Disquiet Junto 0696's assignment was to record 10 to 15 layers of continuous sound and create a piece of music only by altering their relative presence over time.

I immediately thought of the story of how the iconic 1975 10cc song "I'm Not In Love" was created. The backing vocals are lush and rich and unearthly. (If you don't know the song, just listen to the first 30 seconds or so to get the gist). The story is that the band recorded themselves each singing a long, sustained note until they had 48 notes on individual 12' tape loops. For the final recording, the tape loops were played simultaneously and mixed into harmonies live on the console, essentially turning the mixer into a musical instrument. 

With this technique as inspiration, I recorded 7 tracks of ebow guitar, each playing a different note in the A harmonic minor scale. Ebow can make dynamics difficult but I managed some good textures I think. I hand-mixed each of the tracks to come in and out in sequence, creating a rising step pattern.

Then I bounced the seven guitar tracks to a single track. This track was duplicated and pitch shifted to create 4 tracks spanning 4 octaves. This essentially multiplied my original 7 tracks by 4 to give me 28 guitars. I applied volume automation to create a primitive Shepard scale out of the result.

Aside from a couple of acousmatic accents and a low-fi kick drum, every sound is from the guitar.

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

What Became of Grandfather? (disquiet0696)

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

disquiet0696

Vocal Sample - Patricia Edwards - I Do - Today Is The Day [
https://www.looperman.com/acapellas/detail/14802/i-do-today-is-the-day-by-patriciaedwards-128bpm-house-acapella ]

Re- Sequencing - X I I I X X I via XiiixxiQ 
Tempo : 120bpm.

More on the 697th weekly Disquiet Junto project, First Third — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0697/

Disquiet Junto | First Third - disquiet0697

More on the 697th weekly Disquiet Junto project, First Third — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0697/

SONG 93 - DisquietJunto0697 - First Third

Last edited & mixed on 15 May 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA. 

For this piece I incorporated “Hydrasynth-105bpm-CMaj_disquiet0697 6 chords” disquiet0697 by 14 Below Zero (https://soundcloud.com/14-below-zero) for the left channel.  https://soundcloud.com/14-below-zero/hydrasynth-105bpm-cmaj_disquiet0697-6-chords-disquiet0697 

My contribution is on the right. 

For my part, I acted in a supporting role, starting with 14 Below Zero’s notes & Cherry Audio’s emulation of Octave Electronics’ 1976 CAT synth and then adding effects & editing where I felt appropriate. I had such a block on mixing this because I dislike hard panning for most things…so I mixed it in a way I preferred. After I felt good about that mix, I hard panned it again (except for some effects) and yeah, I still liked it. This should be fun for someone to add to next week.

Photography/Art - 14 Below Zero & remixed by Jim Lemanowicz, 15 May 2025

Shared here under Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike"

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This original version of “Interjection #105” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0698: Second Third. The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio.

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

More on the 698th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Second Third — The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0698/

Interjection #105 (disquiet0698) by 14 Below Zero & Jimmy Lem

Inspired by Naviar Haiku 595:
https://www.naviarrecords.com/naviarhaiku595-under-the-twilight-sky/

Thanks to Marco Alessi from Naviar Records for the weekly challenge!

Photo by zenbytes (Spessart, Germany, 2024)

disquiet0696

Matthew Mirliani