More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is from Wikipedia and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlennBranca#/media/File:GlennBranca-2012.jpg

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca

Fluctuating(disquiet0334)

date released 25.05.2018


made with trumpet, pure data, roland mc505

mass  (disquiet0334)

a singing bowl sample played back in 105 voices, each different - mainly an experiment on how many simultaneous voices my computer could process but each voice is effected and altered somewhat

Glenn Branca's The Ascension is a fantastic, classic album - this doesn't have the power of any of that stuff, but it was fun playing with one of his techniques


More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

105 Variants Of A Singing Bowl Sample (for Glenn Branca)- disquiet0334

Tones For Glenn Branca disquiet0334

Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca
Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer.

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

Step 1: This project is a tribute to the late avant-garde composer and guitarist Glenn Branca, who died earlier this month. Among Branca’s many musical systems was to have a vast number of musicians, say 100 guitarists for example, perform together. We’re going to explore that mass of sound to produce a mass in Branca’s memory. It will be a Mass Mass.

Step 2: Pick a single sound source, an instrument perhaps, but really anything that makes a specific sound. One thing to aim for is a sound source that is rich in overtones.

Step 3: Use multiple layers (with “multiple” being defined as you see fit — 100 layers would be awesome, but so too would 10, 30, 50, etc.) of this sound source to record a piece of music.

Mass Jets

11 stratocaster electric guitars
3 electric basses
additional e-bow electric guitar improvisation

Recorded by DD in Paris, France , Friday 25th May 2018 as part of the Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca

More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca

Glenn Branca Preservation Act (disquiet0334)

Florence, Italy, summer of 1990. Suss Müsik is sitting in a cafe with three fellow international students from the local art college. We've surpassed the "pleasantly drunk" phase and are rapidly accelerating into the "lemme tell you what I really think" stage. 

Tonight's topic of conversation is whether cultural salvation can be found in the likes of David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Jenny Holzer and Robert Longo.

"I hate Robert Longo's work," moans Daniel the post-modern painter from Cleveland. "Everything he’s done looks like that Branca album cover."

"What’s a Branca," slurs Roberto, whom we've dubbed Bill the Person because we suspect that’s his real name. 

"He's one of those New York types," rasps Hartley the hippie sculptor in his Arkansas drawl. "Like Laurie Anderson."

"Branca's nothing like Laurie Anderson," growls Suss Müsik. "For one thing, Laurie Anderson's work is exceedingly boring."

"Oh, like Branca's not?" asks Daniel. "I mean, if you enjoy ear-piercing volume then that's great, but boring and loud is still boring. And you really need to see Home of the Brave."

"Home of the Bore is more like it," growls Suss Müsik. "And seriously, have you actually listened to The Ascension? Do you not hear the hidden tones between the layers of dissonance? The majestic sonic interplay created by hundreds of guitarists strumming a single chord? It's like a symphony orchestra."

"Do you guys like the new New Order?" interrupts Bill the Person.

"I don't even like the old New Order," dismisses Hartley with a wave of his hand. “Except that one song that goes ‘this is not my beautiful house.’”

Daniel points at Suss Müsik. "You're nuts."

"Defending Glenn Branca is nuts? At least someone at this table knows the difference between New Order and Talking Heads. Branca's music isn't loud for the sake of volume. It’s genuinely uplifting, cathartic. Plus, his participation in the No Wave movement helped to democratize a male-dominated landscape.”

"Democratic dominatrix no wave what?" squints Bill the Person.

"That is true," Daniel quietly admits, nodding his head thoughtfully. "I hadn’t considered Branca's influence on bands like Bush Tetras, Ut and Sonic Youth.” He pauses to wipe his hands on his Silence=Death t-shirt. "Maybe I should go back and check out Lesson No. 1."

“Branca’s best stuff successfully blurs the line between highbrow and lowbrow art forms," continues Suss Müsik. “You like Philip Glass, right? Some of Branca’s more cerebral work is similar. And if you want to jump up and down and get sweaty, the final two minutes of Light Field (In Consonance) is perfect. Branca's probably the most maximal minimalist composer working today."

"My favorite Allman Brothers album is Eat a Peach," croaks Hartley. We already knew this because he mentions it every night.

"You know," concludes Suss Müsik, "one day, there will be a global collective of talents who will come together to celebrate composers like Glenn Branca. They'll explore the nuances of his craft through their own creative efforts. Who knows — maybe there’ll be some sort of communication technology that will allow musicians to share their output with a worldwide community of peers, inspiring  artistic development among trusted friends."

"Now you're just talking crap," murmurs Daniel, shaking his head. "Have another beer."

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at: https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Longago [Disquiet0334]

My being no Glenn Branca, soldiered forth anyway in honor of what he's done. Started with one actuator (an electric toothbrush) and 4 resonators (a pewter pitcher, a ceramic fruit bowl, a bowl-like bit of clear plastic packaging, and a metal mixing bowl).  Recordings of those physical interactions got messed about by a smartphone program, Reelwave, that emulates varispeed playback of a open reel tape deck. All that was played through a found karaoke machine with built-in echo and recorded to ten tracks (twice my usual--to fit in with the "massive" Glenn Branca theme of this Junto), then mixed down to six minutes plus of noisy droney.

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

2018

Shake Loose-disquiet0334

**Production Notes**

No, there’s not much happening here (but a lot happened behind the scenes). 

Staying at the French equivalent of „In the middle of nowhere“, I didn’t have much equipment with me. So I did an half-hour field recording of the Lusignac soundscapes. You should see the scenery: Lush green meadows, apple trees, lovely hills, birds, a stream, everything’s peaceful here. 

I cut the recording in 96 pieces, each 20 seconds long. In the first 20 seconds you can hear me turning the recorder on. After that, every 5 seconds another 20-second snippet comes in. They are panned from right to middle, then from the left to mid again. The piece closes with me turning the recorder off.

When I came up with the idea, I thought the piece would end up in pure white noise. 96 layers aren’t enough - you can still hear birds, though the faint airplane noises and the crickets start adding up to serious rumble and a painful hiss. 

Maybe I should record another half hour. 

* * * 

**Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca**

Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer.

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

Step 1: This project is a tribute to the late avant-garde composer and guitarist Glenn Branca, who died earlier this month. Among Branca’s many musical systems was to have a vast number of musicians, say 100 guitarists for example, perform together. We’re going to explore that mass of sound to produce a mass in Branca’s memory. It will be a Mass Mass.

Step 2: Pick a single sound source, an instrument perhaps, but really anything that makes a specific sound. One thing to aim for is a sound source that is rich in overtones.

Step 3: Use multiple layers (with “multiple” being defined as you see fit — 100 layers would be awesome, but so too would 10, 30, 50, etc.) of this sound source to record a piece of music.

Background: While knowledge of Glenn Branca’s work isn’t necessary to participate, it is recommended to read up and listen a bit.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0334” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0334” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Please consider posting your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

(…)

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is from Wikipedia and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GlennBranca#/media/File:GlennBranca-2012.jpg

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

Lusignac [disquiet0334]

I kind of cheated a little on this one, as we had to use a single sound source and my sound source is actually a composite of two samples, one from a kalimba and one from my desk lamp. I had used this "instrument" extensively on an older track* before, and I thought it was rich enough to carry a piece by itself. I made about twenty clips, most of which use only one tone in quite a repetitive rhythm, and offset the starting points for various clips to create some interesting polyrhythms. Then I added reverb and delay where I felt like it, hit record and started clips one by one. I made very few changes to the arrangement afterwards, and only the most basic mastering touches. This is the result. Tell me what you think.

*https://soundcloud.com/supplebe/leon


More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

disquiet0334 - Mass Branca

Took this file as my sound source, it being a rather poor attempt at a rupturing pipe with a resonant hit and a burst of steam! But taking the concept at least of a metal pipe as the 'source', I cheekily used a few other metal pipe files from my fx library as well.. obviously it all needed some reverb, so I went for metallic / spring verbs there too...

Lots and lots of layers of a metal pipe being filed make up the sustained sections..

At one point the mass was so great that my computer started jittering, and that glitchy audio was then blended back into the original too :)


-----

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

69 Large Steam Pipe  Rupture Impact [disquiet0334]

R.I.P. Glenn Branca.  

For this weeks junto project I ran a synth patch through a guitar amp about 8 times.  On each pass through I altered the settings of the patch and the amp.  I then took the results of the 8 tracks and layered them at multiple speeds/tempos.  This resulted in about 64 layers of sound.

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Gabriel's Horn [disquiet0334]

Theoretical Girl (disquiet0334)

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is from Wikipedia and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Branca#/media/File:Glenn_Branca-2012.jpg

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

halF brancA [disquiet0334]

Never Say…(disquiet0334)
I cry uncle.
While I am familiar with Glenn Branca peripherally, his music slipped under the radar for me, so a quick google search brought up many examples to check out. The Symphony #1 - Tonal Plexus, particularly Movement 1 was a favorite.
The prompt was also nice excuse to get out the Steinberg U-22 and violin bow. Logic was chosen for the large number of instrument tracks necessary for my particular take on guitar orchestration, the trusty iPad just wouldn’t have the horsepower. With a recent SSD upgrade, I was also curious to see how much of a performance gain there would be during production.
The guitar was tuned G B C# G B(broken 2nd E) for a G(b5), knowing that bowing would be tricky in the middle. Then the fun began. This is so much easier watching than doing. While the bridge height didn’t help, some interesting sounds emerged. The track opens with a bowing just north of the nut and heads down to the bridge pick up for voice and volume. The technique was sporadic at best and the tuning changed with bowing as opposed to picking, so results are noisy, unpredictable and occasionally stuttered. It didn’t help that the rosin had hardened beyond usefulness ;-) But the dry recording had something interesting?!? This dry recording was stacked and cut up into 50 tracks. Why 50? I had given up at 42, it had just became so hard to manage mixing. But after a good meal, movie and nights rest, I was refreshed enough to add the 8 tracks for a half-assed attempt at 100…half=50…ha ha ha…
Anyways, these 50 tracks were mixed with so many cabinet, pedalboard and outboard effects, that I couldn’t even begin to list them all! Just know that each has it’s own little sound and it’s own little space in the field. Probably not something I would attempt again, but fun one time :-D
**This is the short version, the original had a 20 minute tape delay tail :-O
My music videos - www.youtube.com/channel/UCc_iQ5JFusPt9EIwKIZ5rew

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Never Say…(disquiet0334)

Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca

I made 135 tracks of guitar for this weeks Disquiet project.  

The first sound is an attempt at creating a granular synth effect by recording 24 tracks of arthymical muted guitar picking.  

The the drones are about 50 tracks of ebow and harmonics fading in and out.   With enough tracks the fades disappear and it becomes a continuous sound.  

The next sound is an attempt at recreating the THX Deep Note using a slide guitar (The THX score was getting some press coverage this week).  I recorded 20 different notes starting on either E or B and sliding off to a nearby note.  I reversed all these and mixed them together.  The slides don't sustain enough to create a long sound but the huge chord fading in is kind of like the Deep Note.  

The next section is 12 tracks of funk done with guitar alone.  I tried using different length loops to create polyrhythmic effects.

After that there are 7 tracks of me tapping on the guitar rhythmically.  It sounds a bit like a sequenced modular synth.  Also there a 8 tracks of pick scraping and 4 tracks of harmonics for effects.  

The outro is a combination of all the sounds and has 135 tracks playing at once.  At this stage my DAW started to wig out.

Zen Wanker (disquiet0334)

i recorded i think 90-odd toots on my harmonica , paulstretched coz that works well with harmonica and i wanted a nice drone (missed drone day yesterday) a bit of denoising but i thought the rumble and hiss worked quite well
.

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/
Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca
Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer.

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

Step 1: This project is a tribute to the late avant-garde composer and guitarist Glenn Branca, who died earlier this month. Among Branca’s many musical systems was to have a vast number of musicians, say 100 guitarists for example, perform together. We’re going to explore that mass of sound to produce a mass in Branca’s memory. It will be a Mass Mass.

Step 2: Pick a single sound source, an instrument perhaps, but really anything that makes a specific sound. One thing to aim for is a sound source that is rich in overtones.

Step 3: Use multiple layers (with “multiple” being defined as you see fit — 100 layers would be awesome, but so too would 10, 30, 50, etc.) of this sound source to record a piece of music.

Background: While knowledge of Glenn Branca’s work isn’t necessary to participate, it is recommended to read up and listen a bit.

fledge disquiet0334

I took an old track from around 1999, named "Der Weltraum" (german for "space/universe"), which consisted itself of many layers (Shostakovich, Symphony No. 11, first movement; Tomita, don't remember yet) … which weren't recognizable any longer even at that time), and for "Twenty-three Weltraums" I layered 23 versions of it to get this version.

Maybe not mass enough, and no guitars … sorry, Glenn … but my contribution to disquiet0334 and my hommage to Branca.

Image: Massively multi-layered public domain space images  
---

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/

Twenty-three Weltraums [disquiet0334]

Track done for Disquiet Junto 0334, a tribute to Glenn Branca.

Multi-tracked assorted violin riffs, added echo, reverb, some comb filter on parts.  Tried to build up layers while generating some noise.

More discussion at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0334-mass-branca/13921/14

White Frosting

White Frosting  - DIsquiet0334

First rule of Disquiet Club: Step outside the guidelines.

So I used ZynAddSubFX and NanoStudio to create a rough, layered 1 minute track with a synth-y layer and an acid guitar layer, rather than a strictly ‘single sound’ source.

This was then multiplied, stretched, tempo-shifted, reversed, treated with Crazy Ivan, reverb, cut up and multi-tracked until it sort of made sense. Sort of. I do love that last chord…

"My opinion is this: Everything is right and everything is wrong; everything is yes and everything is no; everything is continuous and everything is not – all at once." – Glenn Branca

----------------------------------------------

Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer.

Major thanks to James Britt for contributing this Junto project prompt.

Step 1: This project is a tribute to the late avant-garde composer and guitarist Glenn Branca, who died earlier this month. Among Branca’s many musical systems was to have a vast number of musicians, say 100 guitarists for example, perform together. We’re going to explore that mass of sound to produce a mass in Branca’s memory. It will be a Mass Mass.

Step 2: Pick a single sound source, an instrument perhaps, but really anything that makes a specific sound. One thing to aim for is a sound source that is rich in overtones.

Step 3: Use multiple layers (with “multiple” being defined as you see fit — 100 layers would be awesome, but so too would 10, 30, 50, etc.) of this sound source to record a piece of music.

More on this 334th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0334: Mass Branca / Record a massive multi-layered tribute to the legendary guitarist-composer) at:

https://disquiet.com/0334/ 

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Everything is right and everything is wrong [disquiet0334] - for Glenn Branca

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.