The Assignment: Collaborate posthumously with the late Jeffrey (Nofi) Melton.

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto Project 0066: Communing with Nofi

Any break or interruption in tempo might classify as a form of bond fission. To compose a piece that celebrates fracture as a creative element, Suss Müsik sought to understand how to locate bonds in non-musical terms. Enter Colorado School of Mines geochemistry professor Mark Eberhart, author of the book Why Things Break:

“Picture yourself flowing in space. Off the right and left are atomic nuclei. Neither can be seen, however, as each is surrounded by a dense cloud of electrons. Move up or down, backward or forward and, as if you were descending through a cloudbank, the fog diminishes. Alternatively, move toward one of the nuclei, and the electronic fog engulfing you becomes denser. Follow the path to the nucleus along with the electronic fog is densest and you are moving along the bond.”

That’s the approach Suss Müsik took with this weird piece for piano, fake strings, and rudimentary homemade synth. A simple, repetitive chord sequence was twinned on two instruments in 4/4 time. An occasional blip of piano arpeggios exceed the time signature while staying relatively in tempo. 

Things bust loose midway through the piece, as the strings succumb to excessive glitch refactoring at a much higher tempo (moving toward the “nuclei” of the arpeggio tempo). Meanwhile, an electronic gadget burps in approval at the same rate. In true Sun Ra fashion, the piano tries to hold it all together before the primary chords resume their respective places, this time accompanied by a fake cello mirroring the arpeggios. 

The piece is titled Homolysis, a form of fission by which each broken part of a bond retains fragments of the other.

More on this 553rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Break That Cycle (The Assignment: Record in a steady tempo but break it on occasion) — at: https://disquiet.com/0553/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0553-break-that-cycle/

The image shows a detail of a mural painted by the artist Pablo “Raíz” Ruiz Arroyo at the record store Noise in San Francisco.

Homolysis [Disquiet0553]

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 553rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Break That Cycle (The Assignment: Record in a steady tempo but break it on occasion) — at: https://disquiet.com/0553/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0553-break-that-cycle/

Four Four Walks Into A Bar (disquiet0553)

More on this 553rd weekly Disquiet Junto project – Break That Cycle (The Assignment: Record in a steady tempo but break it on occasion) – at: https://disquiet.com/0553/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0553-break-that-cycle/

The image shows a detail of a mural painted by the artist Pablo “Raíz” Ruiz Arroyo at the record store Noise in San Francisco.

Glitchy Shuffle (disquiet0553)

I had an instant idea what to do: Set out the chord on several synths (some droning the bass dissonance of c/c#, some playing all the chord notes and some just playing the highest pitches) and process them the same effect chain. After that I ended up with a first track which wasn't evolving enough for my taste, so I recorded another one; they both got panned to the left and right and I recorded a centered "bed" for them. I was missing some accents, so I added a few high pitched notes on the FM. 

Maybe for a 'drone' there's too much going on, but since it emphasizes exactly one rather dissonant chord and explores its pitches and their relations, I guess it counts ;)

The track ends rather abruptly at the 2:55 mark, but if looped will work out well.

Made on my 'new' three volca drone lab (FM, Keys, Modular) with a MultiStomp MS70-CDR and a small makerhart mixer.

Discussion: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0554-cage-chord/

Disquiet0554 - Cage Chord (Drone)

I haven't posted in a while.
First of all, I modified the MIDI to the specified scale from EDM or something.
Then I used a Chinese heavy metal guitar plugin to make it sound like that, and connected various effectors to it.

What I wanted to express was the ocean!
The ocean is slow unless it's a tsunami, so it's kind of in line with the theme.
The distortion of the guitar sounds like white noise, which represents the sound of waves.
I remember reading a book once that said that the sound of a ship's engine in the sound of waves means that there is something man-made mixed in with nature, and that is the key to ambient music.
I don't like to listen to man-made sounds too loudly in nature (although I don't mind it when I'm in the city).
But no matter how quiet I output my compositions, if the listener turns up the volume, it is meaningless!
So I made the sound of the waves louder, so that the artificial sound is buried in the waves.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

------------
Disquiet Junto Project 0554: Cage Chord
The Assignment: Riff on a chord by John Cage.

This project is the third of three that are being done in collaboration with the 2022 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 7 through 11. The topic this year is “unvermittelt,” which is a little tricky to translate. Literally it’s “unmediated,” but it can also mean “sudden,” “abrupt,” or “immediate.”

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 fourth year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.

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

Step 1: Consider this chord:

E5
A#4
E4
D#4
Db3
C3

If MIDI is of use to you, here is a link to the chord in a MIDI file:

https://disquiet.com/0554-midi

Step 2: You might read up a bit about the source of the chord, the piece “Organ²/ASLSP” by John Cage. Cage desired the piece to be played “As Slow As Possible.” Currently it is being performed in Halberstadt, Germany, on a special organ that will play it for a total of 639 years. It’s been going for 21 years so far, and is at this moment playing the above chord. Read up here:

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-04/john-cage-organ-slow-as-possible-halberstadt-germany

Step 3: Produce a loopable drone (duration between one and three minutes) of your own based on that chord.

Note: Submitted drones will be sequenced into one large drone piece to be played at the Cage Room, a pop-up workshop and exhibition space of the festival at Progr, Bern, Switzerland.

Disquiet 0554 - P

Consider this chord:

E5
A#4
E4
D#4
Db3
C3
Produce a loopable drone (duration between one and three minutes) of your own based on that chord.

Caged Bird - disquiet0554

More on this 554th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Cage Chord (The Assignment: Riff on a chord by John Cage) — at: https://disquiet.com/0554/

Thanks to Tobias Reber and Musikfestival Bern for collaboration on this project. More on the festival at:

https://www.musikfestivalbern.ch/
https://www.instagram.com/musikfestival_bern
https://www.facebook.com/musikfestivalbern

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0554-cage-chord/

Dis Chord Is Hurting Me (disquiet0554)

This track is a loopable drone made Disquiet Junto project 0554 using the chord E5, A#4, E4, D#4, Db3, C3. The Junto project is based around John Cage's “Organ²/ASLSP”, a 639 year long piece that happens to be playing this chord right now.  

Submitted drones will be sequenced into one large drone piece to be played at the Cage Room, a pop-up workshop and exhibition space of the festival at Progr, Bern, Switzerland.

More on this 554th weekly Disquiet Junto project – Cage Chord (The Assignment: Riff on a chord by John Cage) – at: https://disquiet.com/0554/

Thanks to Tobias Reber and Musikfestival Bern for collaboration on this project. More on the festival at:

https://www.musikfestivalbern.ch/
https://www.instagram.com/musikfestival_bern
https://www.facebook.com/musikfestivalbern

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 1: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0554-cage-chord/

Cage Chord [Disquiet0554]

Eb (disquiet0554)

Disquiet Junto Project 0554: Cage Chord

L'accordo musicale completo viene usato dagli strumenti che producono la fascia continua di base. Le singole note dell'accordo servono invece per creare gli elementi ritmici che si sovrappongono a questa base, che sono loops di percussioni/batteria processati da campionatori granulari.

The full chord is used by the instruments that produce the basic continuous sound. The single notes of the chord are used instead to create the rhythmic elements that overlap the base, percussion / drum samples processed by granular samplers.

E5A#4E4D#4Db3C3 (Disquiet 0554)

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

I took 3 minutes between 54:23 and 57:23, a section with a strict rhythm and a crawling synth part.  My goal was to play off the strict rhythm.

My loops included a layering of the "plane" sounds and the "carfadeout" sound I created for Disquiet 64.  They were layered to go off-rhythm and out of phase.  

Also included are a couple of samples from my track "You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - which is a piece of music I made last year that I thought turned out rather well, the title of which is kind of a call to arms for me to get on with things - making sounds, art, or whatever, and to not worry about all the other noise of life.

"You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/youve-got-less-time-than-you

"Rochester Ridge (disquiet0064-halflive)" - http://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/rochester-ridge-disquiet0064

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Noise Of Life (disquiet0066-nofi)

This is a special project. Very nice Marc.
I turned off the lights and lit a candle to listen to Jeffrey's track. It was a pleasure getting lost in his sound.

This track was recorded in Ableton Live and mastered with iZotope's Ozone 5.
I used a bass guitar and ran it through Komplete's Guitar Rig 5. The patch is called Christal-MC and it provided the sweeping echo chorus pad sound off of the bass notes.

Thank you for listening.

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwa…amp;pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto





much too young to... [disquiet0066_nonofi]

Very special project this week - very fine idea, Marc - happy to be part of it.
I fumbled around with the source for a while, found a part I liked, plus a few others I liked after bending them a bit - Paul Stretch shortened the track - I also used the very beginning as a layer...Time too play along, hmm tried a bunch of different things out: AM radio, a feedback box, Granulator in Ableton, E-Bow on guitar etc. etc. nothing worked for me....finally my old Strat through Abletons amp rack with plenty of dissonant noises...Couldn't really think of a title, so left it without 
This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed
away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton
live recording.
More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/
More of Melton/Nofi’s music at: http://www.nofi.org/
Read Melton’s obituary here:http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/


“disquiet0066-nonofi”

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Transmissions (disquiet0066-nonofi)

An excerpt of an Unwind session by nofi/Jeffrey Melton with a live performance I recorded in response.  Done as part of Disquiet Junto 66 as a posthumous collaboration.

Details about this:

I more or less did the needle drop approach to select an excerpt.  Roughly from around 24 minutes to 26 minutes into the original Unwind session (I liked the tempo slowdown in the subsequent minutes, but was unsure what to do with that).

I played along with the excerpt eleven times, in 3 or 4 different ways with different gizmos.  

What I used was the last thing I did, using a handheld humbucker plugged into a battery powered Radio Shack mini amp to amplify and create a feedback loop with a string on a homemade zither like contraption.   Such a thing is not unusual in what I do.

After the fact, I cheated many ways with mix automation, ducking down loud or not-so-useful parts of my track and pumping up quieter ones.  The Unwind excerpt has the abrupt end as set forth for J. 66,  but my track continuing on masks that.  From the end of the fade in until the cutout, the excerpt was at unity gain.

Names are dangerous, esp. for instrumentals, abstract works.  Indeed, I had many notions before I even downloaded the Unwind session, with very good reasons for each.  How very a priori, indeed.  I chose an entirely different one (for what any name is worth) that somehow related to the session name Unwind.  

All that said, this is one simple offering to join all the others created by the Junto participants.   For Jeffrey Melton and those of you closest who've known him best.

More generally about this Junto and Jeffrey Melton:

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/


Arc Seconds Bend [disquiet0066-nonofi]

Poppy noise, noisy pop.  

Mostly here to visit . . .

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.

Arc Seconds Bend [disquiet0066-nonofi]

krseward

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Stephen L. Martin

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