This was made for Disquiet Junto Project 0515: Talking Cure. I wanted to create a sound that would be relaxing and meditative and so kept it deliberately simple, using loops and simple inputs.

breathing space disquiet0515

This week's Disquiet Junto project had us look at earlier collaborations, and rework them. I choose Sternklang's Dead Center, which incorporated Dan Simpson (https://soundcloud.com/dan-simpson-497607106/disquiet0526-jan-21-look-again-2) and J. Benjamin Neimi's (https://soundcloud.com/user-931021867/january-21-look-again-disquiet0525)collaboration. I added a synth pad hooked up to Stochas, a bass and a droning guitar.

More on this 533rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Numbers Magik (The Assignment: Remix a trio — potentially using its subsets and variants) — at: https://disquiet.com/0533/

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-0533-numbers-magik/

look further [disquiet0533]

A song in four parts, based on an image by John Cage and a statement by Brian Eno.

More on this 557th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Condensation Is a Form of Change (The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score that depicts four phases) — at: https://disquiet.com/0557/

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-0557-condensation-is-a-form-of-change/.

condensation [disquiet0557]

The scent of a rose
In the forgotten greenhouse,
A fluttering ghost.

Merle Bardenoir is a French musician, artist and poet carrying an ambient project called Glamourie. Imbued with symbolism, his universe blends avant-garde and folklore, nature and fantasy. Ranging from traditional drawings to fantastic short stories, his multidisciplinary creations display an elegant and mysterious sensitivity.

ghost [naviarhaiku483]

Part one a three part assignment - make a track for someone to add to.

More on this 591st weekly Disquiet Junto project, The Loneliest Number (The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio), at: https://disquiet.com/0591/

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-0591-the-loneliest-number/

five days a week [disquiet0591]

Work on kick-starting a goal that you have had for a song. For this one, it was to introduce some percussion.

More on this 597th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Goal Line (The Assignment: Get started on a plan by getting over getting started), at: https://disquiet.com/0597/

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-0597-goal-line/

lending library [disquiet0597]

bird polyphony
– treble, alto, tenor, bass,
Spring meadow concert

Raymond Cobley is an experimental composer and regular participant in our Haiku challenge. Now retired, Raymond aims to explore the possibilities afforded by open-source software, which he uses exclusively for creating and editing both sounds & images. All his works are published ​under a Creative Commons licence, and free for anybody to download or remix.

Artwork by Jackie McMaster

spring meadow concert [naviarhaiku495]

The assignment this week was to produce a song with as much silence as notes. I did not interpret silence as being total silence.

More on this 605th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Fifty Fifty (Compose a piece of music with as much silence as notes), at: https://disquiet.com/0605/

Thanks to Jason Richardson for having proposed this week’s project.

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-0605-fifty-fifty/

negative space [disquiet0605]

The assignment: start a song at 0 volume, then gradually rise to 40%, then gradually back to 0.

More on this 607th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Silence Wave (The Assignment: From close to zero and back again, alter the relative amount of sound to silence in a piece of music), at: https://disquiet.com/0607/

Thanks this week to Jason Richardson and Klaus-Dieter Hilf.

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-0607-silence-wave/

send it all back [disquiet0607]

For this assignment, I chose to create music for the Shirley Jackson short story The Lottery.

The Assignment: Set a favorite story to music.

Step 1: Choose a favorite short story.

Step 2: Compose a piece of music that follows the arc of the story’s narrative or otherwise conveys something about the story you want to express. You may closely follow plot points, or convey an overall atmosphere, or incorporate related sound effects, or do something else entirely.

More on the 652nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, By the Tale — The Assignment: Set a favorite story to music — at https://disquiet.com/0652/

The Lottery [disquiet0652]

Music made from a graphic score.

More on the 659th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Reading the Body — The Assignment: Interpret the markings on the back of a cello as a graphic score — at https://disquiet.com/0659/

Image: detail from a painting by Don MacKeen

reading [disquiet0659]

The Assignment: Make music to help a forest regenerate.

A scientific research paper this month documented evidence that sound can help fungus grow. The conclusion: “Demonstrating a tangible impact on fungal activity, our findings suggest that carefully tuned acoustic parameters might be able to enhance ecological processes.”

Record music to help a forest grow. Imagine an array of solar-powered speakers is spread through a forest-in-need. Or come up with another deployment scenario of your own imagining. What sort of music would you play for the forest to encourage its regeneration?

The research paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0295.

Coverage in the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/04/science/fungus-sounds-growth.html

The paper is the work of four people from the College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, in Australia.

Thanks to Michael Rhode for having shared with me the research coverage.

More on the 669th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Phonosynthesis — The Assignment: Make music to help a forest regenerate — at https://disquiet.com/0669/

music for plants [disquiet0669]

The Assignment: Make an atmosphere of your own.

Step 1: Rather than record music, in the traditional sense, you are going to spend time assembling a sonic environment, what might be thought of as an atmosphere. Think about what that might entail. Please begin this process with the understanding that you will create the atmosphere from scratch, which is to say: not using field recordings of existing environments.

Step 2: Think about the sort of atmosphere you want to make. It might help to experiment by first making some quick rough drafts, in order to see what sorts of atmospheres your skills and equipment lend themselves to.

Step 3: Now record the atmosphere you decided upon in Step 2, adhering to the directions mentioned in Step 1.

More on the 671st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Right of Way — The Assignment: Music for turn signals — at https://disquiet.com/0671/

Image: Detail from a painting by Don MacKeen

atmosphere [disquiet0671]

The Assignment: Make the quiet part loud, and vice-versa.

Just one step this week: Record a piece of music in which you make loud that which is usually quiet and quiet that which is usually loud.

More on the 673rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Switch Back — The Assignment: Make the quiet part loud, and vice-versa — at https://disquiet.com/0673/

gone fishing [disquiet0673]

Resplendent
the kite soaring up above
the shanty town

Among the four great masters of Japanese haiku, Kobayashi Issa was the most prolific: during his lifetime he wrote over 20,000 haiku, hundreds of tanka, and several haibun. If you want to find out more about this prolific author I suggest you check out this database of his haiku.

Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

kite soaring [naviarhaiku569]

The Assignment: Record a drone that goes from simple to complex to simple.

Step 1: You may, yourself, be experienced recording drone music, or you may never have recorded any. You may not even be sure what drone music is, in which case read up a bit. Not matter your experience and familiarity, please give some thought as to what constitutes drone music.

Step 2: Now think about what makes a drone simple and what makes a drone complex.

Step 3: Now record a piece of drone music that begins simple, gets complex, and then gets simple again. And note: The simple drone at the end needn’t necessarily be the same sort of drone with which the piece opens.

More on the 675th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Arc of the Drone — The Assignment: Record a drone that goes from simple to complex to simple — at https://disquiet.com/0675/

drone of arc [disquiet0675]

The Assignment: Bury a slow melody deep inside a drone.

Step 1: We did a drone project last week and it went well, so let’s do another one. You needn’t have done last week’s to do this week, as is always the case. Again, you may, yourself, be experienced recording drone music, or you may never have recorded any. You may not even be sure what drone music is, in which case read up a bit. Not matter your experience and familiarity, please give some thought as to what constitutes drone music.

Step 2: Think about what makes a melody, even a very slow and simple melody, different from a drone.

Step 3: Now record a piece of music that is, objectively, a deep drone, but somehow within it, somewhere well below the surface, include a slow-moving melody. 

More on the 676th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Sub Melody — The Assignment: Bury a slow melody deep inside a drone — at https://disquiet.com/0676/

bury the lead [disquiet0676]

Year's end,
all corners
of this floating world, swept.

The final poem of the year is by the greatest haiku master of all.

Haiku by Matsuo Bashō (translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto)

To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

years end [naviarhaiku573]

on New Year's Day
everywhere, a corrupt world's
blossoms.

As customary, the first haiku of the year is by Kobayashi Issa.

Among the four great masters of Japanese haiku, Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) was the most prolific: during his lifetime he wrote over 20,000 haiku, hundreds of tanka, and several haibun.

Haiku by Kobayashi Issa

everywhere [naviarhaiku574]

Curve of time -
a thought takes flight,
scent of a rose.

Vincenzo, aka El Wud, is an electronic musician from Naples, Italy.

A regular participant in our haiku music challenge, El Wud uses sound overlaps, causal collisions and cosmic echoes to create evocative soundscapes.

I translated Vincenzo's haiku from Italian, and made some minor variations. I hope you'll find it inspiring.

Haiku by El Wud

curve of time [naviarhaiku577]

The Assignment: What if you could?

There is just one step to this project. The idea that one cannot “unring a bell” is a fairly common saying, at least in English. But what if you could? What might it sound like? And what use might the unrung bell serve in the making of music. Please record a track in which you try to unring a bell.

More on the 682nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Unring a Bell — The Assignment: What if you could? — at https://disquiet.com/0682/

unrung [disquiet0682]

Disquiet Junto Project 0684: Early Bird
The Assignment: Record not so much an alarm as a guided wakening.

Step 1: You are going to record a piece of music intended for someone to listen to almost immediately upon waking up. Think about your mornings, and what a more optimal morning might entail.

Step 2: Consider a scenario in which someone wakes up and, rather than look at their work or check the news, they take a period of time to just get centered. Think about how long you might want this to take, say three minutes, or five minutes, or twenty minutes.

Step 3: Consider the stages of awakening, from quiet to loud, from slow to fast (or a middling pace), from simple to complex. Perhaps the sounds go full circle, returning to where they started.

Step 4: Consider what sound at the end — a gong, a bell, a bird call, etc. — might signal that the waking process has concluded.

Step 5: Having reflected on the topics brought up in the instructions thus far, record a track that might guide someone slowly into consciousness upon waking each morning.

More on the 684th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Early Bird — The Assignment: Record not so much an alarm as a guided wakening — at https://disquiet.com/0684/

morning song disquiet0684

Mount Asama
amidst its fumes and ash
fresh young leaves! 

The event Bosun refers to is the eruption of Mount Asama in 1783, which instantly killed over 1,000 people. The toxic ash traveled 100 miles to Edo, making farmland useless and causing many more people to starve.

One of the four great haiku masters, Yosa Buson studied both Japanese and Chinese poetry. He was also an accomplished painter, and most of his poems were accompanied by paintings, resulting in a more diverse and individual set of works than the one by his main historical influence, Basho.

Haiku by Yosa Buson

fumes and ash [naviarhaiku579]

out of the blue
of early morning light:
a paulownia leaf

Ōshima Ryōta was a Japanese poet of the Edo period. Some sources say he was a disciple of Yosa Buson, while others say his master was Hattori Ransetsu. He's mostly remembered for his essay “Bashō ku kai” 芭蕉句解 ('Study of Bashō's haiku') published in 1759, a magnum opus of his studies and literary theories on Matsuo Bashō's work.

Haiku by Ōshima Ryōta

out of the blue [naviarhaiku583]

Disquiet Junto Project 0689: Supporting Players
The Assignment: Elevate the presence of your non-instrument equipment.

Step 1: However you make music, some of that involves material that doesn’t constitute the idea of an instrument, like a music stand, or a cable, or a tuner. Make a list of them.

Step 2: Consider the sonic potential of the items you listed in Step 1.

Step 3: Select one or more items from Step 2 and make music that somehow highlights their presence.

Disquiet Junto Project 0689: Supporting Players
The Assignment: Elevate the presence of your non-instrument equipment.

Step 1: However you make music, some of that involves material that doesn’t constitute the idea of an instrument, like a music stand, or a cable, or a tuner. Make a list of them.

Step 2: Consider the sonic potential of the items you listed in Step 1.

Step 3: Select one or more items from Step 2 and make music that somehow highlights their presence.

reduction1 [disquiet0689]

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]

paperweights
on the store’s comicbooks –
spring breeze

The author of the week is Takai Kito, a disciple of Yosa Buson. Despite becoming a professional haikai master in 1771, Kito remained one of Buson's most trusted disciples until the death of the great master and was the de facto coordinator of Buson's haikai group.

haiku by Takai Kito

paperweight [naviarhaiku587]

rising sun
and nothing else –
misty sea!

Inoue Shiro (1742-1812) was a doctor and poet from Nagoya.

haiku by Inoue Shiro

and nothing else [naviarhaiku589]

The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

Please note: While this project is the start of a three-part sequence that will unfold over the course of three consecutive weeks, you can participate in any or all three of those parts. 

Step 1: This week’s Junto project is the first in a sequence intended to encourage and reward collaboration. You will be recording something with the understanding that it will remain unfinished for the time being. Your part will be done, but more will happen. Read on.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music using any instrumentation of your choice. Conceive the piece as something that leaves room for something else — other instruments, other people — to join in. (Keep in mind that your piece resulting from this week’s project will be panned to the left in the second and third weeks of this sequence.)

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly two to three minutes in length, as described in Step 2. 

Step 4: This is important: be sure to make your track downloadable because it may be used by someone else in the next Disquiet Junto project, and the one after that.

More on the 697th weekly Disquiet Junto project, First Third — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0697/



alarm [disquiet0697]a

This song done in collaboration with Leon Clowes 
https://soundcloud.com/leonclowes/hole-third-disquiet0697

Disquiet Junto Project 0698: Second Third
The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio.

There are two versions of the instructions for this week’s project — one very short, the other very long.

Very short version (about 25 words): Select a track from last week’s project (disquiet.com/0697), pan it to the left, and add your own line to the right, leaving room in the center for someone to eventually turn it into a trio.

More on the 698th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Second Third — The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0698/



two of three [disquiet0698] with Leon Clowes

Collaboration with @henuri and @morgulbee https://soundcloud.com/user-807707609/b-drone-aftermath-disquiet0698

Disquiet Junto Project 0699: Third Third
The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio.

There are two versions of the instructions for this week’s project — one very short, the other very long.

Very short version (roughly 25 words): Select a track from last week’s duet project (disquiet.com/0698) and add a third part dead center between the left and right stereo channels to complete a trio.

More on the 699th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Third Third — The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0699/


one two three [disquiet0699] with henuri and morgulbee

Collaboration with Fake Genius and Torpid Scorpion https://soundcloud.com/torpidscorpion/second-third-disquiet0698-fake

Disquiet Junto Project 0699: Third Third
The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio.

There are two versions of the instructions for this week’s project — one very short, the other very long.

Very short version (roughly 25 words): Select a track from last week’s duet project (disquiet.com/0698) and add a third part dead center between the left and right stereo channels to complete a trio.

More on the 699th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Third Third — The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio — at disquiet.com/0699/

third third [disquiet0699] with Fake Genius and Torpid Scorpion

Disquiet Junto Project 0700: View Frame
The Assignment: Share the view and some sounds inspired by the view.

Step 1: Take a photo out your window, with a little bit of the frame in view. Show people a glimpse of your world.

Step 2: Record a short, simple piece of music inspired (or otherwise informed) by what you see.

More on the 700th weekly Disquiet Junto project, View Frame — The Assignment: Share the view and some sounds inspired by the view — at https://disquiet.com/0700/

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