Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent

The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

Step 1: Play something wrong and record it. The sequence could be a fumble at a keyboard, or a series of bum notes on a guitar, or a erroneous beat.

Step 2: Emphasize the flaws from Step 1 through repetition and variation, and in the process record a piece of music.

Deadline: Monday, September 15, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0715

Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent

Warning! ... This track is not 'music' enough for the SC algorithm to recommend it to potentially interested listeners ... You have been warned 😁😜

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

more halF unusuaL

halF erR [disquiet0715]

Recorded, edited, mixed & mastered on 11 Sep 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA.

Synth, samples, effects

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, 21 Oct 2020, Manhattan, NYC, USA

Music & art © 2020, 2025 Jim Lemanowicz

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This original version of “How Monotonous, Herr Pencil” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent. The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

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

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

Patreon & Soundcloud - blisterpop
YouTube - Jimmy Lem
TikTok - jimmlem
Bluesky - jimmylem.bsky.social

How Monotonous, Herr Pencil (disquiet0715)

Disquiet Junto's 715th prompt was simple: record yourself making a mistake on purpose, and emphasize the error through repetition. 

Long-time readers will know that I favor narrative in my pieces, so I created a little vignette: we listen in on a frustrated pianist in a parlor, as she tries to improvise on a piano with a bad E4. (The piece was improvised, but it was refined over a couple of takes.) 

Features synthetic piano, organic vocal, and ambient field recording.

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

Improv in A minor (on a piano with a sticky key) (disquiet0715)

My take on this was to use glitches or extraneous sounds that crop up in field recordings. These are usually edited out but here I extracted some from a couple of recordings and joined them to form a continuous sequence. After extending this sequence and adding a touch of reverb and delay I combined it with an evolving electronic drone.

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

Field Glitches (disquiet0715)

If there is one thing that I excel at, its a lack of technique. So this is a perfect Disquiet Junto assignment for me. I just received the wonderful Chromaplane from Koma Elektronik, and after watching videos of Passepartout Duo's performances, I tried my hand at playing sequences on the Chromaplane where the errors quickly started to replicate themselves. There are missed beats, missed notes and variations on a theme that don't quite work. But I soldiered on to the end. On top of that mix, I added some ambient meanderings, again with the Chromaplane which were sent through the "Cinema Everything" patch on the Zoia. Both tracks were sent directly to my recorder without any further editing, thereby keeping the errors intact!

disquiet0715

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

Out of Tune with Maths(disquiet0715)

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

Such a F Up #333 (disquiet0715)

The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

Step 1: Play something wrong and record it. The sequence could be a fumble at a keyboard, or a series of bum notes on a guitar, or a erroneous beat.

Step 2: Emphasize the flaws from Step 1 through repetition and variation, and in the process record a piece of music.

this was me purposely messing up the "Stairway" riff on uke and trying to make something out of it following the guidelines above.

disquiet0715.wav

Submission for Disquiet 0715. A feedback loop, sampled and resampled.

outside err (disquiet0715)

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent. The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0715 discussion thread on Lines:

This is a loose interpretation of the prompt since I used a recent recording that already had flaws rather than making a mistake on purpose. Last week, we took our dog Hanako to the beach. She loves to run around going after the bull kelp that washes up on the shore and tear them apart. Sometimes, she’ll collect them onto a big pile. I figured it would be cool to do some field recordings during our doggie beach day. As I was setting up, I realized that I had taken the spent batteries out of the Zoom F3 recorder and never replaced them. I did have a back up recorder, a Sony A10, but didn’t bring the windjammer for it. The weather was breezy but recorded several minutes of ocean sounds anyway. When I listened to the recordings that night, the audio was mostly wind noise. I thought I could salvage some of the beach ambience for this project.
 
I used a high pass filter in Ableton Live along, with additional effects, to cleanup and manipulate the recording so at least some of the ocean sounds came through. From there, added additional tracks using built-in instruments and Slate+Ash Ruins. This turned out to have a much more chill vibe than I originally imagined. 

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

Beach and Kelp Drifts [disquiet0715]

Regret Resort [disquiet0715]

Right but Wrong Note Etude, disquiet0715

Keep it Local disquiet0715

disquite0715 nihao

Disquiet0715

Bennin-ging (disquiet0715)

Ángel L. Martínez: processed electro-acoustic guitar

(c) 2025 Ángel L. Martínez

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

Estudio 2 - Error (disquiet0715)

An acoustic guitar groove jam with some bass and synth added after.  It's not pretty but that's ok with me.

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.



Guitar Tune-Not Formal Attire Disquiet(0715)

For disquiet Junto 0715 Err apparent. This piece is a triptych of partially ai generated vocals with nonsense syllables that are all loosely constructed from the word "mistake" and maybe a few others.

m.istakekatsim (Disquiet 0715)

disquiet0715 - mistake

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.