More on this 435th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report — The Assignment: Share something you’ve been working on (and respond to what others post) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0435/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0435-woodshed-report/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this track is by Josh Self, used thanks to a Creative Commons license and Flickr. The image has been cropped, colors shifted, and text added.

https://flic.kr/p/dqMB2w

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report

Soul Folk was created for the The Souling Project organised by Minerva Arts (a youth theatre group), funded by Arts Council England. As the selected artist for this venture, I was involved in the revival, revisiting and reinvigorating of Folk Dramas known as Cheshire Souling. For this project I was commissioned to create a new acousmatic work Soul Folk, which borrowed music from a historical source, the first verse of the Souling Song featured on The Soul Cakers of Cheshire: Field Recordings of Traditional Mummers Songs and Play Text. Borrowing musical material was essential for this project, as the folk legacy focuses on the oral tradition of preserving folk culture, through verbally transmitting and receiving folk material. This project also enabled me to work with the children of Astbury St Mary's Church of England Primary School, who created their own Souling song, which is featured in my Soul Folk composition. The children’s lyrical material featured was created in workshops run by me and composer Melissa Douglas. Soul Folk’s premiere performance was at Congleton Town Hall and was featured twice on BBC’s Merseyside Folkscene programme, once on their Women in Folk week.

Soul Folk

This lengthy single track, just under an hours and 45 minutes in duration, was compiled by Tobias Reber from the work of 54 participants in a summer 2022 collaboration between Musikfestival Bern and the Disquiet Junto music community. Contributors were invited to make drones based on a shared single chord from a John Cage composition. More details at disquiet.com/0554. 

Below is a full list in alphabetical order of the musicians included in this compilation. A few others were produced, as well, in the course of the music community project, which ran from August 11 through August 15, 2022. More on the festival, scheduled from September 7 through 11, 2022, at musikfestivalbern.ch. 

33per, A Thousand Plateaus, Aethyr, Alchemical Cage Chord, analoc, ausgesuchtestenohren, baconpaul, Benn DeMole, celaeno, Chridmeister, Clint Burgess, craniform, Dan Simpson, Death Hags, encym, Fake Genius, feXon, Gerard Paresys, h b, he_nu_ri, hugh g twatt, -infDB, Kei, Krakencraft, krseward, Lazenbee Industries, Lee Evans, Leon Clowes, Marc Eisenschink, Marci Lucchi, Martin AB Cee, melondruie, nobuka, noimspartacus, Noodle Twister, Ossimuratore, Ostacoli Sonori, Paul Beaudoin, pineyb, Punks Dig Disco, RabMusicLab, ray_cobley, robbie, samarobryn, SinnySounds, Sonic Search, Stefan Strasser, Synthi, Tuonela, undermulden, wagneric, wasabicube, x i i i x x i, zeroperimeter.

We don’t do a lot of this sort of thing (by which I mean a post-project compilation), in large part because I never want Junto participants to feel like they need to complete a piece before posting it, and in part because external overarching editorial consideration — as is necessary for a compilation like this — is also something I don’t want someone thinking about as they produce tracks for the Junto. But that said, the projects with Musikfestival Bern are unique ones, and part of the announced plan from the start was some tracks may be selected for playing during part of the festival. This excellent compilation is one expression of that plan. Many thanks to Tobias for having executed this compilation.

Cage Chord Compilation (54 Musicians/Tracks)

Unusual creatures

Bumblebells

23 Magam2.wav

Started with my own recorded samples of my shruti box and my Rav Vast drum. Put them into Bioscape and added some fun processing. Then used some Bansuri samples in Bioscape as well. Happy with how it turned out. 

Made for my buddy Jason to cold plunge to. His goal is 700 seconds.

700 Seconds

A sountrack inspired by the documentary, "The One Who Runs Away Is the Ghost." - a mixtape from Hainbach that laid the foundations for his score.

Full interivew: https://www.theransomnote.com/music/mixes/hainbach-the-monday-is-ok-mix/

@hainbach

FULL FEATURE AND IVW

Hainbach - The Monday Is OK Tape Mix

This work is an acousmatic single sound source work for water, which explores the transformation and trajectory of water. Using a single sound source creates a strong relationship between the sounds. Contrast is achieved by using both natural and sourced water sounds. By using these two types of water categories enables interesting textures to be created. Natural water sounds come from natural water sources created by nature including; fountains, fish movements, outside rain and dripping. Sourced sounds comes from water that has been tamed and domesticated by humans including; marinas, locks, docks, ponds, bathroom noises, garden fountains, fish tanks and rain on different manmade surfaces. This work experimented with Denis Smalley’s concept of ‘causality’ in a variety of ways, including cause and effect. Smalley’s concept allows the work to experiment with gesture as a formative element. There are moments of buildups, climaxes, attacks, releases, which create intensity and depth. This aids and helps the work transition into different sound worlds and spaces. 

Locks, Docks And Liquid Hydrogen (2013)

a minimalistic improvisation by:
mazen kerbaj / trumpet
the israeli air force / bombs

recorded by mazen kerbaj on the balcony of his flat in beirut,
on the night of 15th to 16th of july 2006.
© mazen kerbaj 2006

STARRY NIGHT (excerpt) 6.31 min

Cycle of Life (2016) is a miniature stereo acousmatic etude, which explores the concept of time. The sound material showcases sounds from time keeping devices, including metronomes, egg timers, analogue and digital clocks. It was a crucial compositional aesthetic to keep the original behaviours and acoustic quality of the sounds, as they maintain the character of time. The individual tiny ticks and tocks of clocks were fascinating sources, due to their short-lived acoustic nature.

The short resonate quality of the ticks and tocks influenced the main compositional technique and methodology utilizing micromontage. Micromontage is the layering of sound defined at its particle level. Composing with very short sounds gave more control over constructing gestural material, as each sound particle could be positioned precisely, into complex multiple sound clusters and groupings. Additionally the arrangement of the gestural material had the most control over the pacing and timing of the work. This occurs as the micro sounds were used to create new rhythms. These rhythms were composed in order to drive the music forward (accelerando), hold the music back (ritardando), or to slow down (rallentando) musical events.

Primarily Cycle of Life grew out of the poet William Butler Yeats’ (1865 –1939) text A Vision (1925), which presents Yeats philosophical beliefs through questioning ‘what is the cycle of life?’. Yeats’ cycle of life ideology explains how time travels in a circular motion. Yeats believed this circular motion created an endless repetitive wheel of living and dying. Cycle of Life represents this theory through its repetitive fragmented gestural nature, by using Denis Smalley’s ‘causality’ concept. This concept enables the listener to predict the musical outcome of the gestural activities, as one musical event causes the onset of another musical event.

Cycle Of Life (2016)

From Perihelion to Aphelion is a miniature stereo acousmatic etude, which explores the concept of space, both sonically and theoretically. This work takes the listener through a sonic space journey, where the listener experiences sounds produced by three different planet's atmospheres in our solar system; Uranus, Earth and Saturn. Each of the planets atmospheres forms their own section, which represents a different destination on the musical space journey.

From Perihelion to Aphelion begins with the high pitch gestural harmonic atmosphere of Uranus. Before traveling to the windy atmospheric atmosphere of Earth, which reveals small glimpses of the familiar, through field recordings of Earth’s environmental sounds including birds and traffic. The work concludes with atmospheric bass noises that develop the character of Saturn.

The initial concept of creating a space journey was inspired by a number of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) sound recordings, as each recording has their own personal history, story, voice, life and energy. In particular NASA Voyager Space Sounds CD (2009) was an important influential tool, as each track provided a true insight into the sounds heard in space, which NASA recorded on their space voyages. In particular three tracks were significant to From Perihelion to Aphelion, including Rings of Uranus, Voice of Earth and Saturn's Rings, as they shone light on the different planets atmospheric characters.

From Perihelion To Aphelion

A modular patch exploration trying to recreate generative music something like Jon Hassel's Dream Theory in Malaya, or the Possible Musics project with Brian Eno.

4 Minutes Spent Floating... Or Falling (disquiet0435)

Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report
The Assignment: Share something you’ve been working on (and respond to what others post).

Step 1: The past six weeks of Disquiet Junto projects have encouraged and rewarded collaboration. This week’s is more insular. There’s no formal constraint. Just share a recent piece of music, or create a new piece for this week.

Step 2: After uploading your track, please take a few minutes to listen to and respond to tracks by other participants.

If you’re interest in background on the concept of the “woodshed,” here’s video of a talk I gave a little over a year ago on how it relates to the Disquiet Junto:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzHrOpBwhMU 5

TRACK NOTES:

This is an excerpt of a stereo mock-up/composite for a comissioned permanent installation that I'm currently finalising for the Angaston Railway Precinct redevelopment. 

In its finalised form the sound composition will be broadcast across a nine-channel 'sound pole' installation arranged in a grid formation. Since the sound sequences are all of varying lengths, the resulting phase relations will create a dynamic, shifting composition for visitors to experience in-situ. 

This mock-up provides an impression of what the work may sound like at a given iteration.

Sternere (2020)- stereo mock-up

More on this 435th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report — The Assignment: Share something you’ve been working on (and respond to what others post) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0435/

Photo by Ariana Prestes: https://unsplash.com/photos/MpSnQAUTgcE

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0435-woodshed-report/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Retreat

Retreat [disquiet0435]

More on this 435th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report — The Assignment: Share something you’ve been working on (and respond to what others post) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0435/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0435-woodshed-report/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

disquiet0435   -    EDeeM

A work in process peep into my woodshed, faintly exasperated conversation about... creativity? With my dear, long-suffering, friend: the computer. Accompanied by twiddling knobs on Korg Volca Bass/Keys/Sample, sequenced in Numerology with just a splosh of echoechoecho. I've had this sitting around for years but was being far too perfectionist about it at the time so really lost patience with myself - all the original sequences etc are lost now, so just went back to the original recording and did a bit of editing (Reaper) - minimal post-production just a bit of compression & limiting from Limiter no.6

I can't remember what I used to do the voice, it was some sort of old freeware amiga, or maybe commodore 64, emulator. We chatted in real time, me just saying whatever came into my head & then helping 'puter reply by typing words into his wee mouth, out through speakers into the room (and my Zoom H2n) just as day was dawning one September morning (2016), and then I edited some of the pauses out, etc.

Since then I've got rid of all the programs I can't afford - which is nearly all of them, as I have had no income for some time - I don't want to be a pirate, I want to help and contribute, so am going all free and open source, and am planning to rebuild my way up to being able to make this level of stuff (+++) by coding my own sequencers etc in Pure Data, gonna take some time, mind, I int no programmamama.

Have reserved my rights on this as thinking might be able to put an EP out? But always up for collaboration & can change this if needs be. This is for the disquiet junto:::

More on this 435th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report — The Assignment: Share something you’ve been working on (and respond to what others post) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0435/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

YEScomputAWE (disquiet0435)

This week's Disquiet Junto assignment was to post something you've been "woodshedding." I haven't been working on my own stuff much, but my time just freed up so I thought I'd dust off and try to finish this piece based on Schoenberg's approach to hexachords later in his life (long story short, he loosened his rules for 12-tone serialism).

I wrote a pretty six-note riff and then ran it through the ol' tone-row matrix to get its inversions, retrogrades, etc. From there I tried to find hexachords that went together to sound melodic, harmonious, and unified. Finding interesting melodies and harmonies was fairly easy, but it was very hard to find transitions that "felt" right. Maybe after I work with this a bit longer.

Photo by David Meurin

* * * * * *
More on this 435th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0435: Woodshed Report — The Assignment: Share something you’ve been working on (and respond to what others post) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0435/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0435-woodshed-report/

Hexachord Etude 1 (disquiet0435)

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.

Layers of piano, tape loops, samples, and noise.

Retreat [disquiet0435]

Stray wool

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