Short track:  38 seconds

Now that the weather is warmer, I'm making an effort to collect more field recordings.

One downside of field recording is the risk of accidentally collecting RF interference, especially if you carry a mobile phone and you don't have a Faraday bag.

Every time I visit Jon Harnish at his apartment, I try to record my elevator ride up.  He lives on the 11th floor.  The sound is always different because the two elevators are usually working at the same time, but the other elevator is beeping and whirring at a different pace and more quietly in the background.

A recent recording I made was "ruined" by RF interference, but I kept it around mainly because of what Andy Warhol said about artistic leftovers in The Philosophy of Andy Warhol:  "I always like to work on leftovers, doing leftover things.  Things that were discarded, that everybody knew were no good, I always thought had a great potential..."


The initial edit is about 5 seconds long, and appears at the start of the piece.  It's me walking into the elevator, but there's all that RF interference buzzing in the recording.  That edit is looped all the way through.

After 5 seconds, I added a Korg IMS-20 for iPad loop I made over 10 years ago.  That's played three times.

Then I took edits of the RF interference loop and multi-tracked them, stacking them together in the final seconds after the Korg loop ends for a blaze of cacaphony.

It's just a snapshot, but this little piece has a "funky industrial jazzy" thing going on.

And the photo's somewhat appropriate.  That's a shot of downtown Cedar Rapids from Jon's apartment.  The colorful building is the Alliant Energy building, all lit up.  And the weird lights in the sky are reflections from inside the apartment on the window glass.

Wear good headphones when listening.

More on this 487th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Carillon Quotidian (Assignment: Turn a recurring sound from your life into music) — at: https://disquiet.com/0487/

This project was developed by Marty Petkovich (aka K Joule) as part of the celebration of the upcoming 500th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project.

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

RF Elevator (disquiet0487)

I bought a bass clarinet in the past month.  I'd been wanting one for a long time, having played it for 5 years in junior high and high school.  After the bass clarinet arrived, I found a guy in Brisbane, Australia, who makes pickups for wind and brass instruments.  It's called PiezoBarrel.  I ordered one, and it arrived this week.  The intent was to play it into my Empress Echosystem and Empress Reverb boxes and get some different sounds.  Out of the box, it worked perfectly.  Then I stopped by my buddy Jon's home studio and we played into his Focusrite Scarlett and Reaper - Jon on his trumpet, me on bass clarinet + empresses.  He saved off my track.

For "People Watching", I used edits solely from my playing.  Left side is processed normal bass clarinet playing, and the right side is processed squeaking of the bass clarinet.  The squeaking was on purpose, but the Empress boxes really smoothed it out.  Throughout the middle of the mix, heard more prominently towards the end of the track, is the faint sound of me "talking" into the bass clarinet.

Recently, I got Jon watching various web cams around the world.  I like most of the webcams from Odessa, Ukraine, particularly the one by the statue of the Duke of Richelieu.  It's fun to "people watch" this way, and we try to figure out what everybody is doing based on their actions.

More on this 490th weekly Disquiet Junto project — In Conversation (The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured like dialog) — at: https://disquiet.com/0490/

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

People Watching (disquiet0490)

I like to reuse everything:  beats, basses, field recordings, synth bits, my own samples, and entire ambient tracks I've made.  I do it often enough. 
 Every sound here has been used, re-used, buried, and re-buried in many of my tracks.

More on this 495th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Protip Etude (The Assignment: Share a tip for making music or working with sound, and record a track that employs it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0495/

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

Buried Repeats

Earlier this year, I bought a bass clarinet (my grade school instrument) and then a Piezobarrel pickup mouthpiece.  I've played around with it a bit using my Empress Echosystem and Empress Reverb boxes and discovered that talking through the mouthpiece has an extremely haunting effect.

For this Junto, I took aspects of me trying to cover the backing track of "O Superman" and ran it through the dark filter of Scott Walker's "Tilt" album, particularly the song "Patriot (A Single)" with the "Luzerner Zeitung never sold out" lyrics.

The entire track is me talking through the reeded mouthpiece's pickup and processed through the two Empress boxes.  I made a bunch of little sections, edited the best, and assembled in my DAW into what you hear.

It's been a while since I've made anything new, so it was wonderful to knock this out - and so quickly.

Wear good headphones.

More about me and my music and sounds at https://www.markrushton.com

More on this 503rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Sing Song (The Assignment: Record a song using only your voice transformed beyond recognition) — at: https://disquiet.com/0503/

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

O Zeitung (disquiet0503)

Day Traveler (disquiet0506) is a reverse time stretch of an unreleased track called Traveler.  Day Traveler is half the length at 1:04 and was created using Sony ExpressFX Time Stretch in an old version of Sound Forge.

The original source sounds are the "strings" from the iOS app Musyc using one of the many "sets" I've built, or whatever they're called, for randomized note generation.  All this is run through my Empress Echoplex and Empress Reverb boxes, likely the "yellow tape" and "green ghost" settings of some value.

The picture is from a webcam in late August 2021 on Derybasivska Street, Odessa, Ukraine.  I enjoy travelling by webcam.

More on this 506th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Wipe Out (The Assignment: Take something whole and erase half of it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0506/

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

Day Traveler (disquiet0506)

For "Bardominium", I wanted a sound reminiscent of a Marpac Dohm noise machine, but with vague extras.  

This is the 40 second version.

To achieve this, I combined sections of tracks by my side group Aleodeology.  These tracks are titled "Aleodeological Travel", "Industrial Terminal", and "Significant Mallets".  I also mixed in a bunch of homemade loops created from the Korg IMS-20 iPad app .

More on this 515th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Talking Cure (The Assignment: Write music for a psychotherapist’s waiting room) — at: https://disquiet.com/0515/

Bardominium (disquiet0515)

Geese are all right if you like saxophones.

More on this 516th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Outside In (Co/Exist 1 of 3) (The Assignment: Record a minute or two of nature) — at: https://disquiet.com/0516/

This is the first of a three-part project sequence. You can participate in all three parts, or any two of the three, or even just any one of them. Part one began on November 18, part two will begin on November 25, and part three will begin on December 2. Thanks to Alan Bland and Mark Lentczner for having proposed the project.

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

Birds Aren't Real (disquiet0516)

This is one minute of a recording captured on the evening of April 17, 2021 at Cargill's Soybean Processing facility at 410 C Ave NE in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

More on this 517th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Outside In (Co/Exist 2 of 3) (The Assignment: Record a minute or two of nature) — at: https://disquiet.com/0517/

This is the second of a three-part project sequence. You can participate in all three parts, or any two of the three, or even just any one of them. Part one began on November 18 and ended on November 22, part two began on November 25, and part three will begin on December 2. Thanks to Alan Bland and Mark Lentczner for having proposed the project.

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

Soy Protein Processing Plant (disquiet0517)

I combined undermulden's Coast at Møns Klint (disquiet0516) and Krakenkraft's Outside In: A Washing Machine [disquiet0517].  Both feature water.

undermulden's track was left alone and mixed down a bit.  Krakenkraft's track was duplicated several times, rearranged for a more consistent rhythm, and made a bit louder.  The washing machine "arrangement" gets louder as the track progresses, particularly at the 27 second mark.

Wavs (disquiet0518)

Spotify public playlist of all 12 tracks in full at:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ZyS4EU6TEU09KZqDarfSx?si=f522c8d2b41945a5

It's a sampling of a small percentage of the recordings that I released throughout 2021 in a chronological order.

1.  Drifting Buddhas by Calmer Feeling
2.  Zurich to Austin by Rod Rios
3.  Marimbake by My Love Underwater
4.  Going Up by Rushton
5.  Repair the Web of Time by Mark Rushton
6.  Sleep of Dreams by Mark Rushton
7.  Recovery by Ambient Matyk
8.  Mystery Location Chillgroove by Tanpura Express
9.  Troublesome by Vibrating Wires
10.  Rudbeckia Hirta by Rushton
11.  Wavering Support by Aleodeology
12.  Fast Train Moving by Closely by Audio Historians

As you can see, I release a lot of recordings under pseudonyms.

What can I say about 2021?  It was a good year for my creativity, but I couldn't enjoy it.  And it wasn't one thing.  It's not even the obvious.

The "muse", or whatever, didn't disappear, and so I consider myself lucky.  It seemed to hang out and pushed me along.  I got a lot done.  And it was the only way to get through.  The only rule is work.

More on this 522nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Just Backdated (The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments) — at: https://disquiet.com/0522/

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

Saves And Fails (disquiet0522)

I've done every "ice" Junto project, so I have a lot of samples and processed samples to work with.  

This year, I loaded a bunch of old files in the iOS app Samplr and smoothed them out with in-app processing that was sent to my sonic Zambonis, an Empress Echoplex chained to an Empress Reverb.

More on this 523rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Chill Communication (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0523/

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-0523-chill-communication/

Sonic Groom (disquiet0523)

I got a new iPad this week, the 9th Gen.  I went looking for apps I bought a decade ago and found the Korg iMS-20.  It runs smooth now, so I thought it would be a good instrument for this week's Junto.  The sound was routed into my Empress Echosystem (green tape) and Empress Reverb (green ghost).  I couldn't think of a good name so I repurposed some marketing propaganda I'd seen recently.



More on this 524th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Sunset Waveform (The Assignment: Read a photo like a graphic score) — at: https://disquiet.com/0524/

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

Designed In California (disquiet0524)

I made a bunch in Musyc before I arrived at All Aglow.  This is a construct using "strings".  It's run first through an Empress Echosystem on green tape, and then into an Empress Reverb on green ghost.  

I wanted the feeling of casually roaming down a path and, at times, almost teetering with the edge of the path.

The image is a detail of my painting All Aglow.

More on this 528th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Landscape Architecture (The Assignment: Forge an unobtrusive path through musical flora) — at: https://disquiet.com/0528/

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-0528-landscape-architecture/

All Aglow (disquiet0528)

I moved.  I'm back.

I like to have a "smooth entrance" and a "glitchy exit".  Because if you have technical problems, or perceived technical problems, then everybody understands.

This audio is extracted from my 2006 track "Money Agent", which is a mix of shortwave loops I recorded and "cut up" for processing, and some original ambient recordings.  

The original track "Money Agent" is on the streamers or can be heard at Bandcamp:  https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/money-agent

More on this 559th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Yes Exit (The Assignment: Compose your personal entrance and exit cues for conference calls) — at: https://disquiet.com/0559/

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

Smooth In Glitch Out (disquiet0559)

Snippets of 12 tracks I released in 2022 under my name and various pseudonyms.  I regularly work with processed lap steel, ambient & electronics, cut-up technique, and field recordings.  More about me at https://www.markrushton.com

Mark Rushton Audio Journal 2022 (disquiet0574)

I always do the "ice" junto,  This is my 12th.

Cold Facts was made from ice recordings loaded into the iOS program Samplr with various pitch and loop options selected, and then run through my boxes.  

This year's boxes are the Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork+ (set on 1 to 2), an Empress Echosystem (green Tape with various knob settings), and an Empress Reverb (green Ghost with various knob settings).  That's my rig.  Everything fits perfectly in a laptop bag.

Find out more about me at https://www.markrushton.com

I'm a 100% independent recording artist who has been publishing original music in the ambient, electronic, and avant-garde genres, as well as environmental field recordings.  

I have over 2800 recordings distributed worldwide under more than 20 band names and pseudonyms, including my own name.  Member of ASCAP since 2002.  I've produced and hosted the Ambient Rushton Podcast since 2004.  Songtrust is my worldwide administrator for mechanical and publishing royalty collection.  Airtable manages my catalog.  I use DISCO.AC for sync library and licensing submissions.

Making music should be fun.  That's why I keep doing it.

*

More on this 575th weekly Disquiet Junto project — On Ice (The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it) — at: https://disquiet.com/0575/

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-0575-on-ice/

Cold Facts (disquiet 0575)

One thing I'd like to remember to do throughout 2023 is to regularly remix the voices and noises in this song, maybe once or twice a month, and release every version as they're made.

A few years ago, a friend left me a voicemail, part of which is included here.  It was kind of a "performance art voicemail" for lack of a better term.  I saved the voicemail and have been altering and doing a "cut up technique" on it ever since.

While I regularly reuse certain ideas and loops in my work, I've never thought about doing it to such an extent.  It might be a fun idea to worry to it's natural conclusion.  I can't imagine that I would run out of ideas by February.  I'll add a calendar reminder and see what happens.

More about me at https://www.markrushton.com

More on this 576th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Casual Resolution (The Assignment: Get a musical New Year’s resolution out of the way), at: https://disquiet.com/0576/

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-0576-casual-resolution/

This Is A Burner Phone (disquiet0576)

The photo is of a radio tower in downtown Des Moines located behind the old Ma Bell building and the space of what used to be the KRNT Theater before it was torn down.  

I don't know anything about gates, but one of my boxes is an Empress Echosystem that's run into an Empress Reverb and a Electro-Harmonix PitchFork.  I decided to twiddle with the knobs on the Echosystem after coming up with synth noises in an app on my iPad.  The alteration is the difference between "Delay & Reverb" and "Reverse".

The way I interpret the picture and the music is that the radio waves from the tower are quickly zapping away the clouds.

There's a bit of weird folklore on Reddit where people think some of the various nearby downtown buildings are "weather deflectors".  A few think it's the ugly rusty Ruan building.  Others think it's 801 Grand, the Principal Financial tower, but I think it's this radio tower zapping the clouds.  Read more at:  https://www.reddit.com/r/desmoines/search/?q=weather+deflector

More on this 604th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Heaven’s Gate (The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound), at: https://disquiet.com/0604/

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-0604-heavens-gate/

The Real Weather Deflector in Des Moines (disquiet0604)

Lately, I've been in the middle of editing and scheduling for release my "mistake" tracks over the years.  They have obvious glitches and mistakes in them.  RF interference.  Bad wires.  Stuff that "ruins" the track.

I finally gave myself permission to release this type of recording.  I'm releasing it under a pseudonym ("Samesed").  As Brian Eno said, "It doesn't do anything sitting on a shelf".

"Glitchy Correction" has obvious flaws at the start, but now I find the mistakes charming and I can overlook them.

Music, especially electronic music, doesn't need to be "perfect".  It's OK to be out of time, out of key, out of phase, and bumping wires occasionally.  

More on this 613th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Test Drive (The Assignment: The Assignment: Do something you’ve been meaning to do), at: https://disquiet.com/0613/

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-0613-test-drive/

Glitchy Correction (disquiet0613)

On October 1st, as the band "Ambient Matyk", I released an album of Halloween-themed ambient music and sounds called "Inside the Graveyard".  It's on the streamers and Bandcamp.  This is an edit of one of those tracks, "Almost Like a Haunted House".

Source instrument is a kalimba that has a line-out.

The sound was fed through my two Empress boxes (Echosystem and Reverb) and then my Electro-Harmonix Pitch Fork, but the Empress boxes did most of the heavy lifting.

Edit the file on the ends, some normalization, and that's it.

I took the picture and processed the photo via thermal printing and acrylic ink.  It's an angel at Woodland Cemetery in Des Moines.

*

More on this 617th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Haunt Scape (The Assignment: Halloween is coming up. Do your thing), at: https://disquiet.com/0617/

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-0617-haunt-scape/

Almost Like A Haunted House (disquiet0617)

I've made collage audio forever, so this sort of project is easy for me.  The hard part is finding audio scraps that I haven't used, or used much.

In 2011, when I was living in Iowa City, I went downtown and made a bunch of field recordings.  A lot of that material ended up on my album Hide Yourself In Plain Sight.

One thing that didn't make the cut was me capturing a writer starting to read, and starting over, at Prairie Lights Bookstore.  He was reading something he wrote about Norbert Wiener and juxtaposing it with some Gwen Stefani reference, which to me is an excellent example of modern academic and literary nonsense, or I guess a "signal to noise".  

As that short clip in the track finished, I included two quick samples, panned left and right.  Left is a girl asking a bus driver a question, and Right is some drunk guy saying "Viggo Mortenstein" instead of Viggo Mortensen.

Also in there are some other loops, largely recorded from apps on the first generation iPad I had at the time.

More about me and my music at:  https://www.markrushton.com

More on this 621st weekly Disquiet Junto project, The Leftovers (The Assignment: Use recently discarded material to make something new), at: https://disquiet.com/0621/

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-0621-the-leftovers/

Norbert Wiener Signal Versus Noise (disquiet0621)

Hi everybody, it's Mark Rushton.  I released 233 tracks under many different names throughout 2023.  2/3 were music and 1/3 were field recordings.  I pitched about 75 tracks to Spotify for Artists and got some placed into Spotify curated playlists, but nothing in Rap Caviar yet.  The data says I had a lot of random unknowns putting my tracks into their own public playlists and that always puts a smile on my face.  Spotify Radio was very kind to me.  I bought a couple of Spotify Marquees - one was very successful and the other was a dud.  I put a lot of tracks that qualified into Spotify Discovery Mode and that was a huge net positive.  I pitched tracks to Amazon Music for Artists for playlist consideration, but I've never gotten anything accepted there.  Some day, maybe.  Keep pitching!  I created about 300 new public playlists featuring my music and sounds on Spotify and distributed them to other streaming services via Soundiiz.  Most die on the vine, but some don't.  Never give up on your catalog.  I have about 70 tracks at Pond5, the stock music service, and actually made a little money there in 2023.  I submitted pitches to 17 carefully considered sync license agencies and was either rejected or ignored, but that's expected given that I work in ambient and in a very idiosyncratic way.

My web site is usually markrushton.com and say hi at markrushton@gmail.com - I have a weekly Substack mailing list at markrushton.substack.com where I ramble a bit more about music and art.  I have other sites for visual art, videos, making playlist, etc.

If you want to hear more than 5 seconds of each track, I have full track playlists at Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, Deezer, Tidal, and YouTube Music. 

Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/playlist/59vmaJpV0XaQ6Am4rwru4K?si=cf9eede57d154b93

Apple Music:  https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/mark-rushton-audio-journal-2023-disquiet0626/pl.u-pMyDVojsKlymM2

Pandora:  https://pandora.app.link/jN8lN92gUFb

Deezer:  https://deezer.page.link/wYPmC9HpZWzPWUdX7

Tidal:  https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/39f29346-0103-445b-b0e1-b4d77d4b414c

YouTube Music:  https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLXjSBGQSr3MXyElUG9KDc3yw3dorqWMJ&si=6DOhpnzkYfhJqw7J

5 seconds of each track are:

1.  Mark Rushton featuring Aleodeology - "Forgetting and Forgetting"
2.  Calmer Feeling - "Technical Business"
3.  Mark Rushton featuring Aleodeology - "Processional"
4.  Meditative Drift - "Santa Dodges a Chinese Balloon"
5.  Mark Rushton - "Keep Your Mind Active"
6.  Aleodeology - "Explaining the Universe to a Child"
7.  Aleodeology - "Big Ears" 
8.  Vibrating Wires - "Driving Away in the Middle of the Night"
9.  Chillout Preservation Collective - "Details are Subject to Change at Any Time"
10.  Audio Historians - "Emergency Sirens Going Through Downtown"
11.  Ambient Matyk - "Inside the Graveyard"
12.  Rushton - "Midnight Tunnel"

More on this 626th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Audio Journal 2023 — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at: https://disquiet.com/0626/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Mark Rushton Audio Journal 2023 Disquiet0626

I've done every "ice" project since the start in 2012, so for this year, I took a previous year's ice sound, ran it through my setup, and then carved out a brief edit that was repeated 13 times at random in a 30 second time period.

Join my email list:  https://markrushton.substack.com

More on this 627th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Just Ice Society — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at: https://disquiet.com/0627/

13 Cubes (disquiet0627)

Due to winter weather in my area, I've been taking the bus.  I have a 5 minute drive to the mall where I park and then hop on an express bus for the 12 mile ride to work in downtown Des Moines.  Leaving the car behind and taking the bus is a transformative process for me because I haven't taken public transportation and been at the mercy of schedules in a long time, so it's a change.  I do appreciate the time on the bus, and I always open my iPad to sketch out some music projects, listening in earbuds.

And that's how this piece started - on the bus.  I have to compose with all the noise and heated air rushing around me.  After I get home, I run it through my boxes, and turn it into something else.  In that way, it's a kind of alchemy.

The title, "Rode Here on the Bus" is a direct lift of the beginning lyric of "Dreams Tonite" by Alvvays.  "Now you're one of us, it was magic hour."  Yep, transformative - and alchemy is a kind of magic.

A rare full track from me.  Usually I cap them at 30 or 60 seconds.

Wear good headphones.  I like Grados.  I own three pairs.

More about me at https://www.markrushton.com

Follow me on Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/artist/3o7In5aHAnzK7WYGHY5Khx?si=bsotBYbgRb2uRZOSMDzMYQ

More on this 628th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Alchemical Brothers — The Assignment: Explore an aspect of the ancient occult science using music — at: https://disquiet.com/0628/

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-0628-alchemical-brothers/

Rode Here On The Bus (disquiet0628)

I've made a lot of drones over the years, but this was a chance to think in a completely different direction:  bright and up.

Kalimba -> Electro-Harmonix Mel9 -> Microcosm -> Empress Echosystem -> Empress Reverb -> Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 4th gen -> Tascam digital recorder.  Edited in Sound Forge.  

Photo by me, sitting in the courtyard of my day job on Friday, May 16th at lunch time.

More about me at https://www.markrushton.com

Partially Obscured (disquiet0647)

0:00 - 0:05:  Me driving around, taking notes
0:05 - 0:10:  Recording audio of the process of making paper
0:10 - 0:15:  A live open-air recording made in my new house
0:15 - 0:20:  Rain and trains, recorded from my deck
0:20 - 0:25:  Slow Crawl Blues from my album Lonely Music
0:25 - 0:30:  Recording from one of Kansas City's Country Club Plaza's talking, rhythmic crosswalks.
0:30 - 0:35:  Iowa City Jazz Festival
0:35 - 0:40:  Katydids and crickets, recorded from my deck
0:40 - 0:45:  Falling nut in light rain
0:45 - 0:50:  New music, unreleased
0:50 - 0:55:  New music, unreleased
0:55 - 1:00:  New music, unreleased

Mark Rushton 2015 Audio Journal (disquiet0209-journal2015)

The Assignment: Compose something — quiet, peaceful, refreshing — you’d want to wake up to.

Where I live now, as you can see in the photo, I already get the bird song.  It would be nice to swap the old alarm clock for something a little more gentle, like waves of gentle drone sounds like this.

More on this 221st weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Compose something — quiet, peaceful, refreshing — you’d want to wake up to”) at:  http://disquiet.com/0221/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Morning Music (disquiet0221-morningmusic)

The source of "Baldcypress Knees (disquiet0249)" is a 20-or-so second sample from my 2013 track "Baldcypress Trees", taken from my album "Machines".

The original recording was created specifically with a hat tip to Reich.  It was made in Ableton Live around 2011 or 2012 when I was freestyling, recorded live, and then the recording was edited and layered in ACID so that it would go "out of phase", but near the end of the composition it would "come back" normally before fading out.

I still listen to "Baldcypress Trees" regularly and never tire of it.

For this project, I took that little section near the end where it "comes back" in the original recording and then I take it on another journey with more layers before "coming back" at the end.

Listen to the original at Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/track/3EMpzrOnGZefN3UMt9C6io

More about my music:  http://markrushton.com

Project Steps:

Step 1: October 3 marked the 80th birthday of composer Steve Reich. Prepare to record a tribute to him.

Step 2: Select a short segment of sound or music that can be looped and, per Reich’s own technique

Step 3: Take the segment from Step 2 and play it on repeat, layering the loop with slightly different timing to create a phasing effect. Play around with this, editing the loops until you have some successful or interesting sounds/accidents.

Step 4: Add some extra sounds or textures if you think the piece needs it.

More on this 249th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Wish the minimalist composer Steve Reich a happy birthday” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0249/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

http://llllllll.co/t/happy-birthday-steve-reich-disquiet-junto-project-0249/

Baldcypress Knees (disquiet0249)

"Compose a piece of music intended for a newborn child, something peaceful as they first experience the world outside the womb."

I remember when our first daughter was born, she would sleep better on car rides when we played music with a touch of prominent bass.  Nothing too loud, of course.  

This piece tries to replicate that "perfect" soothing baby sound that our daughter liked while in the car.  In addition to two kinds of basses, there's a variety of field recordings mixed in the background, along with a section of the track "Tactile Music" by Mark Rushton and Jon Harnish, from our 2008 album Ornate Culmination.

More on this 250th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Soothing Sounds for Junto: Make some peaceful music for an infant child” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0250/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

http://llllllll.co/t/soothing-sounds-disquiet-junto-project-0250/4927

Soothing Baby Sounds (disquiet0250)

Severe thunderstorm warning sirens as heard from my screened porch on March 6, 2017.  I live just north of Iowa City, Iowa in an almost-rural area that is all ravine and trees.  I've recorded storm warning sirens for years, as a by-product to recording storms, but this one seemed to have something special about it:  the multiple sirens at varying distances, the stopping and re-starting of one siren.  The length of the sirens seemed quite a bit longer than normal, although I'm not sure about that.

Severe Thunderstorm Warning Sirens

My wife recently got a new car, a 2018 Toyota RAV4.  It's not a fancy model at all.  We only got the front wheel drive version.  It doesn't have a sunroof.  And the rear tailgate opens and closes manually rather than automatically.

Still, this seemingly base model, along with all Toyotas for 2018, have something rather nifty lurking in the electronics:  Radar Cruise Control.

What is Radar Cruise Control?  It's the greatest thing since sliced bread.  It will make you a better driver.  It will make you a safer driver.  Once you use it, and trust it, you'll fall in love with cruise control all over again.

Say that you're driving down a multi-lane highway and you end up behind some slowpoke or large truck, but you can't change lanes due to the conga line of tailgaters to your left.  No problem!  With the radar cruise control engaged, the car automatically slows down and at a safe distance behind Mr Pokey.  When the conga line clears, just move to the passing lane and your Toyota automatically speeds back up.

Until you've experienced this as a driver, you might not understand how revolutionary it really is.  You should go test drive a new Toyota and experience this.  Even if you're not in the market for a new car.

What we have today with Radar Cruise Control is a brilliant painting on top of the ghosts, or pentimento, of the old fashioned cruise control as most people know it.  

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More on this 328th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Sonic Pentimento: Record a piece of music inspired by a term from painting) at:  https://disquiet.com/0328/

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

Radar Cruise Control (Disquiet0328)

If I could program my Marpac Dohm to play some of my own sounds, this is what I'd use - a one minute segment that I'd either loop or "almost loop".

I've made a much longer version of this for my ambient music podcast at http://ambient.libsyn.com/dohm-rushton-ambient-rushton-podcast-140

***

The Assignment: Make very quiet music for very late at night for very fragile psyches.

Step 1: It’s the middle of the night, long past dusk and long before dawn. You can’t sleep.

Step 2: Think about what kind of music you’d want to hear right now — super quiet, super subtle, unlikely to wake you, potentially to ease you back to the comfort of your pillow, or at least to calm your mind.

Step 3: Record the sort of music that Step 2 made you imagine.

More on this 350th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Selected Insomniac Works / The Assignment: Make very quiet music for very late at night for very fragile psyches) at:  https://disquiet.com/0350/

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-0350-selected-insomniac-works/

Dohm Rushton (disquiet0350)

Field recordings, beat stuff for friends, ambient, environmental, Indian-style, etc.  It's been a busy 2018.  

More on this 365th weekly Disquiet Junto project — 2018 Tracker / The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at:

https://disquiet.com/0365/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

markrushton.com

Mark Rushton 2018 (disquiet0365)

I lived in Houston for 9 months in 1997.  Lived and worked on Westheimer Rd.  I worked near River Oaks at a tech startup.  My wife worked somewhat nearby on Greenway Plaza at what is now Invesco.

The food in Houston was excellent.  One time, Dusty Hill from ZZ Top was behind us in line at a BBQ joint and ordered "a quart of jambalaya".  Yes, he was dressed like he was on stage.  I thought it was the perfect Texas moment.  Although a close second was going out with Ann's co-workers to somebody's horse farm in the country and one her co-workers rode a horse backwards very fast.  Nice people.

There should be more cars on whatever road this is.  I remember the traffic was crazy.  And the air often smelled of gas, the result of being close to oil refineries.

This track is a combination of several pieces of mine:  Aleodeology's "Time Travel Destination in the Past", "Simulated Gravity", "Aleodeological Travel", and "Empty Interstate Due to Microaggressions", along with my side band Vibrating Wires' "The Long Drive Out", "The Path to REM Sleep", and "Southwestern Desert" - and some field recordings of rain that I recorded.

*

More on this 476th weekly Disquiet Junto project — IAH Forecast (The Assignment: Here’s your next single’s cover. Now record it.) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0476/

The image that is the source of this project is by Robert Boyd (www.thegreatgodpanisdead.com) and has been used with his permission.

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-0476-iah-forecast/

Westheimer(disquiet0476)

I make way too much electronic music.  This account is solely for my contributions to the Disquiet Junto.  Follow me at Spotify, my mailing list, or my podcast, all linked here.

Ambient Rushton

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