https://disquiet.com/0677/

disquiet0677 - square one

5 seconds from each month in 2024. mostly taken from unedited tascam recordings; april and june are field recordings, all others are mostly jams with my smaller eurorack palette case

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More on the 678th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Commonplace Playlist — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at https://disquiet.com/0678/

disquiet0678 - 2024 (60sec)

split up a recording of ice in a glass into several parts - one part with rattling ice ended up frozen in a granular sampler's buffer, scrubbed through. two others triggered independently. layered in two other parts afterwards in ableton live - one just the ticking/sliding sound of the ice melting, with a lot of gain; the other layer is the glass being tapped.

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More on the 679th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Ice Age — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at https://disquiet.com/0679/


disquiet0679 - crystal grains

picked up an ableton live session from last year, with a recording from my modular system - notes at the time mention using a matrix mixer for effects sends with feedback, one send to delay and another to beads, with a chord voice going in - revisiting this recording, i ended up layering two slower copies pitched down -1 and -2 octaves and working in some field recordings.

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More on the 680th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Reverse Resolution — The Assignment: Finish something (musical) you started last year — at https://disquiet.com/0680/

disquiet0680 - bilinear form

patch based on looping + slowed down segments of a previously recorded track, used as input to rings with a lot of modulation

therolinguistics

looping snippets from a previous recording (not in time hence the wonkiness) + heavily modulated rings (fed particle noise). manually going into fully wet delay+reverb and fully dry.

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More on the 683rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Space Shot — The Assignment: Combine reverberant and non-reverberant — at https://disquiet.com/0683/

disquiet0683 - non-past continuous affirmative

found some wood grains in my dining table. obvious jump is from grains to granular, so went with a looping sample going into beads. the graphic score is the sequence of darker grains - roughly up/down is pitch, darker areas introduce more noise, and each grain in the wood triggers a burst granular sample, starting with a larger grain becoming smaller

(that's the idea anyway)

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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 - along the grain

the end result is not so much a string quartet falling apart as it is a resonator-granular garble, but that's how it is sometimes

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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/



disquiet0691 - gravel

picked up a recent recording (based on repeating loops) and sliced it apart in ableton live. inserted layered field recordings into the gap + add automation on reverb send for the original track to have less of a sudden cut

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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/



disquiet0701 - gapped playback

revisiting something i've tried a few times before which is to set up a minimum viable jungle/dnb flavoured patch on my eurorack system using a cv/gate sequencer to jump through a drum loop. never ends up working quite as i expect (or originally want it to go) - this time using mutable marbles to do the sequencing, tamed a bit by gating the triggers through a clock divider and turing machine pulses.

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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/

caustic_gates

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