Disquiet Junto Project 0590: Concrète Roots

The Assignment: Make music combining field recordings and feedback

This project is the first of three that are being done in collaboration with the 2023 Musikfestival Bern (@musikfestival_bern), which will be held in Switzerland from September 6 through 10. The topic this year is « √ » — as the organization explains: “the radical, or square root symbol and the power of its symbolism are central to the festival and these will be translated into music in multifarious ways.” All three projects will engage with the work of Éliane Radigue, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2023 festival.

We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber (@tobiasreber), an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the fifth year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.

Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects may be played and displayed throughout the festival.

Step 1: Consider two different techniques: field recordings and feedback.

Step 2: Combine field recordings and feedback in the development of an original track.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, April 24, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

Details: disquiet.com/0590

Disquiet Junto Project 0590: Concrète Roots

Disquiet Junto Project 0590: Concrète Roots 
The Assignment: Make music combining field recordings and feedback

I was in Paris and brought my recorder along. Our hotel was right outside of Gare de l’Est. The little four note tune that’s at the start of the French Railroad service announcements was in the room about every two minutes, and so became somewhat emblematic of the trip. Also, there was this fluorescent tube light in the hotel bathroom that had a… je ne said quoi. Perhaps it’s the sound of arriving in a work place — a garage, storage space or studio — in the very early morning, still dark, at an hour when no one who has any choice in the matter is not in bed, everything quiet, all alone, and then this tingling, almost glitchy tone as the lights come on. You don’t see/hear them as much as you used to. 
So those recordings, together with a recording of a departing train, became the basis of this track.

The field recordings are accompanied by a feedback part, which was inspired by things I read in the llllllll cybernetic music thread: https://llllllll.co/t/cybernetic-music-roland-kayn-feedback-systems-ai/40635. 
I suppose it is a take on work by Jaap Vink. The audio signal goes into a delay, is then sent through some effects (in Vink’s setup, a ring modulator and a filter, if I recall correctly), then a reverb, and then sent back to the input, with some form of attenuation that is controlled by an envelope follower. The result is an audio signal loop that keeps its feedback in check automatically.
In my case everything was made on an iPad, which is surprisingly good and versatile for creative audio routing. Instead of a ring modulator, I used an app that has a bunch of resonators that you can actually ‘play’ using a keyboard: playing a note on the keyboard will activate the resonator tuned to that note. Playing the resonators subtly shifts/nudges the feedbacking audio into different parts of the frequency spectrum (in a way that is roughly analogous to what the ring modulator and filter do in Vink’s setup).

More on this 590th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Concrète Roots (The Assignment: Make music combining field recordings and feedback), at: https://disquiet.com/0590/

Disquiet Junto

Concrète Roots- disquiet0590

More on this 590th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Concrète Roots (The Assignment: Make music combining field recordings and feedback), at: https://disquiet.com/0590/

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-0590-concrete-roots/

Concrete Roots

Disquiet Junto | Concrete Roots - disquiet0590

An old fence, a gate making noises and the lawn mower of the neighbour. Field recordings with feedback in honour of Éliane Radigue.

More on this 590th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Concrète Roots (The Assignment: Make music combining field recordings and feedback), at: https://disquiet.com/0590/

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-0590-concrete-roots/

Concrète Gate [Disquiet0590]

A walk through my mother's parking garage; a short elevator ride; snippets of a preacher's sermon; radio static; mysterious voices and glorious feedback from an Enner and a PolyD. This and more found its way into my Polyend Tracker and then into Logic with a few feedback loops using a bus trick I learned from Youtube. Hallelujah!

Disquiet0590

An original field recording made with stones & pebbles on the shore, with additional feedback.

More on this 590th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Concrète Roots (The Assignment: Make music combining field recordings and feedback), at: https://disquiet.com/0590/ 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-0590-concrete-roots/

Field Recording Of Man In Man Cave #3 (disquiet0590)

Hughgtwattii