All of my creations for the Disquiet Junto project.

Disquiet Junto Creations

Created for the Disquiet Junto Project 0515: Talking Cure
The Assignment: Write music for a psychotherapist’s waiting room.

About this track: 
If I were waiting for a therapy appointment, I would want to feel calm and contemplative. Nature makes me feel this way, also music. A nice pondering melody perhaps. A BPM near my resting heart rate of 60. So I used nature sounds (from Freesounds.org). I like being by water. I included some water sounds here. You have to be careful with the water sounds in lobbies. People may have to go to the bathroom too much. Also frogs. But I don't think I found a frog sound. It's mostly birds here. Lots and lots of birds. Hearing these birds made me thankful for birds, and sad for the ones my cats have murdered. I wonder if bird are real? So next I did my best to play calm and contemplative melodies on the D celtic minor Rav tongue drum because its fun to play and makes me happy. Pitched the tongue up an octave on one track. Converted to midi harmony for piano and a synth for other tracks. I'm not 100% sure if I would like this to play in a lobby. Perhaps its too intense. Hard to say. I'd probably be down for the experience.

Please download and do stuff with this track. 
Creative Commons attribution-ShareAlike: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ 

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

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

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0515-talking-cure/

Liminal Ponderance [disquiet0515]

Ice cube in a wine glass sampled for Disquiet Junto 0523. Played around with the sample on the Circuit Rhythm, then into Ableton for layering those recordings and arranging. Duplicated a couple of the tracks and added some spectral resonance, very low in mix. Played some drums because the cube samples had some sweet rhythms and I couldn't get Beastie Boys "Ill Communication" out of my head.

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

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

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0523-chill-communication/

Got That Chill Communication [disquiet0523]

For my asynchronous collaboration contribution to Disquiet Junto 0527 Magic Number 3 of 3 (and Weekly Beats 2022 Song 5) I built upon last week’s awesome track from @Daniel-Diaz (https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz/more-reflections-disquiet0526-with-noodle-twister) and Noodle Twister (@user-130801280). As soon as I heard this groove and catchy bassline I wanted to play some drums with it. So I started there, did a few takes using Ableton’s comping feature for the first time, which was fun. The next goal was some chords and maybe a lead of some sort. Almost went down rabbit hole on sounds, but settled on Arturia’s virtual Clavinet with some wah and grit. Then added a little extra percussion. Finally added the vocal samples from Natalie Major, downloaded from Noizz. I actually almost removed the vocals today, but in the end, here they stay.This was a lot of fun, and it’s been great hearing what everyone has come up with, there’s some truly amazing music from this group!

More on this 527th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Magic Number (3 of 3) (The Assignment: Complete an asynchronous trio begun by two other musicians) — at: https://disquiet.com/0527/

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

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/

Third Reflection (Good Feeling) w/ Daniel Diaz & Noodle Twister [Disquiet0527] [Weekly Beats 22 #5]

I'm once again in the pattern of thinking about making music all week, but not actually doing it until the weekend. So once again I dug into the archive of half-started ideas to get a head start. I had a session with some tongue drum, live drum and mallet sound recordings. I had recorded midi from the e-drums to record the mallet sounds. So almost all sounds in this tune were recorded by playing the e-drums live and recording the midi, then editing. Treated the tongue drum with Live's spectral devices to turn into a pad like atmosphere, some city backgrounds hum. Then I started using Ableton's chance feature to randomize everything. I almost kept the totally random version, but brought in a more steady beat to keep things grooving. This morning I dropped in samples I had downloaded from the Citizen DJ project, which is a lot of fun. Did some random slices on those in the middle. There's talk of boogie, life rafts, and cities in those old documented recordings, and I like the idea of bouncing on a liferaft down a city streets on a hot day, then of course boogieing. Totally normal day in the city.

City Life Raft Boogie [Weekly Beats 2022 Song 4]

For Disquiet Junto 0543. The Assignment: Share a tip from your method toolbox. Also shared version of this over on Weekly Beats. 
A lot of this track was made using a technique I love: taking a piece of audio then using the Ableton Push 2 and the Simpler device to retrigger, chop manipulate and play around with the sample to create something new. There are many ways to manipulate samples, but I like this method because it's fast, I can improvise musically without a lot of fussing around, and I can do it fully on the Push hardware, no computer or mouse needed. Simpler is simple, and the 64 pads and 8 knobs on the Push 2 make playing with samples fun, fast and easy. Happy accidents occur, and things usually sound to my liking with minimal fussing about, so I can just flow and have fun.
Another attribute I like to add to songs are my own voice sounds, but heavily altered since I'm not much of a  traditional singer. Bonus points when the voice can turn into perscussion or another instrument. I often take these voice recordings and chop and play with them in Simpler as described above. The intro and middle of this song has some of my early experiments with a talkbox pedal. It's harder than it looks. And kind of a wet mess. But I'll keep playing with it. Used the Circuit Monostation as the instrument into the talkbox. So not sure if talkbox will turn into a favorite method for voice manipulation, but I know I'll keep messing around with vocals sounds.

More on this 543rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Technique Check (The Assignment: Share a tip from your method toolbox) — at: https://disquiet.com/0543/

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

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0543-technique-check/

feel what you - need - what you feel [disquiet0543] [Weekly Beats 19]

Made for the 573rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Float Mode (The Assignment: Add material atop a pre-existing beat to form a complete track) — at: https://disquiet.com/0573/

About this contribution: 
I started playing with a few and ultimately ended up working with @SinnySounds "Two Over Three" with its catchy persistent poly-rhythms in 6/8. I layered in some sounds that came out of the same live session as the beat I shared for my Rhythm Kit contribution last week. I wanted some low end drum sounds, so I added @Freeways rhythm kit track "M8@DAFDrum>M8" with it's huge bass sound. There's also some ambient outdoor sound from this: https://freesound.org/people/pcaeldries/sounds/65813/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0573-float-mode/

Persistent Calling (with SinnySounds and Freeways)  [disquiet0573]

A country techno creation for Disquiet Junto 0582 X Techno. The Assignment: Make a new subgenre. 
This is a new mix of a Creatures Once band jam. Every once in a while the country, western, bluegrass, and folk sounds that surround us up here in the Pacific Northwest sneak into our creations, and it can be fun to indulge. Amazing guitar and harmonica playing from band mate Monstrosus(https://www.youtube.com/@monstrosus13). The first mix of this jam was shared for Weekly Beats last year and it was more of a hip-hop vibe. I used some fun dog GoPro footage for the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq0BoIesOwA&ab_channel=CreaturesOnce). Here's my attempt at a techno mix. I may have strayed too far from the parent genre here, but it was fun to make! It was also fun to read about existing sub-genres and listen to some great tracks this week. Its been while since I've listened to some techno, and it was energizing. Every time I would search for a sub-genre idea I had, like jazz, or lo-fi, I would find some examples already out there. There's some many sub-genres of techno and other electronic genres. That's a great sign. I nice wide open field for creativity.

More on this 582nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, X Techno (The Assignment: Make a new subgenre), at: https://disquiet.com/0582/

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

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0582-x-techno/

Nickel in My Pocket -(Country Tekno Mix) - [disquiet0582]

For the Disquiet Junto Project 0620: Beat Accrual Accrual: https://disquiet.com/0620/
The Assignment: Turn someone’s slow-build beat into a finished track.
I accrued more rhythm onto the infectiously groovy @x i i i x x i  track https://soundcloud.com/xiiixxi/disquiet-junto-beat-accrual-disquiet0619
Looped sections of that track, then played the e-drums live along with it using 808 sounds. Quickly picked out segments that sounded like they may work and felt lucky when they did. Did some effected vocal sounds for texture.

More on this 620th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Beat Accrual Accrual (The Assignment: Turn someone’s slow-build beat into a finished track), at: https://disquiet.com/0620/

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

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0620-beat-accrual-accrual/

Live Beat Accrual with x i i i x x i -  [disquiet0620]

Made for:
Disquiet Junto Project 0621: The Leftovers
The Assignment: Use recently discarded material to make something new.
I reconstituted the leftovers from a live jam with Creatures Once bandmate Monstrosus. I shared a version of this for the 0609 Junto: https://soundcloud.com/miraclemiles/key-limit-disquiet0609?si=ca0f357b18434559b7b6d713d6032222&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
Leftover bits for this version are drums, more bass, and some background synth lines. 
While making this, I thought about if its worth spending time on a creation if you're not that excited about it (I wasn't that excited about this at times). Should you see it through or quit and move on? Some people have told me they would move on. Work on something else. Only work on what you're really excited about. I usually like to press on and finish the track if I at least see some redeeming quality (which I do in most projects) and I can practice and improve some skill in the process.

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

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

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0621-the-leftovers/

Leftover Keys (by Creatures Once) - [Disquiet0621]

For Disquiet Junto 0637: The Assignment: Record the second third of an eventual trio.
I added to Sinny Sound's "Lucky Link": https://soundcloud.com/sinnysounds2/lucky-link-disquiet0636?in=disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0636
I wanted to add some light harmony to underscore the melody. Converted the melody to midi harmony in Ableton. Made some light adjustments to midi notes here and there. Used the Schwarzonator 2.0 device to help add some additional chord notes. Chose some light key sounds from Kontakt 40's keys and Playbox. Also light bass from Lode, and melodic tabla. Tapped in the shaker parts. Panned hard right with orginal panned left. 

Enjoyed listening Sinny Sound's lovely melody while making this. I'll be humming it all week!

It was fun listening to everyone's "Left" tracks this week, I'm always in awe by this community's talent and creativity!

More on the 637th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Right (2 of 3) — The Assignment: Record the second third of an eventual trio — at https://disquiet.com/0637/

Lucky Link Village (with Sinny Sounds) [disquiet0637]

I used @daniel-diaz track Australopithecus https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz/australopithecus-disquiet0637-with-tristan-louth-robins which built on  Tristan Louth Robin's (@red_robin) Epochs https://soundcloud.com/red_robin/disquiet_junto_0636-epochs-left-1-of-3-72-bpm

I knew I wanted to play some drums along with their nice groove. Played djembe, then shekere, then full kit. Added in some rhodes harmony and lead and flute leads. Some chanting voices for a celebratory or ceremonial feel. Made me think of traveling across some great plains filled with animals. Evolving this more was fun, thanks to Daniel and Tristan for the great parts to build on!

More on the 638th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Center (3 of 3) — The Assignment: Complete a trio begun by two other musicians — at https://disquiet.com/0638/

Tres Hominis [disquiet0638] with Daniel Diaz and Tristan Louth-Robins

A mellow situation. Hot weather. Time to cool down and watch the floaty lights ebb and flow.

Production notes shared on the Weekly Beats submission: 
Finally got around to updating the Deluge with the community firmware, and installed Boards of Deluge v1 pack. Sweet. Some cool new features and sounds. A quick jam in a mellow, kinda tired weekend mood. Checked out the new sounds and a few new features (but just scratching the surface). Recorded into Ableton. Added a couple extra sounds. Speed up, slow down = fun.

Weekly Beats link: https://weeklybeats.com/miraclemiles/music/aurora-whispers

Some comments from Weekly Beats community:
" ... This is the sound that plants make when they grow, if you multiply the speed by 1,000" - Kedbreak136

"Feeling like floating in space, then traveling through an asteroid belt trying not to hit any rocks when it speeds up" - Minnamari

"Feels like I'm about to dock my ship with a giant space station" - Tone Matrix

Aurora Whispers - [Weekly Beats 2024 - Song 23]

Created for Weekly Beats 2024. My song for week 33. Here's what I wrote:
Hope for today, hope for the future. I try at least. I stayed in the same space as last week since that was feeling right still. I'm feeling like this a good space for me. Took another previous recording of the tongue drum and built around that. I like to keep adding and adding, which makes mixing hard. Scaled back a little, getting closer to finding it. Now my ears are a little fried. We'll see what I think in day or two going back to listen. Enjoyed this though, and that's what I needed.

Comment from Weekly Beats community:

"Wow when the track opens at 0:40, it's like stepping out into a full samba in Brazil. The groove is strong. The revert clash is a super interesting element. That tongue drum is such a perfect instrument to mix rhythm and melody. It was great listening to that track on a Friday afternoon, welcoming the week-end!" - Kedbreak136

Distant Hopes [Weekly Beats 2024 Song 33]

Made for Disquiet Junto Project 0665: Clicks + Cuts Music Factory
The Assignment: Record a track in honor of the late Achim Szepanski.

Background: Achim Szepanski (1957-2024), founder of the Mille Plateaux record label, among numerous other accomplishments, died this week. This project is in his honor. You needn’t know much if anything to begin this project; just follow the instructions. As always, discussion of the topic at hand in the project’s llllllll.co message thread is encouraged.

Step 1: Listen back to the first Clicks + Cuts compilation album (originally released in 2020). It is streaming on YouTube (the first hour or so of that playlist).

Step 2: Consider the common elements in various tracks: the glitch effects, the sense of space, the attention to tiny details, the industrial minimalism, the emphasis on sampling, the tempo, the groove. What else do you hear?

Step 3: Record a track in the spirit of that first Clicks + Cuts album.
---
My notes:
I had not heard of the label, but was familiar with some of the artists on that compilation. I enjoyed the music and it was fun to try and make something inspired it. I used various samples including my handpan, camera, bathtub and water sounds from a Mr. Bill sample pack. The only non-sample part was is the bass track, which is from Ableton Drift synth. Processed the handpan samples with the excellent PitchLoop89 device in Ableton.
I imagined attempts at taking photos of, under and around water as this evolved.
---
More on the 665th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Clicks + Cuts Music Factory — The Assignment: Record a track in honor of the late Achim Szepanski — at https://disquiet.com/0665/

The image associated with this project was created by Lubomir Panak in 2011. Originally posted on Flickr, it is used thanks to a CC BY-NC 2.0 license. This is a detail of the original image, and it has been tilted at an angle, with the project information superimposed.

Drizzled Mementos [Disquiet0665] [Weekly Beats 2024 Song 39]

Made for weekly beats 2024 week 31.  Here's what I posted about it: 
Had fun jam with License on Friday night. A highlight of the weekend. It's been many months since the last one. We were both saying how much fun it was, how can we let many months pass between jams?! So this beat is an edit down of one part of the long night. There were a couple other audio tracks that didn't record (forgot to arm recording on them, oops). But what did record and is used here was bass line from circuit monostation, drums from License's Analog RYTM and portable modular rig which was he tamed into spitting out fun madness. We kept saying, where is that sound coming from, who's doing that? Oh the modular is doing its thing. The sequences from the modular kept making me want to play live drums along with it, so I did a lot of that, used some 808 samples on the edrums mostly, and put some of it in the middle section of this beat. Wanted to add some more tracks to this today to replace recordings I missed, but ran out of time, and I kind of like how this ends up more minimal. Since License is all about the minimalism, I think he'd be ok with that plan too.

Licensed Beat [featuring License]

Made for Disquiet Junto Project 0686: Catch Your Breath
The Assignment: Listen to yourself inhale and exhale; make music from what you sense.

I appreciate this prompt because any reminder and opportunity to pause and breathe is very welcome and makes the day better. Breathing has an ebb and flow, and the ever present pulse of the heart becomes apparent. Thoughts come and go. That's what I noticed while observing my breathing. So this song has the pulse of the hear at about the BPM I was at. It has ebb and flow: breathy noise, but also a river. I thought of rivers and ocean waves as breathing. And for the thoughts, some breathy flutes, strings and other tones including a first test of the awesome P_4L II (Plaits for Live) synth (https://ricola.gumroad.com/l/P_4LII). 

More on the 686th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Catch Your Breath — The Assignment: Listen to yourself inhale and exhale; make music from what you sense — at https://disquiet.com/0686/

Breath Caught [Disquiet 0686]

Made for the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/
Step 1: Record 10 to 15 layers of continuous sound.
Step 2: Create a piece of music in which you only change the relative presence of those individual layers from Step 1 over time. Some light effects and panning are certainly fine, but the majority of the impact should be how the prominence of the individual layers changes.

To make this I recorded sounds in a live session with Creatures Once band collaborator AM Faulks. He on iOS apps and I in Ableton Live, playing the Push, and the Circuit Tracks, Organelle and voice. Separately recorded handpan, tongue drum and Circuit Monostation. 

I decided to frequently and unpredictably mute layers to create a collage, cut up feeling. This chain is in the process of breaking apart, binding no more. 

Image: AI from Bing Image Generator / Dall E-3

More about this weeks assignment:
This project is the first of three that are being done in by the Disquiet Junto in collaboration with the 2025 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 3 through 7. The festival topic this year is « Kette » — which translates, as the organization explains, to “Chain”: “Chains connect but they also bind. They create relationships but also restrictions. As a gift they look nice, feared when used in vice, and yet they can span bridges across fire and ice.” All three Junto projects will engage with the work of Svetlana Maraš, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2025 festival.

Breaking Chain [Disquiet0696]

For Disquiet Junto Project 0697: First Third
The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

About this track:
130bpm 
Basically Intro, A, B, A structure

These crunchy texture percussive sounds are from samples provided by the Iranian artist Sote. Download and more information can be found here: https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/sote-electronic-music-iran/

To create this track, I loaded up those samples into a drum rack in Ableton and jammed with them on the Push, recording results. 

Very interesting artist and sounds. From that article: 

" ... because electronic music is largely wordless, it is widely perceived to be less of a corrupting influence on the youth of Iran and so electronic musicians are afforded a certain degree of freedom to perform, organize festivals and even tour outside of the country. In this rapidly evolving scene, Ata Etbekar aka Sote occupies a somewhat unusual position; having lived in Germany and the US for most of his life and released on labels such as Warp, Sub Rosa, and Morphine, the now Tehran-based artist is familiar with the realities of music making both inside and outside of Iran. ... The resulting unsteady rhythms, radical sound transformations and extreme timbres make for an at times challenging listen. But there is also much that is immediately rewarding, delicate and beautiful in Sote’s musical meditations on opposition and reconciliation."


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

Sote Textures - [Disquiet0697 - First Third]

For Disquiet Junto Project 0698: Second Third
The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio.
Select a track from last week’s project (disquiet.com/0697), pan it to the left, and add your own line to the right, leaving room in the center for someone to eventually turn it into a trio.

Inspired by the vocal treatments from x i i i x x i 's track, I had a lot of fun recording my own voice through the Roland E-4 and Kaoss pad. Took bits and pieces from that, some as recorded, some chopped up on the Push to make my right channel second third. 

Downloaded a few other tracks and tinkered around, but didn't get anything done. Followed the fun with this one!

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




second third with x i i i x x i  [disquiet0698]

The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio.
More on the 699th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Third Third — The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0699/

I built on what Tunelight created (https://on.soundcloud.com/s5MqzipK41Ed7VHA7)
from Lee Evans initial creation (https://soundcloud.com/lee-evans-722170034/250511-disquiet0697?in=disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0697)

Added kick, textures and a lead of sorts.
Enjoyed working on this project and hearing everyone’s creations!

3o3-250526 [disquiet0699] w/ Lee Evans, Tunelight

Made for Disquiet Junto Project 0716: Dense Fog Advisory
The Assignment: That’s your band’s name; now record something.

My imaginary band for the week, Dense Fog Advisory, all play the Pipe. We make big dark, dense and glitchy sounds to envelope our audience in the fog of transformative musical experience. 

Behind the music: All sounds in this beat were made using the Soma Pipe (https://somasynths.com/pipe/). My first session with it. Wow. This thing is fun. I (and my imaginary Dense Fog bandmates) like to make mouth sounds in music, and this thing can take those mouth sounds way far out. Excited for more! 

More on the 716th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Dense Fog Advisory — The Assignment: That’s your band’s name; now record something — at https://disquiet.com/0716/.

Breath of Fog [disquiet0716]

For  the  737th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Opening Ceremony — The Assignment: We’re just getting started — at https://disquiet.com/0737/
Record a percussion piece that fills the listener with anticipation for what’s to come. Imply forthcoming spectacle, thrills, and excitement.
 --
I was excited about this prompt since it called for percussion, and because it’s been a little while since I have done a Junto submission. I had a march kind of feeling in mind. Played some parts on the Roland edrums and recorded those sounds. Some from Orchestral percussion kit and some from a 70’s live kit. The gongs, chimes and bell percussion are from samples and sample instruments in Ableton. 
I was thinking about Olympics a bit, but after making a version of this for my Weekly Beats song this week, I realized it was the lunar new year this week, and it’s the year of the Fire Horse. I am now thinking these drums could be for an imaginary Fire Horse parade or ceremony.

I hope you all are well and creating music brings joy. Let’s hope this year has some positives ahead. Hard to be hopeful sometimes, but I try.

I don’t really pay much attention or have any particular belief around the lunar new year, but it’s fun to learn about. Reason to celebrate are always welcome. 

Here’s some info I found on the year of Fire Horse: 
Running from February 17, 2026, to February 5, 2027. Occurring once every 60 years (previously 1966), this rare year is characterized by intense energy, passion, and rapid transformation. It is known for fostering bold actions and independent, spirited, and sometimes volatile, outcomes. 
Key Characteristics and Predictions for 2026:
Energy & Pace: The year is expected to be fast-paced, impulsive, and highly active.
Symbolism: It symbolizes courage, ambition, and freedom, but may also bring challenges and volatility.
Advice: Focus on strategy over impulse, as this high-energy year can lead to success or burnout.
Cultural View: While sometimes seen as turbulent, it is also viewed as a time for significant, positive change. 
The last Fire Horse year was 1966, and the next will be 2086.

Fire Ceremony [disquiet0737]

Inspired by the 739th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Deepest Sympathies — The Assignment: Make music focused on sympathetic strings, or something akin to them — at https://disquiet.com/0739/

This features the sympathetic vibrations of the Rav D minor Celtic tongue drum. When the tongues are played they vibrate the other tongues, generating sympathetic frequencies. Very nice. It had been a while since I played the tongue drum, so I had fun. Used mallets this time, which is new. Usually it’s a finger situation.

The first and last 30 seconds are an experiment where I was trying to have only the sympathetic sounds. I loaded up the tongue sounds in Ableton Simplr and Granulator 3 (one of my current faves) to generate drones from the frequencies, four of 5 tracks of those, which are kind of “vibrating” at their own frequencies. Then took some of the parts I played and manually cut out the strikes and just kept the tails where all the sympathetic frequencies are. Cool experiment, but manually cutting out the strikes isn’t ideal. I’m sure there’s more techniques to try for the desired effect. 

The middle beat part I mainly made for my Weekly Beats song this week. I kept the sympathetic drones. Added my tongue drum improvised parts as I played them, repeating a few looped bars as a hook. Added percussion, bass and drums to round it out. Used a couple percussion samples, and used Iftah’s Sting2 device to generate some percussion and bass parts, love that device.As this came together, I was reminded that I like this vibe. It’s nice to realize that I can be a little consistent and come back to a vibe I have done before. Working on consistency and honing in on something. The search continues. I’m happy that this week’s prompt inspired me to go here!

Sympathetic Tongues [disquiet0739]

Completing the asynchronous collaboration with part 3 of 3 for the Disquiet Junto 0749. 

I built upon: @daniel-diaz Daniel Diaz's part 2 or 3 Cordyceps Dub (https://on.soundcloud.com/iNOQHCz0t9Pd8TxFw5) and @benn-demole Benn DeMole's 1 of 3 Cordyceps (https://on.soundcloud.com/4JfdGk7nWmrfLGNyFM). 

I also thought dub direction, but also, not sure what it really is other than what it is. I played drums, added rhythm chords, voices, and other little bits of auditory mycelium. Spread out some verb and delay. Used a comping drum process I like when playing on a new song. Looped phrases and recorded multiple takes, then using Ableton's take lanes to pick which is best and repeating through the song. Best to stop as soon as something works enough. 

More on the 749th weekly Disquiet Junto project, And a Three (3/3) — The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio — disquiet.com/0749.

Cordyceps Rhizome Up  - w Daniel Diaz & Benn DeMole - [Disquiet0749]

Made this as part of Weekly Beats 2016: http://weeklybeats.com/#/miraclemiles/music/hello-poly!

Here's the notes I posted that week:

Yay, finished something this week! Lots of happy accidents. Didn't have much of a clue what to do this week. I wanted to try out the Polyrhythmus Ableton device. Added that to a track of an African Drum preset drum rack that's decent, played around a bit until liked the beat, which is in the first section of this song. It's a neat device. To create the crazier, busier version of the beat I used for fills, I took two instances of it and triggered them on different beats, and ... magic!
Continued playing around with sounds and instruments. Like many of my recent tracks this uses some Ableton packs created by Afro DJ Mac: Pocket Operator sounds, a Dave Smith Pro 2 sampled instrument, Moog phatty samples that sounds like talking ... and maybe more I'm not thinking of. Tapped out parts on the Push for a while and somewhere in there was the second section melody, which I decided was fine, so there it is. Had a "Hello" sample sitting in folder, so grabbed it. Included some samples of my voice singing a beat I thought would be the basis for this weeks song too. Did some arranging and mixing here we go. Excited this is a holiday weekend, so one more day for me to make music!


Hello, Poly

So this week I took part of a song from back in June, and extended it, modifed, and added a little to it to make this weeks song. Could use more mix / mastering work, and some thinning out in places too. Acoustic guitar: a quick part recorded during session with Chris Barr. The "Lead" synth sounds that carry melody coming in midway are from a Dave Smith Pro 2 synth samples turned into Ableton instrument by Francis Preve and Afro DJ Mac. Main pulsing pad is Wurly Max for Live instrument, side chained to kick. The "twinkling" pad under everything also from an Ableton instrument pack created by Afro DJ Mac (I play around with a lot of his stuff). I don't love the simple bassline this has, and would like to have some vocals eventually as well. Title, sounded kind of "float" to me wink, and floating sounds fun.

We Will Float

The pirates are plundering the people again. Making a real circus of it. This song was written to call attention to the social injustices of the world that need correcting. A song to dance to in spite of the injustices. A song for burning the oppressor’s effigies in wild abandon at the bonfires of reckoning and collective cathartic release. It’s the people’s turn to plunder and party.

Or maybe we just pulled this out of the magical musical ether. It means something or nothing.  We sure like it and want to share it. During a session in the main Creature Den at Miles’s house, the ideas were flowing freely. Faulks just starts playing this bouncing keyboard riff. Like nothing we’d played before. Sounded like being welcomed to the circus, or a nightclub polka. Miles puts down some drums and bass quickly to keep it going. Faulks picks up his guitar and works his magic for the next hour or two. Plenty of material for Miles to later edit into a track to be released for the Weekly Beats 2020 project. This version released here is pretty much the same as it was that night.

Originally made for Weekly Beats 2020, here's what I said there: 

Not a commentary on geo-political affairs or anything. Just had a live session with collaborator AM Faulks, and the organ made me think of a circus (I might not remember what circuses are actually like though). Did some mixing, arranging and recording of new vocals and drum parts this week. Sliced up guitar samples played new parts. Added some ambient audio recorded on the popular ride at disneyland on a recent trip there. As soon as I did I thought I could imagine this playing at some weird kind of pirate party with circusey performances. That may be all in my head, but I'm enjoying the image for now. Anything to distract from those geo-political affairs and global pandemics. Hope you all are doing well. I feel fortunate to have a healthy family so far, and still have a job I can work from home.

Pirate Circus

This a remix of https://soundcloud.com/mattmadd/duodronedrumtrio-disquietjunto0474-revised-and-corrected which was the third part of a triadic collaboration with joyneski and melondruie for last weeks Disquiet Junto. As recommended in this weeks junto assignment, I dug into all three of the contributions to find parts to use, then added more of my own. I heard a latent shoegazing droney noise rock vibe in so I went in that direction, doing what I can to do what needs to be done. As I mix, conceive, arrange, chop and tweak, (and wonder what the heck is happening), I'm reminded that I know nothing. Not exactly true, I probably (maybe) know something. Just as our ego tells us we're pretty darn smart and cool, we're reminded we don't actually know all that much. So keep learning, you fool. 
As I was browsing Disquiet.com to find info for this week's post, I stumbled on this 50th anniversary tribute to Allen Ginsberg's Fall of America album (https://allenginsberg.bandcamp.com/album/allen-ginsberg-s-the-fall-of-america-a-50th-anniversary-musical-tribute), and the track "Elegy for Neal Cassidy." Was great to hear that (thanks for sharing that Marc). I love that word, elegy. So since I know nothing, this week can be an elegy for the presumed knowledge it's time to let go of, and a reminder to learn something. 
The image: Someone took some smashed asphalt at the park and made some cairns. Thank you person, for making my walk special today. 
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More on this 475th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Low End (4 of 3) / The Assignment: Remix a trio by doing forensics on its component parts — at:

https://disquiet.com/0475/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0475-low-end/

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Elegy For False Knowledge - [Disquiet0475] - Remix of Matt Madden, Joyneski & Melondruie

Creating eclectic music and enjoying the journey. 
I participate in Weekly Beats (as miraclemiles) and the Disquiet Junto. 
This account has my solo and Creatures Once band music.

August Miles (Creatures Once)

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