Disquiet Junto Project 0676: Sub Melody
The Assignment: Bury a slow melody deep inside a drone.

Step 1: We did a drone project last week and it went well, so let’s do another one. You needn’t have done last week’s to do this week, as is always the case. Again, you may, yourself, be experienced recording drone music, or you may never have recorded any. You may not even be sure what drone music is, in which case read up a bit. Not matter your experience and familiarity, please give some thought as to what constitutes drone music.

Step 2: Think about what makes a melody, even a very slow and simple melody, different from a drone.

Step 3: Now record a piece of music that is, objectively, a deep drone, but somehow within it, somewhere well below the surface, include a slow-moving melody.

Up to my neck - disquiet0676

This is my 50th Disquiet Junto contribution of the year!

The final Disquiet Junto prompt of the year invited us to make a short audio journal of the music and sounds that we've made in 2024. Once again I took liberties with some of the specific instructions but I knew that I needed to make it this way.

Features synthetic vocals as well as excerpt from the following songs:

* "Making Ice at Home May Seem Overwhelming" (Coraline Ada Ehmke)
* "Someone (or Something)" (Coraline Ada Ehmke)
* "Black Rainbow" (Sudre's Violin)
* "The Whirlwind" (Sudre's Violin)
* "Darker Layter" (Sudre's Violin)
* "The Mod" (Coraline Ada Ehmke)
* "Theme for A People's History of Tech" (Coraline Ada Ehmke)
* "Byzantine Valentine" (Coraline Ada Ehmke)
* "Perilous Overtones" (Sudre's Violin)
* "Why Can't You Fly?" (Sudre's Violin)
* "The Untimely Death of JF Sebastian" (The Disaster Society)

More about this week's Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/0678

Audio Journal 2024 (disquiet0678)

This week's Disquiet Junto prompt, "Reverse Resolution", challenged us to finish something that we had left unfinished in 2024. 

During the holiday break I wrote a new piece for an upcoming album from my Sudre's Violin postpunk project, and just for fun produced it as a recording of a "rare live performance". My intention was to also record a canonical "studio version" of the song at some point. So why not now?

If you try to dance to this song, I will not be held responsible for any damages or injuries that occur. Features Yamaha piano, a lead instrument made from a tortured dobro sample, synthethic bass, hand-programmed drums, and some vintage pads. 

(If you want to hear the original "live" version, it's here: https://soundcloud.com/coralineada/the-puzzle-box-waltz-live)

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

The Puzzle Box Waltz (disquiet0680)

Even though afar
a feeling of coolness comes
from those mountain pines

Kagami Shikō was a Japanese poet, considered one of the ten outstanding disciples (Shōmon jittetsu 蕉門十哲) of Matsuo Bashō. He was in turn the master of the famous poetess Fukuda Chiyo-ni.

Originally from the present-day Gifu Prefecture, Kagami Shikō became a monk at Daichi-ji Temple, and in 1690 he became a pupil of Bashō, later accompanying him on some of his journeys and recording his last will in 1694.

After Basho's death, he kept travelling around Japan, writing several essays on haiku and collections of writings until his death in 1731.

Distant Pines(NaviarHaiku575)

RIP David Lynch.

Disquiet Junto 0681 directed us to compose a sonic scene from a thriller, a walk or run to remember. If you're familiar with my work you know that I love a good narrative piece, and recently the Junto has encouraged a bit of sound design, so I felt well-prepared.

I wanted to avoid the trope of a woman being followed late at night, and instead went with the trope of the hitchhiker who may not be all that she seems to be. I spent a lot of time on stereo orchestration so please use headphones when listening.

Instrumentation was simple: a custom pad called "Shipwreck Organ" provided the pedal tone, with a lonely live guitar following along with minimal and mournful notes. 

There were a lot of samples used in this piece. The cars passing along the highway were hidden deep in Apple's Final Cut Pro library folder. The sound of single car approaching, idling, car door slamming, and pulling away is a composite of samples from Pixabay and field recordings. The BBC archive provided the car crash sample. The night sounds were from a field recording made in rural Virginia. The crunch of gravel underfoot took a bit of foley work: a recording of a potato mashing into a bowl of granola and manipulated a bit in Logic. The under-the-breath singing and humming of the hitchhiker was a live vocal performance recorded in studio and processed.

More on the 681st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drama Course — The Assignment: Record a piece of music to transform a walk or a run into something theatrical — at https://disquiet.com/0681/

The Hitchhiker (disquiet0681)

Like A Prayer On A Branch (feat David Shapiro)

The Assignment: Combine reverberant and non-reverberant.

There is just one step to this project. Record a piece of music in which half of the material is recorded in a highly reverberant space (or has spaciousness applied to it through effects) and half of the material is just sound in isolation, devoid of any sense of space or place.

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

Space Shot (Disquiet0683)

will be reworked for my new ongoing project at:

https://museumofhistoricalmaterials.bandcamp.com

[naviarhaiku 579] fumes and ash

Crumblige flur_05

Dark Ambient Music inspired by the writings of HP Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos cult. Be scared and enjoy!

CTHULHU MYTHOS: THRONE OF INSANITY

This week’s Disquiet Junto prompt got me thinking about the somatic vs autonomic nervous systems, and how performing music can be a dance between muscle memory and intellect, instinct and intention. In reflecting on how I could explore this tension intentionally, I set out to record a minimal number of tracks, each of which had combination of attributes that were either ignored, made without decision, or deliberate.

The tone synths are custom patches designed on Logic’s physical modeling synth, Sculpture. I largely ignored pitch and concentrated on shaping and manipulating long-held notes with combinations of mod wheel, pitch wheel, and aftertouch performances.

The bass was recorded live with my Lakland. I selected a single note played at octaves, so I was able to hold the same fingering all the way through (which hurt) and not think about it (except it hurt). I paid closest attention to the way I plucked the strings, aiming for consistent intonation.

The piano part was fun, using a tinkly detuned patch I call “Gasoline Piano”. I downplayed rhythm and paid close attention to the selection of just the right notes for the broken melody.

As is my habit these days, all of the parts were recorded live, first takes only, no looping, and little to no editing.

I have to confess that this piece represents my second attempt at this week’s prompt. I spent the better part of a day with another idea, and as intriguing as it was, I simply could not make it work. It was hard to let go, but finally I listened to my intuition, set it aside for another day, and returned to the prompt with a fresh mind.

More on the 687th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Applied Science — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that includes physiological and behavioral techniques — at https://disquiet.com/0687/

The Hand with a Mind of Its Own (disquiet0687)

Coraline Ada Ehmke creates original experiential music from NOSIGNAL Multimedia Lab in The Shambles, Chicago. The Hard Times described her music as "creepy, haunted, but also a little bit uplifting." Prolific.