Disquiet Junto Set 2013 (Mark Rushton)

This past week I created The Chill, a 14 minute ambient piece based on a number of sounds originally created in Ableton Live.  It's available here:  https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/the-chill as a free download.

In preparing the audio loops, I had to add a fade to the end of each one.  The original composition sounded terrible with harsh breaks because of imposed silences.  The fades improved the piece.

More on this 81st Disquiet Junto project, in which generative music is produced with four loops of differing lengths, at:


http://disquiet.com/2013/07/18/disquiet0081-cheapgenerative/


Original source track at this URL:


https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/the-chill


More details on the Disquiet Junto at:


http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Nervous Chill (disquiet0081-cheapgenerative)

My approach with this junto was from the point of processing juvenilia.

I made a bunch of recordings when I was in high school.  This would be 1984/1985.  Like today, it was totally improvised, and largely electronic.  Back then it channeled the punk rock ethos, although through Casios.  We had one microphone, a cheap Panasonic portable cassette player that got screamed into by the 'singer' (not me).

It's funny to listen to this stuff.  I kept some on cassette and transferred it to digital at least a decade ago.  Why?  I don't know...

The songs are short.  "Minutemen" short.  The lyrics are gross and profane.  The titles... well, the title of this song had to be redacted down to initials.

SSA in it's original form clocked in at 34 seconds. 

You get a little bit at the start, and a little bit more at the end.

Between?  Elements of SSA, including the full length recording, have been rendered and layered and mixed out of existence.  Like redacted documents, you know something is lurking behind there, but I'm not going to tell you.

And I couldn't resist redacting a photo booth pic of me from 1984, done about the time this recording was made.

More on this 83rd Disquiet Junto project, in which a page from recently declassified documents related to NSA collection of telephone metadata records is treated as a graphically notated score, at:


http://disquiet.com/2013/08/01/disquiet0083-redacted/


Image found via twitter.com/shearm and twitter.com/glennf.


Full document at: 


http://goo.gl/wVydxR


More details on the Disquiet Junto at:


http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

SSA (disquiet0083-redacted)

Make a song based on a just a title!  And the title given is "Hyperloop"!

To me, the whole Elon Musk thing about transporting people from SF to LA in a tube at speeds of up to 760 mph seems like little more than sci-fi.  It also demonstrates how annoying and obsequious the Sillycon Valley tech media have become, as they'll hype any idea floated by a billionaire.

As a teenager, I cut my teeth on 80's era British guitarist Bill Nelson's futuristic manifesto of home electronics, e-bow guitars, and "done in a day" pop masterpieces.  I suppose this "Hyperloop" owes a bit of a wink and a nod to the kind of craft that he continues to hone to this day and has sprinkled amongst his massive discography.

I've got to admit that this "Hyperloop" was started as a work in progress many years ago, but abandoned.  When I saw that this Disquiet Junto was based on a word, I was pretty sure I had something that fit the bill from way back, and indeed here it is.  I added some sounds, sweetening, and fluff to the final mix.  So perhaps I didn't labor over it as long as somebody would take to drive from SF to LA, but I certainly touched it up in the time needed for my fantasy ride in Elon Musk's tube.

More on this 86th Disquiet Junto project, in which a song was made based on its assigned title (“Hyperloop”), at:


http://disquiet.com/2013/08/22/disquiet0086-hyperloop/


More on the Tesla Hyperloop at:


http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/hyperloop


More details on the Disquiet Junto at:


http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Hyperloop (disquiet0086-hyperloop)

Nod to Johnny Mercer with the title.

Track was crafted entirely out of source audio, which was captured via one of those YouTube to MP3 programs.  Chopped up in Sound Forge.  Played around with in Paulstretch.  Layered and mixed in Acid Pro.

When I was in elementary school I used to go with my dad to the old Science Center in Des Moines where the Astronomy Club met.  That's where I saw my first VCR in the mid 70's, likely showing a videotape of something involving Pioneer 10.  I would watch the presentation on the TV screen, usually involving those nifty NASA animations, and then took off for the "dumb terminal" computers when the adults starting talking.  I'd play hi-lo, 21, and make the computer say "Yes Or No Please".  You could say I was more into the computers.

More on this 89th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sounds of interstellar space are used to make “goodbye music” for the Voyager 1 space probe, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/09/12/disquiet0089-vger/

Source audio courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Iowa via:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAZWb9_si4

Special thanks to Mark Ward (mark-ward.org) for having suggested this material as the subject for a Disquiet Junto project.

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

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

My Fickle Friend, The Solar Wind (disquiet0089-vger)

"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)

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/

Sad European Movie Soundtrack (disquiet0055-twoscrews)

This week's project requires you to make a field recording to serve as the source audio. These are the steps:

Step 1: Locate a clock that has an audible, even if very quiet, tick to its second hand. A watch or other timepiece is also appropriate to the task. 

Step 2: Record the sound of the clock for at least 30 seconds, and do so in a manner captures the sound in the greatest detail. A contact mic is highly recommended.

Step 3: Adjust and otherwise filter the recording to reveal the various noises that make up its tick. The goal is to get at the nuance of its internal mechanism.

Step 4: Create an original piece of music employing only layered loops of that sound. These layered loops can individually be transformed in any manner you choose, but at least one unaltered version of the original recording should be included in your piece. 

*

For this project, I had to rely on a recording by J. Siemasko (@Schemawound) since we don't have any mechanical clocks.

I edited out a 20 second piece of the recording, loaded it into the Samplr app on my iPad, and eventually crafted the arrangement you're hearing from 6 versions of the same loop.

What I ended up with was kind of like another "fake field recording".  This piece sounds like I stuck a microphone in the middle of a clock shop, but it's also picking up the sound of a motor or fan in the distance, and that recurring low whirring.  

I think the low whirring is essential in breaking up the strict tempos of "other clocks" and causing the listener to refocus every few seconds on the variety of rhythms produced, as each segment is completely different.

For years I've worked on many pieces that are largely defining that line between an ostinato and the point in which it becomes generative with the addition of layers, edits, processing, or delays.  A good early example of this from my work was the track "Flow", which I created in 2007 and released in 2008:  http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/track/flow

And in a way, Clockticktickclock is reminiscent of other Junto projects I've done, like Central Discount (disquiet0037-asrealasitgets) https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/central-discount-120915 and In Our Dream Department Store (disquiet0038-asrealasitgets2) https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/in-our-dream-department-store - although the technology used to create those pieces and this piece were entirely different.  I like how certain ideas can transcend technology.

More on this 56th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/24/disquiet0056-matteroftime/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Clockticktickclock (disquiet0056-matteroftime)

Hi, this is Mark Rushton of Markrushton.com.  Since 2000 I’ve been making music, sound art, field recordings, and, since 2004, albums and podcasts of my work.

I create these sounds largely to get me through my work day.  I’ve worked as a software tester for almost 20 years, and so I need to have the ability to eliminate distractions, get into the flow, and focus on my work.  And this music does it.

Most of it is relatively unobtrusive – for lack of a better term – “ambient” music.  It works for me.  Maybe it’ll work for you.

Music in the background includes:

"Beneficial" - the title track from http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/beneficial

"Office Ghosts" - the second track from http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/hide-yourself-in-plain-sight

"You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - the final track on http://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/vacation-sketches

If you want to check out more of my music, follow those links to Bandcamp.  Most of my albums at Bandcamp start at $1.  Or you can subscribe to my free podcast at http://www.markrushton.com

More on this 60th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/02/21/disquiet0060-audiobio

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More details on the SoundCloud "audiobiography" project at:

http://blog.soundcloud.com/2013/02/06/audiobiography/

Audiobiography: Mark Rushton (disquiet0060-audiobio)

This was recorded on Saturday, March 23rd in the late morning.  I went for a run and took along my Zoom H2 in case there might be any interesting sounds for this junto.  It was colder out than what I like to run in, upper 30's, but sunny with only a light breeze.  It was a good run and I did about 3 miles.  Not bad for not having run all winter.  I hate running when the temps are below mid 30's and won't run on snow or ice.  There's always my indoor recumbent cycle and weights instead, or a trip to the natatorium for a swim.

I've been in a creative funk lately.  No desire to do anything new, edit anything old, or even mess around.  I hate that, but I go through those kinds of times.  It's nice to have the junto emails to at least consider, and this week I figured I'd try to break out by working on this one.

There were a number of 1-minute recordings made, but I picked this one.  I must admit that I couldn't take notes at the time when it was recorded live, so I listened once when I got back and scribbled on an index card.  In the mean time I had lunch, a shower, watched some college basketball and then attempted to make sounds based on what I wrote down.

Rochester Ridge is a new set of homes built just to the north of my 70's-era neighborhood.  They're big and quite expensive, about double the average price for a typical single family home, and most of the lots are the size of a postage stamp.  They're selling like mad, though, and perhaps 20 of the 53 planned homes have been put up in the past 16 months and most are sold.

Two homes recently got roofs put on, and I was lucky to capture the tail end of some nail gun action on one of them.

Additionally, there are sounds of birds, a plane overhead, a car passing by, and other sounds typical of a neighborhood.

I composed my non-field recording piece using Samplr on the iPad.  These were based on recordings I created using Ableton Live.

*****

Disquiet Junto Project 0064: Composing from Memory


This week’s project's theme is composing from memory. It is recommended that you read through all the steps in the project before proceeding to attempt to execute it.


These are the steps:


Step 1: Find a place, preferably outdoors, where you can sit for five to fifteen minutes without being disturbed. This place should have a fair amount of inherent noise to it, and that noise should be variable, not static — i.e., not the long held drone of an overwhelmingly loud HVAC system, but the bustle of a street corner, or of a playground, or, if weather or other circumstances keep you indoors, perhaps of a busy cafe.


Step 2: Bring with you a portable recording device as well as something on which you can quietly take a small number of written (or typed) notes. You may wish to do a test recording to be certain that your note-taking isn't part of the audio recording.


Step 3: Settle into the space and get a sense of its sounds. Listening closely.


Step 4: Make a field recording of one full minute, or a little longer, of continuous sound in this place. While recording the sound, use time codes to make note of any memorable sonic instances.


Step 5: Trim the field recording to exactly 60 seconds.


Step 6: Without listening back to the field recording, compose and record a 60-second piece intended to complement it. Refer back to your time-code notes to align composed instances with those real-world instances that you recall having distinguished your field recording. You can use whatever instrumentation you like, but it is recommended that you use no more than one or two instruments. You should not employ any field recordings in your composed piece.


Step 7: When your composed piece is completed, layer the two tracks together into one new 60-second work. They should be played back at equal volume, more or less. You can adjust a little to achieve the impression of balance between the field recording and the composed work. The only editing you can do is to fade in and out, if that is so desired.


Deadline: Monday, March 25, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.


Length: Your finished work should be 60 seconds long.

More on this 64th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2013/03/21/disquiet0064-halflive 

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto

Rochester Ridge (disquiet0064-halflive)

Disquiet Junto Project 0065: Piano Overlay

This week’s project’s theme is asynchronous collaboration — in other words, making things together separately. We will make new compositions based on short, discrete, randomly assigned segments of a single, 60-minute piano composition. Collectively these will form a longer, collaborative suite.

Based on the project steps, I was assigned to start at 25:56 into the Jared Brickman piece for 2 minutes and 57 seconds.

I added a stretched out version of Schaarsen's nebelhorn sample http://www.freesound.org/people/schaarsen/sounds/69663/ featured in Disquiet 0002 ("Duet") http://disquiet.com/2012/01/30/disquiet0002-duet/  

It's a duet, right?  How fitting.  And it worked for me.

The second sample I used was the Ableton-created and Samplr-modified "wind noise" that I used in my piece Rochester Ridge (disquiet0064-halflive).

A bit of arranging and mixing and re-arranging and remixing, and that's that.  Sounds lovely.

More on this 65th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/03/28/disquiet0065-pianoverlay/

More on the source composition by Jared Brickman at:

https://soundcloud.com/one_hello_world/every-day-were-dying-and-outer

The browser-based tool that segmented the Brickman track for this project was coded by Disquiet Junto member Ken Mistove, more from whom at:

http://kenzak.com/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

25:56 257 (disquiet0065-pianooverlay)

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

I took 3 minutes between 54:23 and 57:23, a section with a strict rhythm and a crawling synth part.  My goal was to play off the strict rhythm.

My loops included a layering of the "plane" sounds and the "carfadeout" sound I created for Disquiet 64.  They were layered to go off-rhythm and out of phase.  

Also included are a couple of samples from my track "You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - which is a piece of music I made last year that I thought turned out rather well, the title of which is kind of a call to arms for me to get on with things - making sounds, art, or whatever, and to not worry about all the other noise of life.

"You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/youve-got-less-time-than-you

"Rochester Ridge (disquiet0064-halflive)" - http://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/rochester-ridge-disquiet0064

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Noise Of Life (disquiet0066-nofi)

More on this 67th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2013/04/11/disquiet0067-odysseymachine/

My process:  Per the rules, I rolled a combined "8" for Book VIII, and with the 3 die I ended up with line 80, which is:

He set before him, next, a polish'd board 
And basket, and a goblet fill'd with wine
For his own use, and at his own command.

After looking at numerous online text-to-speech tools, I ended up using NaturalReaders.com and eventually settled with UK-en voice "Peter" with speed set at -4.  Later on, I added a touch of reverb and some chorus in Sound Forge.

It was important that I found the right voice and at the right pacing.  I wanted older, British, slow, perhaps having downed a few drinks already, and I got it.  The pacing was controlled by the way I arranged the text on the screen.  After recording, there was only one tiny split-second glitch that got excised.

I help produce a literary audio magazine, Bound Off http://www.boundoff.com -  it's been published monthly since 2006 and presents short fiction read aloud by the authors or other readers.  I perform audio editing of the stories, when needed, and half the battle of what I do is being aware of the pacing, editing out any mistakes of the readers, and trying to doctor whatever recording I receive the best I can.

The other thing I like is when readers slowwwww ddddddown.  Slow down so I can hear it.  Slow down so I can understand it.  Slow down so I can enjoy it.  So it was nice that NaturalReaders.com enabled me to "slow down" UK Peter.  That's really key.  Especially when it comes to poetry.  Particularly when you're only presenting one line.

As you can see, the setup was really crucial.

The music?  Eh... I am biased in that I don't like music or sounds to overwhelm words or poetry in this sort of a presentation.  I kept it very minimal.  I loaded up the recording in Samplr on my iPad and recorded off some audio.  4 different loops were mixed in, although they are at a very low volume.  It would be disrespectful to UK Peter -4 to compete.  So I made a decision to put most of my effort in the "reading" rather than the "music".

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

This project was inspired by the National Poetry Month event at SoundCloud, more details on which here:

https://soundcloud.com/groups/national-poetry-month-collaborations

The source text for this project is William Cowper’s translation of The Odyssey of Homer, available here: 

http://archive.org/stream/theodysseyofhome24269gut/24269-0.txt

National Poetry Month: Mark Rushton (disquiet0067-odysseymachine)

More on this 68th Disquiet Junto project, the intent of which is to draw attention to the benefits of a Creative Commons license allowing for derivative works, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/18/disquiet0068-deriv/


More details on the Disquiet Junto at:


http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/


This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks (“The Find Beauty, Even in the Mundane,” “Immaterial Girl,” “Libertarian Entertainment Automaton”) by C. Reider, all of which were released on the album The Conjuncts on the deriv.cc netlabel, and were themselves derived from the following: “Garden City” and “Ventilation” from Tulse Hill by Hannah Marshall; “LichenWall” from Gardening by Steve Moyes; “Eighteen Events” from Not One Nor by Daniel Barbiero; “Awkward Customer” from [m2012/30-09] by Restive; “cues two three” and “cue six” from Cue Sheet by Sighup; “Sending Dreams to She Downstream” from Pocket Suite by He Can Jog; “The Palsgraf Scale” from Weights and Measures by Gurdonark; “Bonus Track” from Pale by Leo Bettinelli and Pol Nieva; “Haunted Grace” from Haunted Grace on SoundCloud by Jess Lemont a.k.a. Be A Waterwolf; “Ochiita” from Gently Annoying by Xesús Valle; and “Once More With Intellect” from [m2012/30-09] by Restive.

Description of Mark Rushton's process in planning, composing, and recording 'Beauty Girl Automation":

"I extracted the sections from the OGG tracks, converted them to WAV, and loaded them into the Samplr app in my iPad.  I doubled each up, but only used 5 of the 6 in the mix.  "02" was lowered 3 octaves, "04" was lowered two octaves, and "06" was lowered 4 octaves.  Then I went about finding sections, adjusting settings, and coming up with what you hear.  I made several variations, and then had to re-record my final version due to a lousy audio recorder that was throwing off buzz.  The final version sounded so good, I edited to the max time of 5 minutes.  Then transfer.  Volume adjustment.  Fades.  Title.  Upload...

Beauty Girl Automation (disquiet0068-deriv)

Information about Mark Rushton's Domestic Score:

I didn't have much time this weekend, but I wanted to participate, and I was able to get it done.

Using my Zoom H1, I recorded our door bell, the first 3 1/2 minutes of our dishwasher operating in "one hour" mode, and a few minutes of the dryer operating with a load of nearly-dry towels that had been hanging outside for a few hours.  The dishwasher recording also picked up part of our refrigerator's hum.

After editing the recordings slightly and adjusting volume, I ended up with the arrangement you hear.  While the main dishwasher and dryer loops are at the original pitch, I did add some additional versions of these loops that were pitch-shifted down a bit for sonic blending in the mix.

The dishwasher parts are obvious.  For this model (a Whirlpool) and in this particular cycle, it runs for 30 seconds and then "rests" for 5 seconds.  I had a continuous recording of it for 3 cycles before I repeated it again, only broken up by the door bell.  I also looped the dishwasher's "start up" sounds with the washing cycles, and those add a bit of an eerie touch.  The dryer was just additional audio wallpaper.

*

Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.

This week’s project is based on field recordings of wherever it is that you live. The goal is to produce a relaxing score to your domestic life by employing noises that intrude on that life.

Step 1: Make a recording of your doorbell, or whatever noise it is that someone would make when announcing their arrival at your residence. If you don’t have a functioning doorbell, then, for example, record the sound of a knock on your door.

Step 2: Record between one and three additional sounds that intrude on your life: your phone’s ring, perhaps, or the alarm on your microwave oven.

Step 3: You will now have between one and four sounds recorded. Using those sounds as source material, compose a new, original piece of music that could easily be described as gentle or meditative. You can transform them as much as you choose, but each should in some way still be evident and recognizable in the mix. You cannot add any other sounds to the project.

More on this 72nd Disquiet Junto project, which involves making a domestic score from sounds recorded in your own home, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/05/16/disquiet0072-domesticscore/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Mark Rushton's Domestic Score (disquiet0072-domesticscore)

For the track "Nighter" I wanted an electronic variation of the kind of stridulation that you hear on a summer evening in the midwest USA.  This was achieved by multi-tracking the source files, pitch-shifting them down two or three octaves, adjusting the number of beats on the root note, and then mixing it all together.  On the Sean Archibald loop I also added reverb and delay plugins.  I used Sony Acid Pro to achieve the piece.

More on this 77th Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:  http://disquiet.com/2013/06/20/disquiet0077-netlabelsplice/

This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: Adrià Bofarull and Joan Saura’s Cráter, Sean Archibald’s Sean but not Heard, and Unicode’s Transmission. More on Adrià Bofarull and Joan Saura’s album at http://www.tecnonucleo.org/index.php?page=release&release=38. More on Sean Archibald’s album at http://www.split-notes.com/011/. More on Unicode’s Transmission at http://archive.org/details/TON006.

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:  http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/