Disquiet Junto Project 0624: Fresh Pair
The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be.

Yesterday, the 13th of December, marked the 27th anniversary of Disquiet.com, and I figured it makes sense for this week’s Disquiet Junto to pay tribute to two cultural figures who have informed it.

Step 1: Think of two cultural figures who have made unique and strong impressions on you.

Step 2: Rather than think of what they have in common, think about the individual impact they have had on you.

Step 3: Record a piece of music that expresses the two, distinct forms of impact you arrived at in Step 2.


Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, December 18, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, December 14, 2023.


More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

The photo of the painting, by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, of Benjamin Franklin is in the public domain. The photo of Fernando Pessoa in the public domain.

Disquiet Junto Project 0624: Fresh Pair

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/

For my response to the disquiet brief, the two musical influences behind this track are David Sylvian - here referred to through elements of the amazing 'Ghosts' by his band, Japan, in the 1980s - and Brian Eno - through the use of extended, ambient, structures and the use of chance. 

The 'ghost' here is Alain Badiou - a more philosophical influence - talking about desire in his lectures on change, which can be found @ https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_QaFDCZn9rDGSOG_wWK0GZTNKzHgohgC&si=JHUCCic-FxDudNwK

You can also hear 'Ghosts' by Japan @ https://youtu.be/7zzLU1ato2w?si=rvVWv3uV8l3s53O0

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

more halF unusuaL

halF influenceD [disquiet0624]

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

The photo of the painting, by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, of Benjamin Franklin is in the public domain. The photo of Fernando Pessoa in the public domain.

Fresh Pair

Disquiet Junto | Fresh Pair - disquiet0624

The two figures in question are John Cage & Harold Pinter, to whom the two words of the title refer. The track is a live electronic sequence created in Pure Data, a little reverb added.

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

The photo of the painting, by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, of Benjamin Franklin is in the public domain. The photo of Fernando Pessoa in the public domain.

Indeterminate Menace (disquiet0624)

Marco Lucchi : piano
*
for the current Disquiet Junto challenge
https://disquiet.com/2023/12/14/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/
*
15 dicembre 2023

Esatonale [2] due pf [disquiet # 0624]

Disquiet Junto Project 0624: Fresh Pair
The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be.

This piece of music is a fusion of two opposing philosophical influences: Immanuel Kant and Friedrich Nietzsche. The Kant motif is structured and simple, reflecting his emphasis on rationality and moral imperatives. It has a friendly tone consistent with Kant's belief in ethics. His motif also has a preachy element that is meant to remind us of Kant's belief in universal laws and also that his writings are frankly quite boring. In contrast, the Nietzsche motif is darker and wilder, reflecting his challenging and often provocative and mostly interesting ideas. The more chaotic (and randomnized) nature of his motif reflects Nietzsche's commitment to individual will and his rejection of social norms (or even his own ideas). However, they also had some things in common, such as a great interest in the emerging natural sciences or the fact that they struggled with the idea of a God. Ultimately, the Kantian theme prevails and has the last word, as Nietzsche is frowned upon for influencing the difficult to understand and often misunderstood "Ubermensch" idea, whereas today we (some of us) actually try harder to act according to Kant's theory of reason, even if a glance at the news teaches us that we as humankind simply don't succeed in doing so.

--

This was fun, even to make the cover image with Dall-E 3, which in no way was able to make both philosophers really recognizable. The prompt: "A 19th-century style painting, more abstract than realistic, featuring a recognizable Immanuel Kant on the left and an older, recognizable Friedrich Nietzsche with a beard on the right, engaged in a passionate debate. Kant, shown in his middle years, is in 18th-century attire, exuding a calm and refined aura. Nietzsche, depicted in his later years with an iconic beard, is dressed in typical 19th-century clothing, with an intense and expressive demeanor. The setting is a music studio library, filled with books and modular synthesizers, blending a deep intellectual atmosphere with the spirit of modular synthesis."

--

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

Kant - Vs - Nietzsche [disquiet0624]

It Is Time (disquiet0624)

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/

Disquiet Junto

Splintered Android (disquiet0624)

Sound art for disquiet0624

Lee Scratch Perry / Annie Besant

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: disquiet.com/0624/ 1

About the Disquiet Junto: disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-pr…ct-0624-fresh-pair/

twig thoughts (disquiet0624)

After overthinking this ten times longer than it took to make the track I decided on Peanut Butter Wolf and Keith Fullerton Whitman. I have a lot of love for Wolf because he published so much diverse, fun, positive music over the years that shaped my taste. Keith I followed since Attention: Cats and then later the Mimaroglu store which opened my ears to a lot of electronic experiments and more.

So combining the two I tried to make a fun, positive track with some electronic sauce to it without going full “DJ ZapruderFilm”. The vocals are from a live version of Gary Wilson’s A Very Small Town. The whole thing is pretty tame so not a lot of Keith in it.

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/ 1

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

Disquiet0624 - Christopher/Keith

[disquiet0624] Twins

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/ 1

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

The photo of the painting, by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, of Benjamin Franklin is in the public domain. The photo of Fernando Pessoa in the public domain.

Disquiet0624 -impact Honey

Weeks of Songs

Phase the Blood [disquiet0624]

Sinny: synth and drum programming, reco-reco, satelite bells, balafon, cowbells, tom-tom, slapstick, plate weight

More on this 624th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fresh Pair (The Assignment: Combine two influences, however disparate they may be), at: https://disquiet.com/0624/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0624-fresh-pair/

The photo of the painting, by Joseph Siffrein Duplessis, of Benjamin Franklin is in the public domain. The photo of Fernando Pessoa in the public domain.

Sailing the Synth Seas (disquiet0624)

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.