Disquiets

Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent

The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

Step 1: Play something wrong and record it. The sequence could be a fumble at a keyboard, or a series of bum notes on a guitar, or a erroneous beat.

Step 2: Emphasize the flaws from Step 1 through repetition and variation, and in the process record a piece of music.

Deadline: Monday, September 15, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0715

Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent

My first contribution to Disquiet Junto, responding to the prompt "Know the Shadow".

With the reference to "The Shadow Knows" in the prompt, I had the idea to recreate an old radio program. I dug around in the Internet Archive and found recordings of 1930s radio from which I cut samples. Select samples were then arranged to tell the story I wanted to tell, of a mentalist named Professor Penumbra hypnotizing the listener through the radio.

The concept of a shadow is expressed in multiple ways: in the title, within the samples, with stereo imaging, with polyrhythms, and using high- and low-frequency EQ sweeps.

To fully experience the shadow, please enjoy with headphones.

About Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/2023/11/30/disquiet-junto-project-0622-know-the-shadow/

Disquiet Junto

Professor Penumbra (disquiet0622)

My second contribution to Disquiet Junto, responding to the prompt "A Fresh Pair".

The prompt invited me to consider two disparate influences and bring them together somehow. I missed the word "cultural" in front of "influences" and assumed musical influences. I immediately had the seed of an idea: Gary Numan 1978 vs Gary Numan 2018.

Please enjoy "Splintered Android" with headphones, and be kind to your electric friends.

About Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/2023/12/14/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

Splintered Android (disquiet0624)

This week's contribution to Disquiet Junto, responding to the prompt "Noise Ceiling".

The prompt consisted of a photograph of a bare bulb light fixture on a roughly-painted section of ceiling. We were asked to describe how the space sounded.

It felt like a closet to me. So I took my stereo field recorder to the utility closet in my basement and recorded a CLAP, converted it to an impulse response, and then turned into a convolution reverb patch. Essentially, I created an aural simulation of that space, which lets me place any sound within that space.

The rhythmic breathing and kick drum are placed fully in that simulated closet space, to create a sensation of "close air". The background pads also migrate from a very spacious tone to the constricted space of the closet.

Ready your headphones for "Futility Closet".

About Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/2023/12/21/disquiet-junto-project-0625-noise-ceiling/

Futility Closet (disquiet0625)

A reflection on my past 12 months of music.

1. Who Not While. A discarded sketch that set this year's solo album in motion.
2. A raw recording of an ARP-2600 that I was able to play at the Melbourne Electronic Sound Studio. (https://mess.foundation) This synth part is used in the opening and closing tracks of the album.
3. You Dream You Die. This started as a purely piano composition, and I like the tension between the messy organic and the mathematical clockwork.
4. A Sensation of Nightmare and Stain. The album is well underway at this point. 
5. The Iconoclast. This year's Drone Day composition, which also marked my first live in-person performance since the 90s.
6. A Convincing Story of the Self. Experimenting with using AI-enhanced text-to-speech as a vocal element.
7. True Colors. I finally got around to finishing production of my tracks in the Cyndi Lauper cover I'm doing with Eloquent.
8. A fragment from a jam session with my friend Fred, who I am secretly recruiting for a Live Band Thing.
9. A fragment from a jam session with my friend Kevin, who I am also  secretly recruiting for a Live Band Thing.
10. Passions and Peculiarities. The title is taken from a sentence deep inside my partner's dissertation, and coincidentally this is their favorite song on the album.
11. Outside, Last Night. The last track I completed for "The Nine Doors", my first full-length Sudre's Violin album.
12. Professor Penumbra. My first contribution to Disquiet Junto.

You are twice as likely to be moved emotionally if you use headphones.

About Disquiet Junto: disquiet.com/2023/12/21/disquie…625-noise-ceiling/

Audio Journal 2023 (disquiet0626)

A response to Disquiet Junto 0627: Just Ice Society.

The vocals were created using AI-enhanced text-to-speech, using content adapted from WikiHow. 

Recorded and produced at NOSIGNAL Multimedia Labs, The Shambles, Chicago, IL USA.

About Disquiet Junto 0627: https://disquiet.com/2024/01/04/disquiet-junto-project-0627-just-ice-society/

Making Ice at Home May Seem Overwhelming (disquiet0627)

Recorded, edited, mixed & mastered on 11 Sep 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA.

Synth, samples, effects

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, 21 Oct 2020, Manhattan, NYC, USA

Music & art © 2020, 2025 Jim Lemanowicz

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This original version of “How Monotonous, Herr Pencil” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent. The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

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

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

Patreon & Soundcloud - blisterpop
YouTube - Jimmy Lem
TikTok - jimmlem
Bluesky - jimmylem.bsky.social

How Monotonous, Herr Pencil (disquiet0715)

Disquiet Junto's 715th prompt was simple: record yourself making a mistake on purpose, and emphasize the error through repetition. 

Long-time readers will know that I favor narrative in my pieces, so I created a little vignette: we listen in on a frustrated pianist in a parlor, as she tries to improvise on a piano with a bad E4. (The piece was improvised, but it was refined over a couple of takes.) 

Features synthetic piano, organic vocal, and ambient field recording.

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

Improv in A minor (on a piano with a sticky key) (disquiet0715)

My take on this was to use glitches or extraneous sounds that crop up in field recordings. These are usually edited out but here I extracted some from a couple of recordings and joined them to form a continuous sequence. After extending this sequence and adding a touch of reverb and delay I combined it with an evolving electronic drone.

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

Field Glitches (disquiet0715)

If there is one thing that I excel at, its a lack of technique. So this is a perfect Disquiet Junto assignment for me. I just received the wonderful Chromaplane from Koma Elektronik, and after watching videos of Passepartout Duo's performances, I tried my hand at playing sequences on the Chromaplane where the errors quickly started to replicate themselves. There are missed beats, missed notes and variations on a theme that don't quite work. But I soldiered on to the end. On top of that mix, I added some ambient meanderings, again with the Chromaplane which were sent through the "Cinema Everything" patch on the Zoia. Both tracks were sent directly to my recorder without any further editing, thereby keeping the errors intact!

disquiet0715

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

Out of Tune with Maths(disquiet0715)

I create original experimental, postpunk, and experiential music from my studio in Chicago. The Hard Times described my work as "creepy, haunted, but also a little bit uplifting." Prolific.

Improv in A minor (on a piano with a sticky key) (disquiet0715)

Coraline Ada Ehmke