Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Step 1: Download the first movement of the Ravel string quartet at this URL: https://bit.ly/un-ravel

The original source is the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Step 2: Listen to the track closely.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

Deadline: Monday, March 31, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0691

Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel

I've not posted a Disquiet Junto track since project #646 about a year ago but did try in January but was locked out of this Soundcloud. I'm at home today with a bit of free time so thought why not - now i've been able to get back into Soundcloud. Enjoyed making this, the idea to unravel Ravel was too good to pass up. I imagine my approach isn't very original- I just cut up the source audio and added effects and cut some frequencies in the source. I then slowed the tempo down as the tracks progresses which created gaps and space in the audio clips which I had already locked in place. The gaps fill with the reverb and delay and late on I added some choir sounds to give the piece a new dimension and direction which I liked. 

More info on this challenge here: 
Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Step 1: Download the first movement of the Ravel string quartet at this URL: https://bit.ly/un-ravel

The original source is the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Step 2: Listen to the track closely.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0691” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0691-un-ravel/

The Great un-Ravel-ing [disquiet0691]

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

more halF unusuaL

halF unravelleD [disquiet0691]

Disquiet Junto : a track based on a Ravel string quartet
============================================================
More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

disquiet0691_singlethread

This is my submission to this week's Disquiet Junto assignment.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Unravel [disquiet0691]

Disquiet 0691 gave us an audio file of the first movement of a Ravel piece for string quartet, and asked us to "unravel" it.

To bring this nightmarish piece to life, I started with a Frankenstein arrangement that came in around 3:30 in length: some close listening, editing, and assembly of the sections to my liking. Next I created 6 auxiliary channels, each with a specific effect chain, its own tape delay, and a carefully tuned distortion via Chromaglow. To prepare to perform, I routed the sends on the single audio track to each of the 6 channels, assigned to six knobs on my Nektar Panorama control surface. The recorded performance consisted of mixing mulitple sends in realtime— I wish I had thought to record that to video.

The source piece is in the public domain and can be found on the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/?utm_source=DisquietJunto&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=disquiet-junto-project-0691-un-ravel

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Das Chaos-Quartett (disquiet0691)

My track notes regarding the creation of this track can be found here: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0691-un-ravel/71303/7

**Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel**  
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Step 1: Download the first movement of the Ravel string quartet at this URL: [https://bit.ly/un-ravel](https://bit.ly/un-ravel)

The original source is the Internet Archive: [Capet String Quartet - Ravel (Col. D 15057-60) 1928 : Capet String Quartet : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/)

Step 2: Listen to the track closely.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

[Disquiet Junto 0691] Liminal Maurice

Un-Ravel

Disquiet Junto| Un-Ravel - disquiet0691

I selected the 4th movement of the quartet, chopped it up and remixed it to a stereo track. Then, by means of many adjustments and various effects, I converted it to a modern atonal/microtonal composition.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Ravel Revamped (disquiet0691)

Ravel from the 1920s, timestretched in ableton, then converted to midi and combined, fx etc

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

un-ravel +3 mix [disquiet0691]

Following this week's Disquiet Junto project this track was created using a historic recording of the Ravel string quartet from 1928.
This is the sound of a dream, dissolved beyond recognition, but still present as the conscious cause of this unconscious music.

The audio was transformed using spectral synthesizers and effect chains to create this dreamlike rendition. No other sounds or instruments were employed.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

rêver  (Disquiet0691)

Recorded as part of the 691st disquiet. Based on a chopped up and decaying sample of Ravels String quartet mov1. Done in Ableton with Augustus loop, MAIM plugin & various other audio destroyers

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0691-un-ravel/71303/12?u=mdh

Un-Ravel (disquiet0691)

Unraveling Smoke (disquiet0691)

Edited, mixed & mastered on 28 Mar 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA. 

This piece uses a 1928 recording by the Capet String Quartet of Ravel’s string quartet (Col. D 15057-60).

The original source is the Internet Archive: 

https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Photography - Jim Lemanowicz, 24 Apr 2009, Massapequa & NYC, NY, USA

©2025 Jim Lemanowicz

---

This original version of “Chowder Spray” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel. The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

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

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The 
Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Chowder Spray (disquiet0691)

“Unraveling a revealing Ravel” takes the final twelve seconds of Ravel’s Capet string quartet in F Major (1903) as the material to apply the idea proposed in Disquiet Junto 0691: “it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing”. 
The tripartite microstructure of those final measures has been mapped into the three sections of the track: the first one starts with the clean original audio and quickly derives into a vivacious sequence of micro-editions, gating and spectral smearing; the second section transitions from energico to adagio until the chords seem to be suspended for a while, just to be submitted to different kinds of decimation, downsampling, aliasing, vacuum tube distortion, vinylic noisification, and bitcrushing; the piece closes with an exagerated ritardando, and wild filtering and cutting of excerpts that maybe expose some microfeatures of the final chord before leaving it totally unravelled. 
More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

This piece uses a 1928 recording by the Capet String Quartet of Ravel’s string quartet (Col. D 15057-60).
The original audio source can be found here:
https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Unraveling a revealing Ravel [disquiet0691]

I was a bit lazy with this one and also pressed for time. I basically ran the original file through a number of granular plug ins, fading and mixing them against each other and towards the end rendering the mix into an ambient wash. Hints of Ravel remain, moving in and out, here and there....

disquiet0691

Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Step 1: Download the first movement of the Ravel string quartet at this URL: https://bit.ly/un-ravel

The original source is the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Step 2: Listen to the track closely.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

unravelling [disquiet0691]

Un-Ravel [disquiet0691]

the end result is not so much a string quartet falling apart as it is a resonator-granular garble, but that's how it is sometimes

--

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/



disquiet0691 - gravel

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel. The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0691 discussion thread on Lines:

Initially intended on producing something with Morphagene as the main tool. After creating a 2:23 minute reel from the first half of the first movement, I loaded it into the module and played around with the modular for a few hours. Ended up with some cool and mangled soundscapes, but it didn’t fit the ambient mood I had in mind. 

Scrapped that initial idea and loaded the audio file into Ableton Live. From there, I converted the audio to MIDI and discarded the recorded instrumentation. I suppose this was my interpretation of taking the string quartet apart. I slowed the tempo down a bit but kept the original arrangement. I then copied it and pasted added tracks, re-arranging and shuffling the MIDI notes. I used u-he Hive, Slate + Ash Cycles and Spectres, and Tonal Drifts by Jogging House for the instruments. Effects used were mostly built-in as well as the free Fors.fm Sala for reverb. Field recordings and other samples were also added. 

It was interesting reading up on Maurice Ravel and his influence on music in the 20th century. His musical style and mysterious personal life were the main inspirations behind this piece. Hopefully, he would have found this interpretation of his work at least interesting. 

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Ravel’s Secret Muses [disquiet0691]

Over an over-reverbed version of the track was laid another which was progressively degraded using Audacity effects such as tempo shift, Paulstretch, delay and sliding stretch/pitch shift. A few degraded extracts were overlaid to add to the feeling of decay.

----------------------------------------------
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/


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



UnRavel Epoch [disquiet0691]

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.