Disquiet Junto Project 0529: Squared Off
The Assignment: Explore the number 23.

Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

Step 1: This is the 529th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project. The number 529 is what happens when you take the number 23 and multiply it by itself. Consider various interesting aspects of the number 23. For example: Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. It’s the number from the Birthday Paradox (read up!). Also, 529 is an “octagonal number” (read up some more!). The earth’s axis tilts at 23° (rounded down). Anyhow, have fun exploring.

Step 2: Make a piece of music that engages with the number 23.

Details at disquiet.com/0529

Disquiet Junto Project 0529: Squared Off

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

Ouroboros & Enigma23 (disquiet0529)

Disquiet Junto Project 0529: Squared Off
The Assignment: Explore the number 23.
Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:
More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) — at: https://disquiet.com/0529/
More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

NonsenseXXIIIcablesloop(disquiet0529)

The Assignment: Explore the number 23.

Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

Step 1: This is the 529th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project. The number 529 is what happens when you take the number 23 and multiply it by itself. Consider various interesting aspects of the number 23. For example: Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes. It’s the number from the Birthday Paradox (read up!). Also, 529 is an “octagonal number” (read up some more!). The earth’s axis tilts at 23° (rounded down). Anyhow, have fun exploring.

Step 2: Make a piece of music that engages with the number 23.

The 23 - disquiet0529

Disquiet Junto Project 0529: Squared Off
The Assignment: Explore the number 23.

I instantly wanted to do something with probabilities. So here are a lot of probabilities at work, thanks to Ableton: The pad (23 notes of A minor scale, with a 23% probability of being played an octave higher) and the gongs have a 23% probability of not to be played inside 1 bar with 1 note in a loop of 23 bars. The cymbal has a 23% probability of being played and, if played, a 23% probability of being a rainstick. The voices saying 'The Probability Is 23 Percent' are made with ttsmp3.com and I downloaded 23 different versions which had a switch probability of 23% (so not all of them may have been played; the 'stutter effect' is by accident, I did not found the cause and liked it anyway). And so on, with 23 bpm. I wanted to do 23 Minutes but to honor the "squared" prompt (and to spare you some repetition) it's only 529 seconds (8:49min). Be assured that, although I was a huge fan of The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Wilson/Shea and it may sound otherwise here, I didn't take all that too seriously…

It's CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 and A minor with 23bpm, feel free to remix.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) — at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

disquiet III

[more tracks here!]

The Probability Is 23 Percent [disquiet0529]

Times Itself [disquiet0529]
Created as part of Disquiet Junto weekly project 0529:  to make a piece of music that engages with the number 23.
This track has bars of 23 beats, it is 23 bars long.
I doubt the ear can discern the 23beat bar -but the rhythm is 123&12&12&123&12&12&123
The track has 3 drum tracks – done in bitwig. A Spitfire Audio piano, cello and violin plus acoustic drone recording of a metal sheet and a bit crushed megaphone announcement (in Japanese).The metal sheet friction drone is gate sequenced to an Euclidian patter on a 23 beat cycle.
The scale for the piano and strings is E+ F+ A B C+
Think it would make good closing credits music for a psychological thriller where a serial killer feasts on minor celebrities and influencers. The agent assigned to the case of course has his demons and struggles with his own autism -only to discover no one else has empathy for the victims either. It could be called LIKES!
Additional project info:
Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:
More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: https://disquiet.com/0529/
More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1
Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

Times Itself [disquiet0529]

Synths, sampled drums & sampled strings, electric guitars experiment inspired by this challenge:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off

DD, Paris Friday 18th February 2022.

Twenty Three (disquiet0529)

Disquiet0529 Question 23

disquiet0529 - Squared Off

This is the 529th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project. The number 529 is what happens when you take the number 23 and multiply it by itself.

https://disquiet.com/2022/02/17/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/52842

Considering the number 23 here...
Three percussion tracks, of 23/4, 23/8, and 23/16.
One percussion track, of 23/8, with a bouncing ball algorithm for repeated fading midi notes with Mass and Gravity set to (sensible multiples of) 23.
One 4/4 loop, trimmed / stretched to 23/8 (I think!).
One 23/8 synth part, with two sends into Replika XT for a tasty wash.
And since Psalm 23 is the lovely "Shepherd" Psalm, I used two Shepherd Tone tracks to flesh out the tonal structure.
Finally, to tie in the 23 - the track title Zygote - human zygote formation is the moment whereby a new 23+23=46-chromosome human potential lies from its parents. Evolution at work...

Track image - Lahinch beach, Co. Clare, Ireland, 13th Feb 2022

Hope you enjoy...

Zygote (disquiet0529)

“The sun is not the well-behaved neighbor we would like to imagine,” says Sten F. Odenwald, the author of a book entitled The 23rd Cycle: Learning to Live with a Stormy Star. During the year 2000, at the peak of the sun’s 23rd cycle (according to when scientists began tracking solar storm activity), the number of observed sunspots reached its highest recorded peak to that point. 

Geomagnetic storms are defined by changes in the disturbance-storm-time index (or DST), measured in units called nano-Tesla (nT). Think of it as something like barometric pressure, only on the sun. A geomagnetic storm is considered an intense “super-storm” when it reaches a minimum DST of less than —250 nT.

As the 23rd cycle closed in the year 2008, Odenwald warned that outbreaks of solar storm activity would only increase in future cycles. The historical models are already sobering; a geomagnetic storm caused the March1989 failure of Québec’s entire power grid, leaving six million people without electricity and causing auroras seen all the way to Texas. The minimum DST of this storm was —589 nT. (It would have been a delicious irony if the integer was 529, but alas).

With this cheerful tidbit in mind, Suss Müsik considered how the ionosphere of sound could be rendered unstable, causing fragments of foreboding beauty. A sampled bowl was refactored using a grain synthesizer, its shimmer used in parallel with a distressed organ sound. A Red Panda Particle pedal was used for the looping parts at 23 BPM.

The piece is titled DST —589 nT and was recorded live to 8-track.

Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) — at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

DST —589 NT [Disquiet0529]

23 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) — at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

Psalms 23 (King James Version)disquiet0529

A live electronic sequence created in Pure Data. The tempo is based on units of 230 ms (around 130 bpm).

Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

23x10 (disquiet0529)

Field recordings, OP-1, Beads and Mimeophon.

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Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

(disquiet0529)

The assignment: Make a piece of music that engages with the number 23

Polyrhythms and polymeters are something I find interesting, but I don’t get around to incorporating them in my own music very much. I’ve done some experiments, but they usually don’t turn out very satisfactory. 
But hey, this Disquiet Junto assignment was as good an opportunity as any to give it another shot.

Specific inspiration came from a Youtube video I watched recently by drummer Yogev Gabay, who uses his channel to explore rhythmic ideas. https://youtu.be/aOgE4J2Iuw4
The video analyses a song by composer and trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf: Free Spirit
https://youtu.be/Bvu4RhI3l_c
The song uses a 17/16 over 4/4 polymeter, which works great: the song is quite lovely, and while it’s probably hard to play, as a listener you don’t have the feeling of listening to something that’s super contrived.

So, borrowing this concept, my little sketch of a track does a 23 over 6 (I think…) polymeter. That is: the plinky plonky riff is a pattern of 23 16th notes which keeps repeating. Simultaneously the keyboard motif is 6 16th notes long, which adds up to 24 when repeated 4 times.So, after a cycle of 24, the patterns have drifted one 16th note out of sync, the riff now being a bit early.
By the end of the 4th repetition of the 24 beat cycle, with the patterns about to go 4 16th notes out of sync, the keyboard part suddenly does a little sprint to catch up, getting both parts to sync up again.

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

Squared Off(disquiet0529)

It was a convoluted process recording this track.
I started recording 115 bars (23x5 (5=2+3))of a Numerology drum and synth patch  fed into beads. Playback was slowed to 2/3 speed and I played over the top by hopping through recordings on a Radio Music module to emulate Burroughs 23 Skidoo cutup piece.
My MacBook kept crashing when trying to bounce the track down and would hang whilst rebooting - this behaviour was probably coincidental and unrelated to the number 23.
Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) — at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

23voices(disquiet0529)

[disquiet0529] The Grid

For Disquiet Junto 0529, the square root of 529 = 23. I used this number to set the duration(2:30 long) and to divide my track into 23 mini slices (around 6.5 seconds each) for various automations and pacing - they become rather subtle - you'd never know they are there...

after using my voice, and counting, I ended up humming into a Chase Bliss Audio Mood pedal which conjured harmonious moments that I ended up playing like a small instrument.

Last night, the sounds of my family at a Hibachi grill prompted me to capture some audio with my phone my shirt pocket.  I squared the intensity off with some in my back yard recording bamboo in the breeze.  Family time.  Alone time.  Always need both.

appreciate it / Squared Off(Disquiet0529)

Riffing on 23 lead me to find a 23×73 encoding of the Arecibo Message, which I chopped down, arbitrarily to a 23×23 encoding. I then used that as the basis for randomised chords, modulated by a Euclidean rhythm of 23 steps, which was then further mixed with a 23rd of the original stretched to the full 23 bars. Throughout there are settings at 23% or 23ms or 77%, etc. It's not what I was expecting to end up with.

Original 23×73 image by Jarmo Kivekas—https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jarmokivekas
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More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

arecibo (disquiet0529)

Divina Commedia.  Inferno canto XXIII.

Carmelo Bene - Dante, Inferno XXXIII (La Bocca).
Vittoria Gassman- Dante, Inferno XXIII.
Vittorio Sermonti- Dante, Inferno XXIII.

Inferno XXIII [disquiet0529]

Short piece tuned to 23edo, made using Aalto.

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Major thanks to Eanna Butler for helping come up with this project:

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) — at: https://disquiet.com/0529/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0529-squared-off/

l'humeur du poisson gris - disquiet0529

The first few seconds of this song also appear during the intro of "New Positive", an early disquiet submission.

More on this 529th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Squared Off (The Assignment: Explore the number 23) – at: disquiet.com/0529/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-pr…t-0529-squared-off/

Shifting 23 (disquiet0529) By SinnySounds is licensed under a  Creative Commons License.

Shifting 23 (disquiet0529)

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.