Disquiet Junto Project 0565: Musical Folly
The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept.

Step 1: Consider the concept of a folly in architecture. The Oxford English Dictionary has defined a folly as “A costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.” Look at other definitions.

Step 2: Consider how the idea of a folly might be transposed, so to speak, to music.

Step 3: Make a piece of music inspired by the thoughts that arose in Step 2.

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

. . .

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) — at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

Disquiet Junto Project 0565: Musical Folly

Short and sickly sweet, the response to this week's Disquiet Junto (0565).

On sight of the prompt I was immediately drawn to a series of miniatures that I improvised and played around with using the editing on Audacity for when I did a residency during 2021's lockdown at Round Chapel in Hackney, London, UK (https://www.mixcloud.com/leonclowes/the-avant-garden-drop-in-centre-round-chapel-st-augustines-tower/).

With the 8th miniature, it has always reminded me of a being seasick on a fairground round that's slowing down. As a double folly I thought I'd try and 'tidy up' the background hiss, but using my DIY production skills have also introduced that distinctive noise of compression, like a radio played in the background. So in keeping with the prompt, I've kept that in.

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) — at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

Leon Miniature 8 (disquiet 0565)

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) – at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

Richard Preston's House (disquiet0565)

My Yamaha upright piano, taken with 3 microphones in a great sounding room.
Overdubbed vibes and synths.
Friday October 28th, during the morning, Paris France.

the cover photo is mine (a ceiling in an old apartment in Buenos Aires).


https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0565-musical-folly

Totalmente Ornamental (disquiet0565)

Enhanced recording of improvised percussion.

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) – at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

Bagatelle Bash (disquiet0565)

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) – at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

The EuclRhymic Chromaticon | Utter Folly

The Euclidean Chromaticon | Utter Folly - disquiet0565

This is a response to the 565'th Disquiet Junto challenge; "Musical Folly"

The whole piece has been centered around a "folly" constructed with arpeggios on toned percussion, appearing in the middle of the piece. I started building this - using the ever-great Chordimist maxforlive plugin - and then started adding and building around it... to try to "prop it up" somehow. I'm not sure I succeeded - but it was great fun trying...

Appearing in the piece - which is made completely "in-the-box",  are EarthMoment, Arturia, Spitfire and U-HE VST's of different sorts.

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) – at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

disquiet0565 - fall'ish

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) — at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

3 Black Bjorks (disquiet0565)

for the disquiet junto //

an arrangement of an arrangement of pachelbel's canon in d major, inspired by the architectural concept of a folly

Folly in D Major

[disquiet0565] Folly in D Major

The word “folly” is an English term to mean foolish or lacking good sense. In French, the word “folie” emphasizes aesthetic beauty over practicality to the point of being extravagant, whimsical or silly. This is an egregiously unfair way to denigrate the need to enliven our surroundings with objects and structures that enhance one’s life experience.

“Humankind needs structures and tools that are enriched beyond the severely utilitarian,” wrote Victor Papanek in his timeless book Design for the Real World. “Delight, balance, and that pleasing harmony of proportions that we project outward into the world are psychological necessities for us.”

For this piece, Suss Müsik took inspiration from the contemplative “stone face ruins” of Chanticleer’s public gardens. The "ruins" are not ruins at all, but rather a hardscape of three ornamental ‘rooms’ evoking a sense of mystery. One room in particular warrants mention: from the bubbling, deep black depths of a 24-foot reflecting pool surrounded by lush succulents, polished marble faces gaze upward in repose.

Suss Müsik created a soundscape using custom devices built from the “ruins” of old computer hardware. Two contact mic-inputs are passed through a Meng Qi Wingie2, which was controlled by a handmade MIDI input. One channel was refactored as an arp sequence; the other provided a vaporous coloring agent when passed through heavy reverb. A fourth device controlled three synth voices with grain modulation playing the same arp sequence. Here’s a video of the performance: https://youtu.be/mnPiy5d9gCs

The piece is titled Papanek and was recorded live in October 2022. The image is taken from a summer 2022 trip to Chanticleer.

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) — at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

Papanek [Disquiet0565]

[disquiet0565] Atlantis

"Consider how the idea of a folly might be transposed, so to speak, to music."

On a eurorack modular system, polyphony is sheer folly - costly, ornamental, with little practical purpose.

--

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) – at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

disquiet0565 - four voice folly

Rapunzel - disquiet0565

our little town is full of follys
weather is really beautiful
packed my bag and just played a folly

Folly Guitar(disquiet0565)

nawak

Little folly in percussion (disquiet0565)

Folly Guitar(disquiet0565

Skipping Away (disquiet0565)

This track was inspired by the Disquiet Junto Project 0565 Musical Folly (details below):
I immediately was reminded of the Faringdon Folly Tower (see https://www.faringdonfolly.org.uk), the "last major folly to be built in England". It was commissioned by Lord Berners (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Berners),  the "last English eccentric" (see https://englandspuzzle.com/a-folly-a-deep-sea-diver-coloured-pigeons-the-last-english-eccentric-lord-berners/).

I wanted to present the Folly as a work of art, with no obvious use and with small eccentric details that are not visible at first sight.

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) – at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

Lord Berners' Folly (Disquiet0565)

A musical version of an architectural folly.

More on this 565th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Musical Folly (The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept) — at: https://disquiet.com/0565/

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-0565-musical-folly/

gothic [disquiet0565]

valea [disquiet0565]

Seramind - Gothic Tower (disquiet0565) [Ambient, Drone, Chillout]

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0565-musical-folly/59235

Disquiet Junto Project 0565: Musical Folly
The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by this architectural concept.

Step 1: Consider the concept of a folly in architecture. The Oxford English Dictionary has defined a folly as “A costly ornamental building with no practical purpose, especially a tower or mock-Gothic ruin built in a large garden or park.” Look at other definitions.

Step 2: Consider how the idea of a folly might be transposed, so to speak, to music.

Step 3: Make a piece of music inspired by the thoughts that arose in Step 2.

The cover image for this project is from DALL·E 2. The prompt: “architectural folly on British estate in disrepair, photograph.”

Visit my other pages:

Official: http://www.seramind.de
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/22xH66OU00shKM5kcwbAeK
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/seramind
Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/4709745-Seramind
Bandcamp: https://seramind.bandcamp.com
MixCloud: https://www.mixcloud.com/seramind
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSVk1v75Cpzc7Bf-KVsrUUg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seramind

Gothic Tower (disquiet0565)

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.