"You will make four recordings of yourself walking. You will then combine those recordings as you see fit into a single original piece of music. You will add nothing to the four recordings. You can cut up and otherwise transform the source audio as you see fit, but it should always be recognizable as the sound of walking. The resulting track will explore various themes, including texture, rhythm, percussion, momentum, and the inherent musical qualities of field recordings."

*

My recordings were done at work.  It's a sprawled out, single-floor facility of connected buildings that transitions from industrial document processing to open office cube farm.

I've down this road before, having made field recordings in the same spaces that became the basis for my track "Office Ghosts" - http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/office-ghosts

One of the recordings was done outdoors while walking on the grass.  In the background there's a bit of road whine from the traffic passing along on Interstate 80.

Beyond a blending of the recordings, I only added reverb, a bit of delay, and eliminated most of the low-end via an EQ plug-in.

The original version ran almost 5 minutes, but after repeated listening I thought a 102 second stretch towards the end was the most interesting, so I made a final cut.

I don't know how "musical" it is, although the passing sounds might provide a hint.  It's mostly rhythm and texture.

*

More on this 91st Disquiet Junto project, which explores the musical qualities of footsteps, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/09/26/disquiet0091-walkingmusic/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

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

Associated image found via Flickr:

http://goo.gl/YFzVzA

A Short Walk At Work (disquiet0091-walkingmusic)

The three rooms I chose were my garage, and the interiors of the two cars in the garage.

The 30-second sample was played through the sound system of our Honda Element for each clip, audio turned way up, and with the windows down.  The only change was the placement of the microphone, a Zoom H1.

Clip 1 was within the Honda Element in the garage.

Clip 2 was standing in the garage, between the front of each vehicle.

Clip 3 was within the Hyundai Accent in the garage, driver's window up, passenger window down, Zoom H1 pointed towards the open passenger window which is next to the wall.

Other than editing, nothing else was done.

Sequence was planned ahead of time, as I wanted the loudest clip to be first and the quietest clip last.

I chose the garage and the cars for practicality.  I don't have a speaker system that is conveniently portable.  Besides, the garage is a room, and so are car interiors. 

The track the sample is from was made a few weeks ago.  It's called "Chimers" - I have uploaded it as a streaming-only track to Soundcloud:  https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/chimers

To find more of my music and podcasts, visit http://www.markrushton.com

More on this 92nd Disquiet Junto project, in which room tone is used to shape a three-part suite, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/03/disquiet0092-roomtonesuite/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Two Car Garage (disquiet0092-roomtonesuite)

This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain; “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel; and “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in Gdańsk, Poland.

The sections extracted were loaded into the Samplr program in my iPad and messed around with until I had sounds that were interesting to me.  These were recorded to my Zoom H1, and then the file loaded into a desktop computer where they were edited/arranged into this one minute track called Semi-Autonomous (disquiet0093-netlabelhybrid).

More on this 93rd Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/10/disquiet0093-netlabelhybrid/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Semi-Autonomous (disquiet0093-netlabelhybrid)

For this project, the sound of three animals is combined into an unlikely vocal trio.  I chose a whimsical approach with "Four Variations of Cat Bird Pig".  It's a very short piece, barely a minute.  Only bits from the source recordings were used, along with a touch of reverb and pitch shifting.

More on this 94th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sound of three animals is combined into an unlikely vocal trio, at:  http://disquiet.com/2013/10/17/disquiet0094-naturalisttrio/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Four Variations of Cat Bird Pig (disquiet0094-naturalisttrio)

Laundromat is 2 minutes long and was created on October 14, 2013.  Please consider wearing good headphones.

My process is like this:  I create sounds via Ableton Live and capture the results to a digital recorder.  The files are often forgotten and then discovered months or years later, edited, and then further manipulated using different software and then layered and mixed.  That's pretty much how I work.  Laundromat follows this process.

If you're into layered drones and shifting sounds, then Laundromat might interest you.  It's got an opening, an initial space where you can get used to the sounds, and then around 35 seconds it begins to open up further and provide variation throughout the rest of the piece.  Near the end, the higher section drops off and the track fades away.

It's probably odd that I participated in this particular Junto as I almost never solicit feedback for the pieces I create on my own.  I can't remember ever sending off any of my albums to reviewed by a music critic.  As an artist, it's not something that I'm interested in. 

But I suppose participating this way is a stretching of my boundaries, although anybody can comment on my tracks at Soundcloud as long as I permit it (and I always permit it).  

More on this 95th Disquiet Junto project, in which musicians post recent tracks with the express purpose of getting constructive feedback, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/10/24/disquiet0095-discussamongst/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

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

Laundromat (disquiet0095-discussamongst)

Instructions:  "This week's project is a tribute to Lou Reed, who passed away earlier this week. His album Metal Machine Music from 1975 is a classic early noise endeavor. The project this week is straightforward. Using the phrase "Metal Machine Muse" as your guide, create a tribute to Metal Machine Music. Please employ at least one actual metal in your work, and note it in the title of your track."

Around 1980-1981, I would have been 13 or 14 years old at the time, I checked out Metal Machine Music from the local public library.  It was too far out for me then, but I didn't hate it.  I just didn't understand it.  I don't know if one ever really "understands" Metal Machine Music.  It is what it is.  Once I got a few more things under my belt, like Zero Tolerance For Silence and early Fennesz recordings, it's more easily appreciated.  At least for me.

This recording is composed from two past Junto contributions I've made: Machine Symphony (disquiet0041-dirtyminimalism)and Central Discount 120915 (disquiet0037-asrealasitgets1).  They are layered and pitch-shifted and processed a bit.  Both were recordings of metal fans.  Machine Symphony was recorded in a bathroom where I work.  Central Discount was recorded in an Amish salvage grocery store about 15 miles southwest of where I live.

Jon Hassell, in 1990, for his track Voiceprint, wrote the following in the liner notes:  "Metal Fatigue is a euphemism. The same vibrations express sympathy or illness depending on their target."  Those words have stuck in my head over the years, and so I adapted part of it into the title.

More on this 96th Disquiet Junto project, in which metal machine music is made in tribute to the late Lou Reed, at:  http://disquiet.com/2013/10/31/disquiet0096-metalmachine/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Steel Fatigue (disquiet0096-metalmachine)

The instruction for this project is simple: Please record the sound of water boiling and make something of it.

I recorded three different pots of water on my stove and with varying amounts of water inside them.  My favorite is the old stock pot pictured, which I bought at a Goodwill store almost 25 years ago.  The lid rattles in a distinctive way when a lot of water is boiling inside.

The six sound files I ended up choosing were loaded into my iPad Air and then manipulated using the Samplr program and mixed until I created the five minute piece you hear.  It's a very rhythmic track.

When you listen, I hope you wear good headphones.  

For more ambient music and sounds, visit my web site at http://www.markrushton.com

My music can be found at Spotify, Pandora, SomaFM, Rdio, Live365, Rhapsody, Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon, Google Play, and of course Soundcloud.  For direct links, visit:  http://markrushton.com/about-mark-rushton/

More on this 100th Disquiet Junto project (Record the sound of water boiling and make something of it) at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/11/28/disquiet0100-vaporwave/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Steam Powered Sound (disquiet0100-vaporwave)

The project:  Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches.

Record the audio of three objects in your home or workplace that have on/off switches. Capture the unique sound of them being turned on and off. For each of the switches, record several seconds of this on/off action so you can create loops of a steady pace. Then create an original piece of music that employs phase shifts — that is, in which the tiny distinctions between loops create noticeable patterning as time progresses. You can use some light processing, but the sense of "switch-ness" of the source audio should never be lost.

With this project I'm using Samplr on an iPad Air.  I recorded three different switch samples, all from pull chains.   One was from a troublesome fluorescent light fixture in the deepest storage area of our lower level - that got the most texture.   The second was from a single bulb switch near the laundry.  The third involved two switches for a ceiling fan and it's light, and these were pulled at a faster but uneven tempo.  I used a Zoom H1 mounted on a mic stand on a chair, and recorded each switch for about 20 to 30 seconds.

In the Samplr project I doubled each loop and ensured that loop's twin was not reading the same areas - also, one loop had a slight bit of reverb and the other didn't.

Composition was recorded live, direct to Zoom H1.  It took me a number of attempts to create something I liked.  Ultimately, I started simple, added samples in the middle added a light touch of reverb, and in final third I withdrew different loops until ending abruptly.  There's a bit of hum in the background - I can't tell if that's from the fluorescent sample or a bad cord from the iPad to the H1, possibly both.

After 80 seconds, it gets wildly rhythmic, but a couple of loops keep a more steady pace and seem to punctuate the denser rhythms with a bold presence.  The piece begins to withdraw after 2 minute and 30 seconds.

I can't believe nobody had used "Switched-on" as a title by the time I made my piece.  It was too irresistible.  An alternate title I considered using was "Bad Chain Puller" (after Captain Beefheart), which is probably funnier.

More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:  http://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Switched-On and Off (disquiet101-analogbinary)

Glistening, gentle, and reflective... and loop-able secular holiday music.  

"Some Snowflakes" was created in Samplr on my iPad Air based on sounds originally made in Ableton Live.  The source sounds were also the same loops I used for a track I made earlier in 2013 called "Snowflakes" which has not yet been released as of December 13, 2013, but should be soon.

For more about my music, visit http://www.markrushton.com or subscribe to my email newsletter at http://mailinglist.markrushton.com/

More on this 102nd weekly Disquiet Junto project (Record original secular holiday music: glistening, reflective, gentle) at:  http://disquiet.com/2013/12/12/disquiet0102-sonictinsel/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Some Snowflakes (disquiet102-sonictinsel)

My musical senses are in an industrial/noise mode recently.

I used Samplr on my iPad Air.  Made several different recordings.  Arranged the recordings in Sony Acid until I created something I liked.

For more about me and my music, visit http://www.markrushton.com

In addition to what I have here at Soundcloud, I now have all my commercially available recordings at YouTube for free streaming:  https://www.youtube.com/user/markrushtoncom

Thanks to a Creative Commons license, this track contains elements of music by Juan Manuel Castrillo (“Horizontales,” from the album by that name on the netlabel Impulsive Habitat), J. Surak (“Improvisation for Prepared Autoharp,” from the album If You Smell Gas on the netlabel Zeromoon), and Maddame Cell (“Auto Tempo 1,” from the album Autotempo on the netlabel Xylem).

More on this 111th Disquiet Junto project (“Rework work from Impulsive Habitat, Xylem, Zeromoon (via actsofsilence.com)”) at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/02/13/disquiet0111-actsofcommons/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The source audio for this track is available for free download from these netlabel websites:

http://impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihab084.htm

http://museumofmicrocassetteart.bandcamp.com/album/moma086-if-you-smell-gas

http://xylemrecords.bandcamp.com/album/autotempo

The audio was sourced from reviews posted originally at the excellent website actsofsilence.com, which is run by David Nemeth.

Industry (disquiet0111-actsofcommons)

This week’s project is a celebration of the new album by Dave Seidel, who also goes by Mysterybear. Titled ~60 Hz, it just came out on the great Irritable Hedgehog record label.

I got the five pieces, converted them to WAV files, extracted about 30 seconds of each file, and loaded them into Samplr on my iPad.

Eventually I crafted the files into the following track, which is rather bass heavy, has a bit of reverb, and is rhythmic.  Wear good headphones while listening.

In my own work recently, I've been creating more longer-form ambient-ish singles, so I took the entire five minutes to create something that zones me out.  

The title is an anagram of Dave Seidel's name.

Pic is from my local grocery store.  Can't remember when, maybe a month or two ago.  It's been a long cold winter here in Iowa City, Iowa.

For more about me and my music, visit http://www.markrushton.com

Or sign up for my mailing list at:  http://mailinglist.markrushton.com

More on this 114th Disquiet Junto project — “Combine elements of Dave Seidel’s album ~60 Hz (Irritable Hedgehog)” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/03/06/disquiet0114-60hz/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

The source audio is from Dave Seidel’s ~60 Hz album, released on the Irritable Hedgehog record label. More on the album at:  http://recordings.irritablehedgehog.com/album/dave-seidel-60-hz

Leaded Vise (disquiet0114-60hz)

This week's project instructions:  "It is understood that one should brush one’s teeth for two minutes: half a minute each for front and back, top and bottom. Compose a piece of music made of four portions, each 30 seconds in length, each 30-second segment intended to direct a segment of the brushing The music should be placid enough to be listenable to at night and in the morning. The juncture between each 30-second segment should signal to the listener to rotate from one portion of the mouth to the next."

I've been using a Braun Oral-B electric toothbrush for the past several years.  It's a Triumph Professional, 5000 Series.  It's pretty neat.  Wireless charging.  There's a timer/clock you can look at that uses Bluetooth to communicate with the brush.  Got it real cheap through my dentist office - probably $59 after discount and rebate.  They cost more in retail stores and online.  Heads are reasonably priced, available anywhere, and last a long time.

And it's got this vibration notification every 30 seconds to switch brushing quadrants in your mouth.  Just like the Junto instructions!

Before I get into how I created this track, I must preach about the importance of using a quality electric toothbrush like this Braun Oral-B that I have, and a story about how I got to this opinion.

Growing up, I used a manual toothbrush.  I flossed.  But every time I'd go to the dentist there would be problems.  You know:  gum issues, cavities, plaque and calculus buildup.  It was difficult to impress the hygienists or the dentist, no matter how much effort I put in.

Then, when I was living in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a decade ago, I went to a dentist office near my then-home that turned out to be a huge scam.  The practice had a new building, fancy equipment, flat screen TVs everywhere, and all the dentists were younger - and obviously heavily in debt as a result!  There was a constant hard sell of extra services that showed "practice management" was being employed to wring out every last dollar of their customers.  I was told that my gums were totally falling apart, and that I needed prescription strength chlorhexidine gluconate rinse, which tasted disgusting, and "deep cleaning" of each tooth (at a cost then of $40 a tooth!).

After researching the problem myself, I learned that probably all I needed to do was buy a decent electric toothbrush.  I bought one the office offered, an expensive Rota-Dent model.  It helped my teeth considerably, although I later wasn't so impressed with the difficulty of finding the model's expensive replacement heads.  Even after I brushed with the new electric toothbrush and my gums showed improvement, the practice still wanted to drain my wallet with every half-baked scheme and rinse they could offer.  So I switched dentists (to a small plain office with one dentist), got a second opinion, and the new dentist schooled me on what they had tried to do.

When I moved to Iowa City in 2007, I found a single-dentist practice near my house and they've never tried to up-sell me on anything.  At the checkout desk, they displayed the Braun Oral-B unit at a reasonable price, so I got one and have been very happy with it ever since.  Cleanings go smoothly.  It thrills me to no end to have the dentist peer into my mouth for a couple of minutes after the hygienist is done and declare "Everything's great!"  It's become the norm.  

Obviously, I planned to use a recording of my electric toothbrush in the soundtrack.  I made several recordings with a Zoom H1 and loaded them into the Samplr app on my iPad Air.  After creating four different projects and coming up with a different "sound" for each, I recorded two minutes of each project direct to the Zoom H1.

The audio created in Samplr was then put into my usual DAW, Sony Acid Pro, with 30 seconds selected from each segment, and I thought I'd embellish it a bit with some old loop library samples.  As you'll hear in the track, I went for beats, breaks, and bass - which I've used in the past but not so much lately.

Each 30 second segment had a plan.  Since I normally go the 2 minute distance with my electric toothbrush in the morning, this piece should be considered mainly a "morning" soundtrack.

The first 30 seconds slowly gets started with upright bass and a simple groove before fading into an obvious break.  In the background is the drone audio created in Samplr.

The second 30 seconds features a different drone with sub bass and a slightly crisper beat.

The third 30 second section doubles up the drones, offsets the sub bass, and changes up the beat with a bit of horn punctuation.

The final 30 seconds brings back the gentler beat and on-beat sub bass with the drone continuing to hover overhead until a fade out at the 2 minute mark.

The same drum break is used at 30, 60, and 90 seconds.  I equate this with my Braun Oral-B using the same pulse rhythm for each similarly spaced notification to change brushing quadrants in my mouth.  After 2 minutes, the Braun Oral-B uses a more elaborate pulsating break, but since the total track time is 2 minutes I figured I would just drop the beat near the end and fade it out.

The photo is an Instagram-filtered closeup of the LCD charge indicator on my brush.

More on this 116th Disquiet Junto project — “Record a score for daily dental hygiene” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/03/20/disquiet0116-brushx4/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Triumph (disquiet0116-brushx4)

“What is the room tone of the Internet?”

For this Junto, I envisioned being inside a CAT5 wire, with an 8P8C connector on the end, picking up a signal from somewhere to sending it to another place.  It's soundproof, because it's shielded, so there's no additional "real" room noise.  

The presence inside that CAT5 wire has to have a sound, and so here's what I think it is.

The recording is such that it can be listened to at different levels.  My suggestion for optimal listening would be a quiet place with very little actual "room noise".  Nice headphones.  And about 35% to 40% up on the volume.  I'll admit that it's still pretty quiet.  You can turn it up to 100% and hear it a bit better, but I would say that's too loud for what I'm doing here.  You also may feel more comfortable backing you sound down to an almost inaudible level.

To come up with this sound I made some recordings near the fan output of my aging laptop with a Zoom H1.  That was fed into Sound Forge, volume cut back probably 90%, and then a 15 second section copied to a new file.  15 seconds is fed into Paulstretch at 8x, and some tweaking in the Process tab but not much.  Render file.  Back to Sound Forge for length correction and pointless experimentation with fx.

It seems to me like the room tone inside that CAT5 would be a constant stream with minor variation.  A traveling sound.  Maybe kind of like disquiet0089-vger.  Hear mine of that:  http://markrushton.com/my-fickle-friend-the-solar-wind-disquiet0089-vger/

More on this 118th Disquiet Junto project — “What is the room tone of the Internet?” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/04/03/disquiet0118-internetroomtone/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

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

8P8C (disquiet0118-internetroomtone)

This week's project is:  “Write music to accompany the typing of a work of fiction.”  Instructions are at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/04/10/disquiet0119-paperbackbeatmaker/

My wife, Ann Rushton, is a fiction writer and also the editor of the literary magazine Bound Off, which has published short fiction read aloud every month since 2006 as a podcast.  Bound Off's web site is http://www.boundoff.com if you're interested in it.  All back issues are freely available.  I've provided the background music for all of the monthly shows, and often act as host.

In addition, Ann is getting her story "Springfield" published on April 23, 2014, in Day One, Amazon's weekly literary magazine.  If you're a Kindle user or have the Kindle app, I would hope that you consider giving Day One a look if you're not already a subscriber.  The first 30 days are free.  Visit  http://amzn.to/1kIiFdg for more info about Amazon Day One.

Understandably, I had to use part of the "Springfield" story for the typing portion of this Junto.  I used a paragraph near the end of the story, where the musician characters are working out an issue with a new song.

The typing was done on a Hermes 3000 typewriter I acquired last year for $50 via Craigslist.  It's in excellent shape.  Although I grew up typing on manual typewriters, it's been a long time since I've used one, and it took a while to get used to pressing so hard on the keys compared to today's computer keyboards. 

Recording was done via a Zoom H1 which sat on my metal desk.  The typing caused extra vibrations to be picked up by the microphone, although they may not necessarily be explicit in the final mix.

For the accompaniment, I used the full version of the iOS app Musyc on my iPad Air to craft sounds.  Several extended length passages were recorded with variations on an initial theme, and then portions arranged along with the recording of the typing in order to play around with and get lost in the rhythmic element.

More on this 119th Disquiet Junto project — “Write music to accompany the typing of a work of fiction” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/04/10/disquiet0119-paperbackbeatmaker/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Springfield Hermes (disquiet0119-paperbackbeatmaker)

Over the past few months, Joel David Palmer (World Abounding) and I had been trying to get together to meet for the first time and create sounds, but we kept getting delayed by work, life, and facility schedules that didn't cross.  I was finally able to rent a 4 hour block at the Environmental Education Center (EEC) at the rather unglamorously-named "East Side Recycling Center" in Iowa City on Sunday, May 11th - Mother's Day - at the only slot they had available:  7:30am to 11:30am.

The EEC is a very nice space:  high ceilings, glass walls, bamboo floors, and lots of echo.  Jon Harnish and I recorded here in June 2013.  The building is only a couple years old, but is LEED "Platinum" Certified, which means LED lighting, solar panels, "garden" walls and roof, waterless urinals, and so forth.  It definitely wants to be the building of tomorrow.

One thing I noticed in the kitchenette area of the EEC was that they had a typical compressor-based refrigerator with the usual rattle and high-pitched sound when operating.  And while I didn't have a die to roll for this week's Junto choice, I chose to identify the sound of a refrigerator 30 years in the future in the context of daily life.  This choice was solely because of my encounter with the compressor-based fridge sitting in a LEED "Platinum" building of today.

I definitely think refrigerators in 30 years will be mostly, if not totally, silent.  There has been a lot of advancement in "solid state" technology for cooling in the past decade, in particular studying the magnetocaloric effect at Iowa State University, ferroelectric polymers at Penn State, and other advancements in Peltier devices (thermoelectric cooling).

Some of today's high-end refrigerators feature lcd screens with wifi and apps, including audio services like Pandora, and of course there are companies that make "fridge mounts" for various tablets, so sound or music for personal space soundtracks be can accessed already.

But when fridges are silent, will we miss that extra sound?  Some might.  Think about all the people with cell phones with ringtones that could use any sound, but they opt for the old-school ringing bell on landline phones of the past.

That's where we come in.  We'll already have sounds created that are variations on old appliances or spaces.  Maybe not exact replicas, because they can be too harsh or annoying, but our own twist on present day "appliance music".

When Joel and I discussed the possibility of recording something for this week's Junto, we agreed that we'd take an edit from what we recorded and present it in our own individual way.

This 90 second piece offers "refrigerator compressor" replacement, "cooking sound", and other grey or brown noises seemingly blended from HVAC systems and faucets.

I think the future of most homes is towards more silent or quieter machines, but I suspect a niche will be created where nostalgia for boutique "old sounds" that are processed and smoothed into a more pleasing ambient soundtrack has some demand.

Mark Rushton - two iPads, Samplr
Joel David Palmer - Ableton-processed guitar 

More on this 123rd Disquiet Junto project — “Help Gizmodo.com 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.com Home of the Future at:  http://homeofthefuture.gizmodo.com/

Imitation of Noise (disquiet0123-homeofthefuture)

I chose the University of Iowa Main Library, but I suspected it would be dead since it's the time between spring and summer semesters.  

It wasn't entirely dead, but it was close.

The Service Desk area straddles two parts of the Main Library.  One part is very "old school", built in 1951 and has a musty decor of the "Fallout Shelter" era.  The other part is a modern remodel with bright and noisy lighting, vivid colors, and LCD TVs everywhere.

After several failed recordings, I went upstairs to the temporarily-located Music Library, and picked out two books:  "Electronic Music and Musique Concrete" by FC Judd, and "How Music Works" by David Byrne.  

I have thumbed through the Byrne book before and the sections I read seemed like a big downer, but I suppose I ought to read it.  In various interviews with Byrne in the past year he seems to be evolving his opinion about subscription streaming services.  I find this to be amusing because Byrne's written a BOOK about these issues and he's still vacillating over whether Spotify is a good thing or not.  Byrne really ought to have a firm opinion about it.  I happen to believe Spotify is a good thing, and I felt that way long before I became a paying subscriber.  (Actually, I pay for three Premium subscriptions in my family - that's $360 a year - and I still buy downloads at Bandcamp and other places).

But enough about what I checked out.

I decided I would try to get a recording by checking out a couple of books.  There were two people staffing the Service Desk, so there was a chance for additional sounds in the recording.  I figured I could easily get a minute's worth of recording, and I did.  The microphone was peeking out of my shirt's pocket in a rather unobtrusive way.  I tried to be quiet and be careful with my breathing as the mic was pointing upwards at my nose.

Since the elevator exit is right around the corner from the Service Desk, I left that sound in.  I thought that was an interesting start.  Surely if you work the Service Desk you have to hear it all the time.

The optional minute of "music suitable for background listening" was created wholly from the source recording using Samplr on my iPad Air.  That went through a variety of takes before I found an arrangement that I liked.

More on this 127th Disquiet Junto project — “Record the sound of your library — and then maybe make something of it” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/06/05/disquiet0127-libraryshhh/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

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

More on Zoè Benoit’s “bibliobeep” art project at:  http://conference.ifla.org/ifla80/librarians-worldwide-call-beeps

Service Desk (disquiet0127-libraryshhh)

This is a reworking of a sound recorded for my contribution to the 127th Junto (libraryshhh).  

The sound is the electronic "beep" heard when checking out a book at the service desk of the University of Iowa Main Library.

It was altered via the Samplr app on my iPad Air, recorded to a Zoom H1, then arranged and rendered on my desktop computer.

Since it's from a processed field recording there is a little bit of background sound.

More on this 133rd Disquiet Junto project — “Compose an especially short and concise composition” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2014/07/17/disquiet0133-sixnotesong/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/?p=16588

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

http://disquiet.com/forums

Library Shhh (disquiet0133-sixnotesong)

It's difficult to get excited about our Iowa summer in 2014, or lack of it.  Coming off a record cold winter, outdoor public swimming pools opened later than expected due to prolonged frigid weather.  During July we had four days where the high never got out of the 60s.  One day was the "record-low high" since weather records started being kept in the 1880s.  Only one day have we gotten to 90, and that was brief.  Most of the time it's been pleasant and in the 70s, but that's way below average.  Fine with me.  Lower cooling bill.  And I get to work in the yard more.  Don't those day lilies in the picture look nice?

You can tell I'm from the Midwestern US.  We talk about the weather constantly.

My wife and I got a new furnace over winter.  A 60,000 btu Amana that's 96.1% efficient.  We didn't have to replace the central air unit, which is made by Ducane since it's working fine and is only 12 years old.  We used to have a Ducane furnace, but it was full of lousy, obsolete technology, despite also being only 12 years old.  And the old Ducane furnace was 100,000 btu in size, which puzzled the HVAC guys who came to diagnose the troubled unit.  The main guy asked me, "Why is a 100,000 btu furnace in a 2000 sq ft house?"  I didn't know why, but parts of the house sure did get hot when it was on.  "Because the previous owner was an idiot?"  We laughed.  I got schooled.  Turns out a 100,000 btu furnace is the perfect size for a 5000 to 6000 sq ft McMansion.  The previous owner was clearly cheap and hired some fly-by-night outfit who probably bought remainders off the back of a truck in some big city.  Kids, don't be stupid.  My advice?  Hire a local professional with decades of experience like I did.

Following the installation of the Amana, the HVAC guy suggested that I leave the fan on all the time and let the heat or AC kick on as-needed thanks to a new programmable thermostat.  I was reluctant about this, mostly because my office/studio is in the finished lower level of the house, but near the furnace and laundry room, and the old Ducane furnace roared.  I'm kind of sensitive to sound.  Aren't we all?

Over time, I have become more accepting of the HVAC guy's suggestion.  The new Amana was much quieter when operating with a continuous fan, and we had better air distribution, so I've left the fan on most of the time.  As it's gotten warmer over the summer, the cool air from the lower level helps even out the warmer air upstairs and on a lot of days the AC rarely kicks on.

But when the AC kicks on, it's a slight rush of sound and slightly different from the constant drone of the continuous fan.  If you walk around the house, you'll hear different variations of sounds depending on which air register you walk by.

This piece I made was actually started over a week ago.  I've been trying to craft some shorter tracks lately.  After a slight bit of tweaking of my files on Samplr, I recorded a long passage specifically for this Junto and edited out one minute that I liked.  It's reminiscent of the sounds I hear when I walk around the house with the AC on.

More on this 135th Disquiet Junto project — “Record the sonic equivalent of air conditioning” — at: http://disquiet.com/2014/07/31/disquiet0135-soundofsummer/

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

Amana (disquiet0135-soundofsummer)

Lines of Light (disquiet0136-thricederivative) was created using Samplr and my iPad Air.

Spent a lot of time refining this.

I also have a 13 minute version, from which this edit was obtained.  

It's so lulling.

Wear good headphones.

More on this 136th Disquiet Junto project — “Recombinate work from the netlabels Nowaki, Phantom Channel, and Rec72″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/08/07/disquiet0136-thricederivative/

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

This track is made from elements extracted from the track “Nunquam Revolvo” from Jared C. Balogh’s album I Am The Ship // I Am The Shaman, available from the Nowaki netlabel; “And The Rain Embraced Our Closing Words” by from Chris Tenz and Cory Zaradzur’s album Language of Landscape, available from the Phantom Channel netlabel; and “HD Eve” from the Small Radio album Migre 3, available from the Rec72 netlabel.

More on those releases at:

http://www.nowaki-music.org/#album197

https://archive.org/details/LanguageOfLandscape-memoriesFadeUnderAShallowAutumnSnowphch014

http://rec72.net/?p=3555

Lines of Light (disquiet0136-thricederivative)

My contribution was created using the iTablaPro iOS app, some multi-tracking of recordings, and additional processing in Sound Forge.

For the main recording, I used an Ahir-Bhairav preset with a C#3 pitch, a couple of tanpuras that were tweaked, and a touch of Sur-Peti.  In another recording, I added a Tabla at 50 bpm with a Tilwada Taal.

Some recordings were then further processed using Sound Forge's Pitch Bend, then all were multi-tracked in Acid and mixed.

I thought about using Samplr, which I use quite a bit these days, but I haven't used iTablaPro in a while and felt I could achieve something more appropriate for the video using heavily processed Indian drone music.

More on this 138th Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a 2.5-minute soundtrack to complement a work of silent video art″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/08/21/disquiet0138-videosonicvoid/

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/

The image associated with this track is a still from the video that inspired it: “Untitled #8, 2004″ by Josh Azzarella. 

138 VSV (disquiet0138-videosonicvoid)

Think about a specific technique that you are proud of having developed, perfected, or in some way folded into your work.

Listen to the beginning 80 seconds of my track "Pajarito" which I released in 2008.  It was originally created in late 2006.

What technique am I talking about?  There's three things here in Pajarito that make it different from my earlier work and it's an artistic pivot point for me.  

First:  If you listen to that low arpeggio - it's not perfect.  It goes out of time.  That's the way I arranged it.  I wanted it to be imperfect.  Rhythmically, it's much more interesting to me.  It's repetitive yet shifting because of the imperfection of going out of time.

Second:  I've always enjoyed pitch-shifting loops down.  Something about the lower frequencies connects with me.  I got my hearing tested last year, you know, just to check, and the hearing's fine, but in my right ear I can't hear higher frequencies.  It "drops off" as they say.  And now I see why I pitch shift down audio and loops in my work.  Every loop that's multi-tracked on Pajarito is pitch-shifted down an octave, a couple octaves, and even 4 octaves from the original sound.

Third:  I incorporated a field recording in the background.  If you're familiar with my work and the track "Machine Symphony" then there you go, that's the sound.  And that is a recording of a faulty air exhaust fan in a bathroom at work about a decade ago, recorded on Minidisc (!), and I pitch shifted it down 4 octaves and it's still got some high end on it.  I've used that so many times since then.

So there you.  The technique is a blending of 1. Allowing sound to go "out of time", 2. pitch-shifting lower, and 3. incorporation of field recordings.

More on this 139th Disquiet Junto project — “Create and upload a track that exemplifies one key creative process you’ve developed″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/08/28/disquiet0139-techtechnique/

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/

The image associated with this track is by Wesley Fryer and was used thanks to a Creative Commons license. Originally posted here:  https://flic.kr/p/2xz92x

Pajarito (disquiet0139-techtechnique)

"Choose a recent piece of music that you both composed and performed.  Then perform a “cover” of the piece of music from but use none of the same equipment that was used to create the original."

Original:  SoundPrism Pro, Ableton Live, iPad

Cover:  Ukulele, PaulStretch, Sound Forge, Acid, Desktop computer

At 54 seconds long, "Remote" is one of my shortest published pieces.  The original is at Spotify:  http://open.spotify.com/track/54tXCGf23oo674npvbdJkg - Bandcamp:  https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/remote - or Rdio:  http://www.rdio.com/artist/Mark_Rushton/album/Vacation_Sketches%2C_Volume_2/track/Remote/

It's a rather simple tune:  just a back and forth sequence a few times that spends the final half blending sounds before fading out.  It was edited out of a long improv recording session.

The cover version of "Remote" was initially created with a ukulele.  I made some recordings and then processed them all with PaulStretch to varying degrees, then edited, arranged, and mixed along with the original ukulele recordings.

After the mix was rendered, I wasn't happy.  I knew I wasn't going to have anything close to an exact copy, but I wanted something interesting to me that would stand on it's own with elements that mimicked the original.  It's tough because the original was improvisational and free flowing, whereas this cover involved more "work" and thought and post-production process.  So I knocked the recording down a half octave, mixed in some additional layers, and got to a final version that I was pleased with.  

I figure that "covers" aren't always an exact duplicate.  Some artists really radically change a tune.  I figured I'd be in that camp. 

More on this 140th Disquiet Junto project — “Take a recent track of your own and ‘cover’ it with different equipment″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/09/04/disquiet0140-soloswap/

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/

The image associated with this track is by Antinephalist and was used thanks to a Creative Commons license. Originally posted here:  https://flic.kr/p/bNpTrT

Remote (disquiet0140-soloswap)

The easiest way for me to create the source files for this Junto was to use Google Voice and also my work's voicemail system.

A friend and I are very active users of Google Voice, particularly it's voicemail service.  We prefer to have asynchronous conversations.  We've been doing this a long time with other systems.

An example:  more than a decade ago, he called my voicemail at work, late at night, and did a relatively "straight" reading of the lyrics to Michael Jackson's "Beat It", along with some additional credits for the song, and then he wondered how long the voicemail would last.  It was a kind of performance art which I continue to appreciate as the reading has gone through numerous mixes and musical additions over the years.  (It's not something that I've released.)

Back then I had to hold a microphone up to the telephone receiver to capture the recording.  Today, my work voicemails automatically transfer to my work email as WAV files, and I have another filter that forwards these WAV files to my personal email.  And that's how I made one of the recordings for this Junto:  just a straight silent call from home to the work voicemail.

The other two recordings were chosen from Google Voice voicemails left by my friend, whose voice is prominent in the first Junto piece I made, Bruises (disquiet0001-ice).  For the recordings used in this Junto, I edited out his talking and most background sounds.  

Because his sounds originated from a cell phone you get digital packet "drop off", which is like a low-cut filter, and which is very obvious in the recording.  Whereas my landline-sourced call's recording has that "sidetone" sound that I appreciate so much.  That's why I hate having a 2-way conversation on cellphones or smartphones - that lack of "sidetone" is annoying.  That's why I prefer asynchronous conversations (using voicemail) when using a mobile phone.

The title comes from a recent Google Voice text translation.  All of the time, Google Voice's text translation feature is a complete disaster, but often there's a lot of comedy gold.

More on this 142nd Disquiet Junto project — “Make music from the near silence of phone calls″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/09/18/disquiet0142-callcenter/

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/

Photo associated with this project by Georgie Sharp and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:  https://flic.kr/p/eyJd7

This Is Partly Inspired By The Prosecutors (disquiet0142-callcenter)

I couldn't do this at my house for a number of reasons - the biggest being that the number of active katydid in our neighborhood have decreased in the past couple of weeks and I really wanted to do this with katydids in the mix.

So not long after I got the email for the Junto, about 8:30pm, I got in the car (cars have windows), and I ended up a mile and a half east of my house on a road near the high school called Glendale.  Driving around at night, most people would probably describe it as a "nice, quiet neighborhood" due to the complete lack of traffic, pedestrians, and street lights.  It was perfect.

Rolling down the front windows of my car, I plugged my headphones into an audio recorder and placed it on the dashboard.  Between me and the steering wheel was my iPad Air running Samplr, using the Air's speaker.  Some variations were recorded.  I used the final one for this.  I did a little tweaking of the volume in post-production, but other than fades on the ends that's it.  Everything was recorded live to one audio recorder.

The katydids and crickets mixed with the drones are so hypnotic here.  I'm very happy with it.

More on this 143rd Disquiet Junto project — “Play a live duet with the world outside your window″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/09/25/disquiet0143-tuningthehood/

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/

Photo associated with this project by Takashi M and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:  https://flic.kr/p/fgQjCP

Glendale (disquiet0143-tuningthehood)

The original piece was an early sketch called 140621-space2:  https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/140621-space2 - it was only saved as a project file and was never rendered into a recording.

140621-space2 later morphed into the completed track "Sightseeing in Space":  https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/sightseeing-in-space

For the purposes of this Junto, I recorded out 140621-space2 as a reference point.  It's definitely unfinished to my ears.

I saved off a copy of the project so I could make "A Small Box of Chocolate Bunnies".  Out of the five samples in the project file, two were completely quieted.  I might have made a slight volume adjustment in one of the remaining live samples, but not much.  After recording, I made some adjustments in overall volume and faded the ends.

With the headphones on, this does sound rather like something that might be in the background of a Lynch movie.  It's quite textural and dark.

More on this 144th Disquiet Junto project — “Remove parts from an unfinished composition to create a finished composition″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/10/02/disquiet0144-eraserhead/

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/

A Small Box of Chocolate Bunnies (disquiet0144-eraserhead)

Wear good headphones.

Crafted from a very small section of an old loop I loaded into Samplr for iPad, my white noise features undulating bass in the left channel and a digital hiccup slightly after halfway through.

More on this 147th Disquiet Junto project — “Record 8 seconds of white noise in your own personal style″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/10/23/disquiet0147-slightnoise/

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/

Danger (disquiet0147-slightnoise)

I got lucky with this recording.

I had to go down to the Iowa City Public Library to pick up Kindertotenwald, a book of prose poems by Franz Wright, which is the basis for David Sylvian's long form composition "there is a light that enters houses with no other house in sight", which is a collaboration between Wright and Sylvian, and also had contributions from Christian Fennesz and John Tilbury.  The library was kind enough to purchase a copy at my request.

In addition to this, I had a book to return, which I did at the outdoor drop, and that's where I started the recording.  I've picked up reserved books many times at the ICPL and you don't need a librarian to fetch it (it's self-serve), so it's almost always a breeze.  I figured I could go from the outdoor drop, get my reserved book, and come back out to the outdoor drop in 3 minutes, and I was right.

The library's always busy as it's located in downtown Iowa City right by the Pedestrian Mall, a closed road walkway near the University of Iowa campus.  

Once I scoped the self-checkout area, I saw a family from Africa with several children trying to finish and I chose a station right by them, hoping to pick up their voices - which were not speaking English.  The youngest one became upset and the parents finished quickly and scurried him away, and I knew I had audio gold.

After that, it's a nice comedown with the wind, the automatic doors, occasional voices, and leaves that I walked through.

I did very little processing.  Just a touch of reverb and some delay.  I liked the way the beeps at 1:08 and 1:13 turned out, and that was that.

I've done this sort of thing before with field recordings made in downtown Iowa City.  An example would be the track "On The Town" from my album Hide Yourself In Plain Sight:  https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/on-the-town

More on this 149th Disquiet Junto project — “Take a walk around the block and make something from it″ — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/11/06/disquiet0149-processingthepresent/
 
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/

Photo associated with this project by Jerolek and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:  https://flic.kr/p/9piCmd

Getting Kindertotenwald (disquiet0149-processingthepresent)

It's a very recent piece I made from Samplr.  Lots of movement, texture, and drift.  It could be 45 seconds, it could be an hour.  In this edit, it's only 3 minutes.  Immediate familiarity but with a sense of complexity, and without being overpowering.

More on this 150th Disquiet Junto project — “Record a subtle personal mobile score” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/11/13/disquiet0150-sonicperfume/

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/

Photo associated with this project by Ben Crowder and used thanks to a Creative Commons license: https://flic.kr/p/B5gLF

Haberdasher (disquiet0150-sonicperfume)

An 8 second piece created using Samplr.

More on this 153rd Disquiet Junto project — “Record a short sound intended to be set on repeat” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/12/04/disquiet0153-groovelock/

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/

Image associated with this project by Stuart R Brown:  http://flic.kr/p/mFQC3

Depool (disquiet0153-groovelock)

These are from voicemails I've listened to over the past year.  Each 5 second edit is from a different month, starting with January and ending in December.  The first 11 are one voice, and the last one is a different voice.

I really prefer asynchronous conversation in the digital age where smartphones always lack the sidetone of land lines.  You'll rarely catch me talking on my smartphone for more than 30 seconds unless I'm leaving a voicemail.  That's just my thing.

Voicemails have factored into sound collages I've made since the mid 1980s, particularly in a lot of unpublished material I've been involved with.  It's almost always humor or satire, but sometimes things have veered into areas where if I published it I would get sued because of rights issues so those things are kept as private jokes.

This bunch of clips should all be regarded as humor (e.g. "Amy Fisher" rather than "Anal Fissures").

Anyway, I wanted to do something different than play 5 second snippets of music or whatever.  This stuff made me laugh over the past year, and I hope others get a chuckle out of it.

More on this 156th Disquiet Junto project — “Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen five-second segments” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2014/12/25/disquiet0156-audiojournal2014/

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/

Voicemails (disquiet0156-audiojournal2014)

Ice/glass, recording, edit, reverb, down 2 octaves in Acid Pro, render, down 2 more octaves in Acid Pro, render, edit out 20 seconds from rendered track, add to Samplr/iPad, layer & mess with, record out a small portion, edit, take that file and PaulStretch 7.88x BlackmanHarris, edit to 4 minutes.

But then I had to edit this track to one minute in length because of a bug that occurred when I downgraded my Soundcloud account from Pro Unlimited to free.  Seems it reverted to my old "Solo" Soundcloud account (which is no longer being offered) and there were some technical problems which I've been assured by Soundcloud support will be cleared up in the next week or so.  Even on vacation from my job as a software tester it's a Busman's Holiday.

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

My podcast is at http://ambient.libsyn.com

Occasional email list at:  http://mailinglist.markrushton.com/

More on this 157th Disquiet Junto project — “Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something of it.” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2015/01/01/disquiet0157-icemusic2015/

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/

Photo associated with this project by Michael Scott used via Creative Commons license:  https://flic.kr/p/5vyz3G

Tundra (disquiet0157-icemusic2015)

I try to stay away from the news because it's always so negative or boring.  It doesn't help that newspaper web sites are nasty places with pop-outs, modals, auto-play videos, Facebook comments, and god knows what else lurking behind those Flash widgets.

But I liked this "least important story" because whoever wrote the opening paragraph did it with a lot of rhyme.

Around 1986, when I was living in Kansas City, I purchased the LP "Break Through In Grey Room", an album of cut-up recordings by William S. Burroughs (who lived in nearby Lawrence, Kansas) and which proved to be very influential to me.

For this Junto's instructions, instead of going for the literal "noise" I went for "tiny parts heard out of order" - which included a bit of an "almost-homophone", something I repeat in the brief coda as a matter of clarification once you've heard the full original statement.

If you want to hear more music by me, visit http://markrushton.com

I also have a podcast of my music and sometimes more in-depth presentation at http://ambient.libsyn.com

More on this 158th Disquiet Junto project — “Go from noise to signal with words” — at:  http://disquiet.com/2015/01/08/disquiet0158-syllablegumbo/

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/

Pro-Marijuana President (disquiet0158-syllablegumbo)

I missed a lot of Juntos due to moving houses and other issues.  The current house has a big room about 500 sq ft without any furniture other than a dining room table and art.  The ceilings are 12 foot high, wood floors, so there's lots of echo.  Understandably, I want to record stuff live in this space, and that's what I did here.  Output from my old laptop to some computer speakers with a subwoofer.  The recorder was put on a dining room chair maybe 20-25 feet away from the speakers.

Drum machines aren't my thing, but I tried to keep the program semi-interesting when on repeat, and for me that has to include a bit of silence in there.

Stricter In The Air (disquiet0169-html505)

"Here's a story that's so embarrassing that I don't tell it.  And it happened just the other day..."

Bruises disquiet0001-ice

Fog horn sample by Schaarsen: <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/schaarsen/sounds/69663" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.freesound.org/people/schaarsen/sounds/69663</a>/
Train whistle sample by Ecodios: <a href="http://www.freesound.org/people/ecodios/sounds/119963" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.freesound.org/people/ecodios/sounds/119963</a>/
These two samples were edited in Sound Forge, processed in Ableton, recorded to Zoom H2, arranged in Acid Pro into this piece.
A longer explanation of this piece is at:<a href="http://markrushton.com/?p=988" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://markrushton.com/?p=988</a>


Map Ref 40.892417 N, 92.819157 W [disquiet0002-duet]

I had just the field recording for this.  It was recorded in early 2011 at a garden center / drug store near my house.  The sprinkler was on a timer and was watering trees and shrubs late in the evening, and I heard it while exiting the store so I ran home and got my portable digital audio recorder and got about 8 minutes along with bird and parking lot sounds while sitting in my car.

For this piece, I carved out a little over 2 minutes of the field recording then added some of the rhythm source I used in Disquiet0020 Nodebeat, a looped bit of the train sound I used in Disquiet0002 Duet, along with some background color used in Disquiet0001 Ice.

Had to mix it all so the non-sprinkler rhythms wouldn't overpower the source, as advised.  I think the Nodebeat rhythm is very complimentary even if it and the sprinkler regularly go out of phase but I like it when things go out of phase.

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info 

Prickly Sprinkler (disquiet0029-countzero)

"Artificial Field Recording" - I decided to interpret this as constructing a field recording of an alleged department store from non-specific elements of what a field recording of a department store or retail space would typically have.

The basis for this piece, In Our Dream Department Store (Ask Me I Might Go), is a Google Voice message from a friend who was demonstrating a noise canceling microphone for cell phones called "The Boom".  They're expensive.  He was outdoors between two buses that were loudly idling and wanted to know what it sounded like.  I've got to admit, it sounds like a fantastic microphone.  Much of the noise wasn't heard by me, although he had no way of telling this as the sound of the idling buses was a monstrous roar to his ears.  Some of the sound did leak through as he got too close to the buses.  About half the samples were from this voicemail.

From there, I used numerous past recordings to fill in the sound.

One sample was of the natatorium where I swim laps.  It's the part where you can hear a woman singing.  The speakers are four stories up and the space is quite cavernous.

Another sample is from a few years back when my wife and I pushed our youngest daughter on a small metal merry go round in a park.  The recorder was placed under the ride.  That's the sound you might think of as an escalator in the middle in the recording.

Also mixed in more deeply is a field recording of a political caucus.

The rest are a bunch of different synth sounds recorded over the years to simulate phones, bar code readers, intercom alerts, and air conditioning systems.

The title is comprised of parts of lyrics from Bill Nelson's "The Crystal Escalator in the Palace of God Department Store" and David Sylvian's "Late Night Shopping".

This Disquiet Junto project was done in association with the exhibit As Real As It Gets, organized by Rob Walker at the gallery Apex Art in Manhattan (November 15 - December 22, 2012):
 
http://apexart.org/exhibitions/walker.php/ 
 
More on this 37th Disquiet Junto project at: 

http://disquiet.com/2012/09/20/disquiet0038-asrealasitgets2/
; 

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Disquiet Junto - http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info/

In Our Dream Department Store (Ask Me I Might Go)-[disquiet0038-asrealasitgets2]

This week’s project is as follows:

Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single sentence as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series on the first Thursday of 2012. Revisiting it a year later provides a fitting way to begin the new year.

Description of my process in planning, composing, and recording Addition/Reduction (disquiet0053-ice2013):

I wanted to make this very fast.  I didn't have much time to devote to the Junto this weekend, what with all the sports on TV, obligations, chores, etc.

Not including uploading and writing the description, I completed everything in about 30 minutes.

I knew I was going to use the Samplr app for iPad for the composition, so I could record one WAV file, about 20 seconds in length.  This file was added to Samplr and multiplied across the six available sections for a project.  Then I played around with the various settings until I had 6 different interesting sounds.

The recording was a simple addition/reduction of the mix.  I added the six sections together over the course of the first minute, then slowly reduced the individual sections.

It took a little longer than expected because Samplr crashed once after some graphics started overlapping, something that hasn't happened before, but I saved the project before it fully crashed and nothing was lost.

The first half of the piece is intensely rhythmic.  The last half morphs into a shuffling, kind-of-ska beat.

More on this 53rd Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/03/disquiet0053-ice2013/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Addition/Reduction (disquiet0053-ice2013)

This week's project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm. 
 
Frahm, who's based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs.  He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received. 

This remix almost didn't happen.  I made a number of attempts, but was unhappy with the results.

Initially, I chopped out some sections of the tracks "Do" and "Re" and put them in the Samplr program on my iPad.  Later, I recorded off some of the altered (and not-so-altered) unmixed sounds within Samplr into my Zoom H1, and then transferred those files to my DAW for mixing.

After some false starts, I watched the movie The Descendants, which I hadn't seen before.  It was a really sad movie.  I like sad movies.  I figure it was the saddest movie I've seen since The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, except the Diving Bell movie was much artier.  

So I thought I'd try to come up with something based on the idea of a Sad European Movie Soundtrack.  I wanted the recording to be real stark.  Minimal piano.  Like you're watching a lonely old French or Italian black and white movie where the soundtrack was transferred from an old worn out print.

It was fairly straightforward to create once I got the idea down.  And I got lucky with a brief dissonant section about 2/3s of the way through.

More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Frahm project at:
http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/

Popular tracks by Mark Rushton