Name: 12. ACTIVATION 2 part 3 by leon clowes
Duration: 15 min
Description: This track was in the second activation of zack mennell's "Rage Reactor" at DadaFest in Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, March 2025.

An electronic composition, sounds created in Pure Data with a little additional reverb, etc.

Lake and Billowing Cloud (naviarhaiku581)

The “catch your breath” project got me thinking. All living things on this planet breathe, at least in one form or another, with some of us breathing in what others breathe out and vice versa. In that regard breathing is a kind of planetary feedback loop, constantly inhaling and exhaling. So, that inspired the first step in setting up my sonic palette: patching my “Barp 2500” to establish a slow oscillation. The output was fed into a tape looper effect on the Zoia which was then sent into the Cosmos, which were routed via a patch pay so that they fed back into each other. The combined audio was sent to my mixer, where additional feedback was added via the aux sends. After importing this into Logic, motion effects were used to create various forms of spatial movement. The final touch involved manually adding fade in and outs which became further and further apart and, eventually falling into silence when the breathing finally stops.

disquiet0687

https://www.naviarrecords.com/naviarhaiku581-plunging-my-hand/

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds 

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

Picture by Atsushi Tsubokura

Cold Water [ naviarhaiku581 ]

drum and bass beats, melodies, and textural samples from several different companies (ethereal 2080, shaman stems, glitched tones, touch loops, undrgrnd sounds), two tracks of live guitar, one synth melody (arturia pigments) and one channel of morse code ("plunging my hand into the lake... billowing clouds") played on a group of randomly triggered small cymbals at 170bpm. the track closes with a sample of toluca lake.

[naviarhaiku581] into the lake

Inspired by the haiku by Kobayashi Issa:

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds 

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

flexion (naviarhaiku581)

A sweet side of coldest morning ...
Not everything is frozen yet
Here i come here we come

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds

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
Music : Nukumori Eugene / Nx  https://a-tale-of.bandcamp.com/
IG: www.instagram.com/jinsei_books

into your hand - 雲水 [naviarhaiku581]

The prompt for this track:

plunging my hand
into the lake...
billowing clouds

Naviar Haiku Challenge 581,details here: https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge

A fair amount of experimentation with ways to represent the haiku, some more successful and obvious than others, the rippling sequence is more inspired by the image than the poem but I kept it in to move the music forward.

Other than the samples, sourced from freesound:

rowing boat from inside.wav by Fenodyrie -- https://freesound.org/s/588307/ -- License: Creative Commons 0
oar.wav by bruno.auzet -- https://freesound.org/s/525030/ -- License: Creative Commons 0

Everything was made in virtual modular using a combination of VCV Rack and Voltage Modular.  Running VM as a plugin allowed me to run both in parallel and make a single take multitrack recording. 

Billowing Clouds - (naviarhaiku - 581)

More on the 687th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Applied Science — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that includes physiological and behavioral techniques — at https://disquiet.com/0687/

Grail (disquiet0687)

This week’s Disquiet Junto prompt got me thinking about the somatic vs autonomic nervous systems, and how performing music can be a dance between muscle memory and intellect, instinct and intention. In reflecting on how I could explore this tension intentionally, I set out to record a minimal number of tracks, each of which had combination of attributes that were either ignored, made without decision, or deliberate.

The tone synths are custom patches designed on Logic’s physical modeling synth, Sculpture. I largely ignored pitch and concentrated on shaping and manipulating long-held notes with combinations of mod wheel, pitch wheel, and aftertouch performances.

The bass was recorded live with my Lakland. I selected a single note played at octaves, so I was able to hold the same fingering all the way through (which hurt) and not think about it (except it hurt). I paid closest attention to the way I plucked the strings, aiming for consistent intonation.

The piano part was fun, using a tinkly detuned patch I call “Gasoline Piano”. I downplayed rhythm and paid close attention to the selection of just the right notes for the broken melody.

As is my habit these days, all of the parts were recorded live, first takes only, no looping, and little to no editing.

I have to confess that this piece represents my second attempt at this week’s prompt. I spent the better part of a day with another idea, and as intriguing as it was, I simply could not make it work. It was hard to let go, but finally I listened to my intuition, set it aside for another day, and returned to the prompt with a fresh mind.

More on the 687th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Applied Science — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that includes physiological and behavioral techniques — at https://disquiet.com/0687/

The Hand with a Mind of Its Own (disquiet0687)

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0687: Applied Science. 
The Assignment: Record a piece of music that explores physiological and behavioral techniques.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0687 discussion thread on Lines:

I interpreted “physiological” by using looping sequences, created with Slate+Ash Cycles in Ableton Live. 

The “behavioral” is represented with notes and sounds played off-grid using a MIDI keyboard using Slate+Ash Spectres. I tried to give a sense of consciously playing along with the pattern but in a freeform almost casual way. 

Hopefully, both these concepts somewhat came across in this track. Image by Scott Webb via Unsplash.

More on the 687th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Applied Science — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that includes physiological and behavioral techniques — at https://disquiet.com/0687/

Stretching Skid Ladders [disquiet0687]

This track was in the second activation of zack mennell's "Rage Reactor" at DadaFest in Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool, March 2025.

12. ACTIVATION 2 part 3

leon clowes

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