/the slow enfolding drones, the gentle splatter of water... this is a wonder & a ｊoy.  

Interesting process!  The drone sounds like a turbine that's powered by the source material of the track.

A set of tracks from the 29th weekly project from the Disquiet Junto group. 

The Assignment: Make music from running water, inspired by William Gibson's novel Count Zero.

More information on the group at: 

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info

More on the specific project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

Disquiet Junto Project 0029: Count Zero

condition: (as determined by the ninth <a href="http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto">junto</a> project) produce a track that combines a source recording of bird song and a source recording of acoustic guitar. four samples are provided: two guitar (<a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/30266/">1</a>, <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/40866/">2</a>), two bird song (<a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/14909/">1</a>, <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/32480/">2</a>). you will select one of the two guitar samples and one of the two bird-song samples. you will employ only those two samples in the production of your track. duration must be between two and five minutes.

estlerot is a duo, this track was initiated by promethean

d: <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/14909/">avian sample</a>, electronics (effects), tape loops 
p: <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/40866/">guitar sample</a>, dictaphone, electronics (effects)

0304 1405 excerpt (disquiet0009-avian)

condition: (as determined by the ninth <a href="http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto">junto</a> project) produce a track that combines a source recording of bird song and a source recording of acoustic guitar. four samples are provided: two guitar (<a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/30266/">1</a>, <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/40866/">2</a>), two bird song (<a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/14909/">1</a>, <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/32480/">2</a>). you will select one of the two guitar samples and one of the two bird-song samples. you will employ only those two samples in the production of your track. duration must be between two and five minutes.

estlerot is a duo, this track was initiated by david

d: <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/UncleSigmund/sounds/40866/">guitar sample</a>, electronics (effects), tape loops 
p: <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/reinsamba/sounds/14909/">avian sample</a>, dictaphone, electronics (effects)

0304 1329 edit (disquiet0009-avian)

 The trio includes Xavier Charles, Guylaine Cosseron and Frédéric Blondy. Their minimalist music is like a secret, or a confession that the voice of Guylaine Cosseron whispers in your ear. Frédéric Blondy’s piano underscores the vocals with a style reminiscent of Morton Feldman, while Xavier Charles makes time stand still through airy, drawn-out sounds on the clarinet. The vocals and clarinet intertwine, combine and separate, punctuated by the piano’s rhythm or harmony, creating a pared down, small yet infinite space, lightly brushing up against the silence.   

Trio formé par Xavier Charles, Guylaine Cosseron et Frédéric Blondy, Il donne à entendre une musique minimale au bord du secret et de la confidence comme quelque chose que l'on murmurerait à l'oreille , chuchotis que suggère la voix de Guylaine Cosseron  traversée d'accents à la Morton Feldman dans le piano de Frédéric Blondy et où le temps s'étire sous de longs souffles émis par la clarinette de Xavier Charles. L'enchevêtrement des sons où voix et clarinette se rapprochent, se croisent et s'éloignent ponctués par le piano tantôt rythmique tantôt harmonique, ouvre un espace dépouillé, infime et infini, frôlant le silence comme une caresse.

Xavier Charles, Guylaine Cosseron, Frederic Blondy

I had just the field recording for this.  It was recorded in early 2011 at a garden center / drug store near my house.  The sprinkler was on a timer and was watering trees and shrubs late in the evening, and I heard it while exiting the store so I ran home and got my portable digital audio recorder and got about 8 minutes along with bird and parking lot sounds while sitting in my car.

For this piece, I carved out a little over 2 minutes of the field recording then added some of the rhythm source I used in Disquiet0020 Nodebeat, a looped bit of the train sound I used in Disquiet0002 Duet, along with some background color used in Disquiet0001 Ice.

Had to mix it all so the non-sprinkler rhythms wouldn't overpower the source, as advised.  I think the Nodebeat rhythm is very complimentary even if it and the sprinkler regularly go out of phase but I like it when things go out of phase.

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info 

Prickly Sprinkler (disquiet0029-countzero)

This is four recordings of rain hitting inverted singing bowls of varying sizes. These were then cut into samples of 15, 13, 11 and 9 seconds and then looped 8 times. After the 4th repetition of each sample, I faded in the hold function on the "Ambient" VST which freezes any sound.  There was also some ping pong delay, overdrive and EQ'ing involved with each sample.

Disquiet Junto Project 0029: Count Zero 

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/ ;

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Disquiet Junto

Forecast [disquiet0029-countzero]

Disquiet Junto Project 0029: Count Zero

  This week's project is inspired by an aside that occurs at the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's classic cyberpunk novel Count Zero, originally published in 1986. The chapter is titled "The Squirrel Wood." It opens as follows:   "The plane had gone to ground near the sound of running water. Turner could hear it, turning in the g-web in his fever or sleep, water down stone, one of the oldest songs."  

This idea of water running down stone, of a gentle but insistent natural stream, being one of the "oldest songs" is explored further in the chapter in various subtle ways. The Disquiet Junto project this week is to explore that idea: that there is music in the natural environment. We'll makes songs from running water.  

Instructions:

  Step 1: Locate and make a field recording of source material that involves running water. It can be a stream, as in the Gibson book, but it needn't be natural. The sink, a toilet, a hose in the backyard — any such source material would be fine.  

Step 2: Extract a segment of the recording. That segment will serve as the basis for your composition, as its foundation. It will provide both rhythmic and melodic material. You can either use one long piece of the recording, or you can create the foundation of the track by combining and looping one or more brief segments of your original field recording.

  Step 3: Add elements and treatments to the foundation recording of running water. Do so with the intention of highlighting the water's internal sense of rhythm and melody. Do not embellish so much that the foundation recording becomes unrecognizable.   

Information:

This was a fairly rushed project as I am on business in Baltimore and New York at the moment. God bless wifi on Amtrak's Acela Express … greetings from Delaware at speed!

The recordings were made with an iPhone and the 4 track app of a dripping faucet/tap in my hotel (I had to make it drip, the plumbing was fine) and the overrun of the shower as it hit the resonant faucet beneath.

From these I was able to take a number of rhythmic, semi-resonant loops that I brought into Ableton Live for processing. If you've listened to many of my Junto projects, you'll know that I try to steer clear of pieces that only contain rhythmic constituents, so I also created a couple of granular patches from the sound waves of the water. This all seemed to give the track a post-rock/ambient feel.

These harmonic tracks were run through various instances of Guitar Rig to give some depth to the sounds. All the while, the rhythmic water sounds were pushed around the stereo field a little and given some glitchy movement.

Conceptually I saw this as pulling melody from rhythm with the latter being almost a cage within which the harmonic character is restrained.  

Credits:

Photo: Faucet in Baltimore @echosonic

  The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.  

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at: 

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info

A Good Morning in Baltimore [disquiet0029-countzero]

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero. More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/. More details on the Disquiet Junto at http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info.

Process:
- take a 30-second excerpt from a field recording I made of the Contoocook River in Peterborough, NH
- time-stretch it 7x in Paul's Extreme Stretch
- in Csound:
-- derive the spectral centroid[1] of each stereo track
-- use the centroid to control the pitch of a pair of sinewave oscillators
-- pass the oscillator tones through some reverb
-- combine the tones with the streatched water sound, crossfading so that the tones increase in amplitude as the water sound decreases
- convert to MP3 in Audacity

Image: "Animated loop of simulated hydrogen line spectra centroid jitter." found at http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/powerfrq.html, no copyright declared.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_centroid

Subsurface Tension [disquiet0029-countzero]

condition: (as determined by the twenty-ninth <a href="http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/">junto project</a>) make a field recording of source material that involves running water to act as a foundation for a sound work providing both rhythmic and melodic material. add elements and treatments to the foundation recording, with the intention of highlighting the water's internal sense of rhythm and melody, while keeping the original recording recognizable. duration should be between 2 and 4 minutes.

process: melodic content was produced from a field recording of a river as the only source material using a resonant filter and reel to reel tape loops. the recording documents the gradual removal of elements allowing different elements to surface.

http://www.davidandree.com/blog/?p=1626


 

the river makes its own refrain (disquiet0029-countzero)

condition: (as determined by the fortieth <a href="http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/">junto project</a>) create a unique performance as a third part to accompany kenneth kirschner (piano) and tawnya popoff's (viola) duet "<em><a href="http://shskh.com/www/">june 5, 2012 - iii</a></em>." you cannot change the existing audio. the finished work should have a duration between two and eleven minutes.
 
process: as the original was played back an improvisation was recorded in a single pass with no overdubs, using percussion, an aux signal of the original (to simulate getting a live mixer feed from the other performers), electronics (effects) and tape loops.

d: yarn mallet, brushes, chimes, bells, electronics (effects), modified reel-to-reel tape machines, tape loops

1007 194643 (disquiet0040-kirschnerplus1)

Recorded by John Marks
November 10, 2012
Madame of the Arts
Minneapolis, MN

Tilth in duo format here...
Nathan McLaughlin - Guitar/Banjo/Reels/Yelling
Cody Yantis - Guitar/Bow/Sax/Nice Smile

Flyer art by Casey Deming

Live....Madame of the Arts....November 10th, 2012

A and B side selections from my new LP on Sunshine Ltd 

Edition of 100

Purchase LP here

Josh Mason—The Symbiont (album preview)

edit of an improvised live performance on 3/5/13 at madame of the arts in minneapolis mn.

david andree: yarn mallets, multi-rods, birdcall, contact mic surface, electronics, tape
promethian k frimsk: percussion, bowed bowl, rubber ball, electronics

0305 madame performance edit

Multi-channel field recording of 12,000 Italian bees at Buckeye Creek Farm Cherokee GA.
The setup consisted of four wooden packages of bee's containing 3000 bees each stacked on top of each other creating a wall of swarming noise. 

 Captured with the Neumann RSM 191-A/S and DPA SMK 4060 omnidirectional miniature stereo microphones. Everything was recorded at 24-bit 96khz with the Sound Devices 744T and Mixpre-D. Free Download

Watch the video here: https://vimeo.com/63253584
http://buckeyecreekfarmga.com/

Multi-channel field recording of 12,000 bees at Buckeye Creek Farm.

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.

the river makes its own refrain (disquiet0029-countzero)

david andree

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