Disquiet

You roll a 4 on random.org: the sound of a solar energy generator in the year 2044.

You walk into the kitchen to the window that gets the most sunlight: she is making lunch and remarks that there is a lot of sun today. Open the door to the pantry: in the corner is the generator’s heliosonic space. It is a small machine but through its tubes and flux capacitors flow all of your necessary stellar bursts. Kneel down to read the current levels: the generator’s tones are vigorous today. The clouds roll in and out, the thick street trees waver: the generator flutters. The hallway light is switched on: the generator beeps again. You grab a jar of pickles off the shelf: stand listening and frozen with the desire for light. You leave the pantry and close the door: back into a vision of the only sun.

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More on this 123rd Disquiet Junto project — “Help Gizmodo record the soundscape of the home of the future” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/05/08/disquiet0123-homeofthefuture/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Gizmodo Home of the Future at:

http://homeofthefuture.gizmodo.com/


Memory of the Future: Solar Energy Generator (disquiet0123-homeofthefuture)

For recording a short sound to be set on repeat with the new Soundcloud "repeat playing track" feature, start with a slightly altered melody from another song you are working on, a song you almost completely dismantled and squashed Thursday night before receiving notice of this Disquiet Junto project.

That night, you fed the melody through a certain favored synth which you ultimately decided not to use, as the tone was too different, darker. But for a "groove lock," looping the melody on this synth was the first thing that came to mind.

Add some effects to bring out the hazier edges, set up Ableton’s Granulator for the bass tone. Finally, add the sample from a video in the Tate Modern recorded on your phone in Autumn 2013, something about a manuscript (or is he saying “that worries me”?), seemingly lost, and an inability to talk about it.

With the sample and the earlier dismissal of the synth, forgetting recurs as a theme. Forgetting: locked and repeated. And as the piece loops, do you go deeper into its layers (as long as you remember to pay attention), or do you forget it to the background of your room? Is the manuscript forever lost?

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More on this 153rd Disquiet Junto project — “Record a short sound intended to be set on repeat” — at:

disquiet.com/2014/12/04/disquiet0153-groovelock/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

disquiet.com/forums/

Image associated with this project by Stuart R Brown:

flic.kr/p/mFQC3

That Manuscript (disquiet0153-groovelock)

Tear out of school and take the solid orange Chuo line to Kichijōji. Shin, Emi, Chris, Shungo, Andrew, Brett, they nickname you “New Kid” and say you look like the bassist from Green Day. Skate down to the studio, just a few minutes from the station exit. Before heading up to hang out and take a turn behind the kit for 20 minutes, stop by a record store to browse the newest Fat Wreck Chords and Caustic Resin CDs in between Japanese grindcore 7”s. Was this the record store called Warszawa? Or was Warszawa in Shimokitazawa? Wherever it was, of one thing your memory is sure: you all pronounce the name “Wor-ti-zow-wa.” Then on to the teenage pop-punk jam with Dan and Adam moshing in the corner. The studio practice rooms all have huge racked drums with tons of cymbals and toms, you are just learning to play and don't even know how to keep the kick in time. When you tell Shungo maybe you’ll just not use the kick at all, he says calmly, “you should try to learn, cause it’d sound better.” Amps crunch and squeal, covers of Propagandhi, NOFX, and Lagwagon for a couple hours. The drumming continues round your head well after you sit down to a quick pork tonkatsu and then go skating in Shinjuku.

One recording of recent drums + resonators + delay = extension of drum memory to recent Ohio past.

One drum rack constructed out of snippets from recording above + random MIDI pattern generator = memory of learning to play the basic teenage punk beat.

One additional drum kit + random MIDI pattern generator = half-memories of all those years learning to play drums.

Another additional drum kit + random MIDI pattern generator + resonator = half-memories of Tokyo.

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More on this 185th Disquiet Junto project (“Summon up a memory, and then summarize it in sound”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/07/16/disquiet0185-memorymusic/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

This project was proposed by Robert Thomas, more from whom at:

http://dizzybanjo.com/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

Kichijōji Warszawa (Drum Half-Memories)(disquiet0185-memorymusic)

The complexification for this project was based in the collaborative process between @alexrainer and @lethatechnique (aka Las Wolski): sitting down together late Saturday afternoon in the middle of a Central European heat wave, deciding on samples to use, wielding Ableton Live and a Korg nanoKontrol with four hands, meshing processed samples of the distant "Complexification" tracks with local field recordings, deciding on pitch shifting and resonator notes and beat repeats, digressions into discussing the tritone (“the Devil’s interval”) and initial impressions of "Making Music" by Dennis DeSantis, figuring out how to finalize while keeping the track short and varied, and trying to stay hydrated. Break for a walk to Corner Burger in Kazimierz and for Żywiec Białe throughout the evening. The result is a short slice of sinister heat wave dub.

Manipulated beats from the beginning, bell-like synth sounds from the middle, and scattershot percussive sounds from the end of “Complexification0010GB." Added field recordings of a drunk singing down ulica Chodkiewicza, a random streetside whip-slapshot sound, and some revelers toasting at Forum Przestrzenie. Counter-balanced the whip-slapshots with a recording of a big ole China cymbal from the previous week’s drum session at Studio Savant. Threw “Complexification0010SH” into Ableton’s Granulator for another instrument to generate complex textures.

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More on this 188th Disquiet Junto project (“Take a provided track and make it more complex”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/08/06/disquiet0188-complexcomplex/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

More on Complexification:

http://entracte.co.uk/projects/guy-birkin–sun-hammer-e187/

Ul. Chodkiewicza Summer Rips (disquiet0188-complexcomplex)

Isolated one or two segments of each "Marilli" sample: slowed down, pitch-shifted, and EQ'ed. Added filters, delay, and erosion.

Threw on @legowelt-official's Smackos Tape Station effects rack for Ableton that he just shared for free, available here: http://awolfe.home.xs4all.nl/.

"THE FINAL FRONTIER OF TAPE SMUDGE HAS BEEN BROKEN."

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More on this 207th weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Rework source audio from Michel Banabila’s 1983 album, Marilli”) at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/12/17/disquiet0207-remixingmarilli/

The audio was sourced from the 1983 album Marilli by the album’s composer, Michel Banabila. This project marks the release of the 2015 album Marilli Remixed:

https://banabila.bandcamp.com/album/marilli-remixed-free-download

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Signet (Tape Frontier) (disquiet0207-remixingmarilli)

Ride your bike to your favorite spot by the Wisła on Sunday morning, sit sweating in the sun, take some water. There are a few birds flying low, some flies, and many clover mites (first time noticing those). Take your phone out and make the recording, a little over a minute. Just stay quiet, remember some notes to type in after the recording is done: birds, tiny red ant things, passing cyclists discussing some election. That’s it for sound, really: why this is your favorite river spot.

Go home, hydrate, eat some pizza. Watch an episode of "Bloodline." No composition ideas come to mind. But you remember another field recording you made about two years prior, at a spot further down the river to which you rode on a bike you no longer have. This recording was also mostly birds and insects, but you made it while walking your bike through the grass. Could the sound of the bike wheel spinning run in parallel to the bird sounds you just recorded?

Throw that old sample into Ableton’s Granulator: this is the instrument with which you compose against the memory of the field recording made that morning. Add resonator, delay, chorus, EQ, compression.

Two samples, two memories. The passing cyclists were discussing Poland’s “partially free election” of June 4, 1989, the anniversary of which was just marked with a huge anti-government protest march in Warsaw. Many more memories at play there.

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More on this 231st weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a piece to align with, from memory, 60 seconds of everyday sound” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0231/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

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

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums/

Częściowo Wolne Wybory = Elective Affinity (disquiet0231 Field Complement)

Cut first 30 seconds out of "HNY." Stretch using the Paulstretch tool (somewhere around 13.5x). Adjust pitch shift, frequency shift, octave mixer, and tonal/noise parameters in tool.

Cut first 30 seconds out of "Pepper Jelly." Convert harmony to MIDI and use as drum track. Add randomizer, noisy effect, and grain delay.

Cut first 30 seconds out of "Autista 3." Convert harmony to MIDI and use as synth track. Add arpeggiator, delay, and filter.

Another foreign city: Kraków to Rotterdam.

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More on this 233rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Make one track from three different netlabels, courtesy of a Creative Commons license” — at:

disquiet.com/0233/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place on a Slack (send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for inclusion) and at this URL:

disquiet.com/forums/

Another Foreign City (disquiet0233 Netlabel: NND Remix)

I used these “five by five” matrix mixer combinations as a sort of guidance — readability + signal strength:

1.	perfectly readable + very good
2.	readable + good
3.	readable but with difficulty + fairly good 
4.	now and then + weak
5.	unreadable + scarcely perceptible
6.	unreadable + very good
7.	now and then + good
8.	readable but with difficulty + fairly good
9.	readable + weak
10.	perfectly readable + scarcely perceptible

Configured a sequence on my Moog Mother 32 and recorded it live while manipulating effects (my first foray into recording like this). Added delays, beat repeat, EQ, and compression in Ableton.

Needed some noise.

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More on this 309th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Military Matrix Mixer: Mix music according to a military standard for relative message clarity) at:

https://disquiet.com/0309/

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-0309-military-matrix-mixer/

Advisors (disquiet0309 Military Matrix)

Used all Ableton presets: tingklik, alto sax, tambourines (first track made in Ableton 10). Had the soundtrack to and scenes from "Powaqqatsi" on the mind. Enjoyed the challenge of creating something upbeat that was supposed to signify something like "happiness."
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More on this 321st weekly Disquiet Junto project (Let’s Active: Make a short piece of music that decreases the mind’s tendency to wander, based on research by Dr. Liila Taruffi, PhD, and her colleagues) at:

https://disquiet.com/0321/

More on Taruffi, music, and mind-wandering at:

http://liilataruffi.com/

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-0321-lets-active/

Interieur met Kamerplant (disquiet0321 Let's Active)

The 0-Coast and Mother-32 run off a sequence on the SQ-1. The Korg is seemingly rude as a repeater (however randomized), the Make Noise as an introvert, the Moog as an extrovert. The Moog keeps up a debate purposefully with the Make Noise patch: speaking over, chopping up, syncopating without a plan, cultivating a cloud of noise, enunciating with some delay, interrupting in and out of some unseen etiquette. Rude mechanicals, friendly machines. 

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More on this 339th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Rude Mechanicals: The Assignment: Record a piece of music in this imaginary genre) at:

https://disquiet.com/0339/

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-0339-rude-mechanicals/

The Interruptor (disquiet0339 Rude Mechanicals)

MIDI file from 8notes.com > Katsuhiro Chiba's August synth plugin > Bastl MicroGranny granular sampler > Way Huge Supa-Puss delay pedal > Digitech Polaris reverb pedal > Ableton echo

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More on this 363rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Gymnopédie Rats: Make over Erik Satie’s “Gymnopédie No. 1” in your chosen genre — at:

https://disquiet.com/0363/

Many thanks to Peggy Nelson and Alex Hawthorn for having proposed this project, at the tail end of last week’s project.

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-0363-gymnopedie-rats/

A Couple Things (disquiet0363 Gymnopédie Rats)

• Source: Korg SQ1 > Make Noise 0-Coast > Way Huge Supa-Puss > Digitech Polara
• Glitch 1: GlitchMachines Hysteresis > Ableton Beat Repeat
• Glitch 2: Ableton Granulator II

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More on this 374th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Glitch Glitch / The Assignment: what happens when you glitch something that’s been glitched? — at:

https://disquiet.com/0374/

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-0374-glitch-glitch/

Reciprocator (disquiet0374 Glitch Glitch)

“One can only arrive at the experience of the transcendental – if it is reached at all – when one is oneself in a position of un-knowing, that is, of humility; namely, while remaining in the world of technê he or she begins to venerate a certain kind of experience, acquires it, makes it one’s own, realizes it, sustains it, repeats it – without burdening its sense, its essence with its own great questions.” - László Krasznahorkai, “The Acropolis in Sunglasses”