Disquiets

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Disquiet Junto Project 0669: Phonosynthesis

The Assignment: Make music to help a forest regenerate.

A scientific research paper this month documented evidence that sound can help fungus grow. The conclusion: “Demonstrating a tangible impact on fungal activity, our findings suggest that carefully tuned acoustic parameters might be able to enhance ecological processes.”

Record music to help a forest grow. Imagine an array of solar-powered speakers is spread through a forest-in-need. Or come up with another deployment scenario of your own imagining. What sort of music would you play for the forest to encourage its regeneration?

The research paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0295.

Coverage in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/science/fungus-sounds-growth.html

The paper is the work of four people from the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, in Australia.

Thanks to Michael Rhode for having shared with me the research coverage.

Deadline: Monday, October 28, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0669

Disquiet Junto Project 0669: Phonosynthesis

DustBowlChampion - IWANNA WATCH YOU DANCE

in hell, i ate an angel.

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)

produced: goldenhour

picture by goldenhour: 

song title (@semichromatic)

my sleep paralysis demon is still coughing up worms

lyrics:

verse 1

When I realized I was here
It was a Sunday afternoon with me
I think you liked to dance
and I liked to sing

I was so nervous around you I
I really didn't know what to do
I thought I would grow old with you

but then you left me so down,down,down,down...

[chorus]

yes, you stopped calling me
at night, I no longer heard your stories
I asked myself where I went wrong
I had to learn how to be alone

Could it be that I was never right?
Well, that's what I ask myself sometimes
It's so hard to let it go
but I'll try

verse 2

When I realized, we were fighting all the time
you didn't look me in the eye anymore
Tell me, what's this for?

oh, the problem was with your father
you could have tried harder
But you didn't want that, right?

[chorus]

yes, you stopped calling me
at night, I no longer heard your stories
I asked myself where I went wrong
I had to learn how to be alone

Could it be that I was never right?
Well, that's what I ask myself sometimes
It's so hard to let it go
but I'll try

Sunday Afternoon Prod.Alt Beats

More on the 669th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Phonosynthesis — The Assignment: Make music to help a forest regenerate — at https://disquiet.com/0669/

more halF unusuaL

halF fungaL [disquiet0669]

I’ve always had plants in my studio, and someone once told me that even if sunlight is limited, the constant presence of music playing every day helps keep the plants healthy.

I don’t know about that, , but they look great and seem to grow steadily.

“Record music to help a forest grow.”

I believe that simply having musicians play acoustic instruments in the forest would only bring good to it.

Here I just played “woody”, natural percussion instruments, bamboo drums, wood sticks and blocks, conch shells, cuica, marimba, bombo legüero, talking drum and some other toys. I recorded 3 versions, this is the “fast” one.

Rain Forrest (Fast) - disquiet0669

Phonosynthesis

Disquiet Junto | Phonosynthesis - disquiet0669

According to my research of various websites, the consensus seems to be that calmer types of music are more conducive to plant growth. This track was created using Pure Data & various plugins, etc.
More on the 669th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Phonosynthesis — The Assignment: Make music to help a forest regenerate — at https://disquiet.com/0669/

Dendrosymphonic (disquiet0669)

Regeneration(disquiet0669)


This week's Disquiet Junto, titled "Phonosynthesis", asked us to record music to help a forest grow. The prompt was inspired by a study that demonstrated the influence of music on fungal growth, like that of the mycelium that connect the roots of plants and trees.

I thought of a deep green primordial forest, and imagined the fractal entanglement of the thread-like mycelium lighting up like neurons as information, nutrients, water, and even electricity flow from tree to tree and plant to plant through this fungal internet. All communication requires a protocol; the entirety of the internet depends on one called TCP/IP. So what would the protocol for the mycelium communication network be like? And what would it sound like?

More about this week's Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/0669


The Mycelium Protocol (disquiet0669)

Pre-order More Than Just A Dream http:smarturl.it/fitzdream 
Available Everywhere May 7th 



Out of My League

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.

The Mycelium Protocol (disquiet0669)

Coraline Ada Ehmke