Name: Death of a Thousand Wires disquiet0703 by pineyb in Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before
Duration: 2 min 54 s
Description: A friend gave me a Tanzbär that drove him insane. Then it drove me insane.... it sat on the shelf for 2 years. I finally decided to figure it out and sync it with my modular system. So consider this a successful patch but not a really successful piece of music.

Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before

The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time.

Step 1: Think of something difficult you were trying to accomplish, something music-related that you just couldn’t get to work. It may be a piece of software, or a playing technique, or a part of a musical work-in-progress.

Step 2: Block out time and dedicate that time solely to putting a lot of effort into doing what you previously couldn’t. Even if you don’t solve the problem this time around, you will likely make some form of progress.

Step 3: Record something that reflects, expresses, or otherwise involves the effort you expended in Step 2 above.

Deadline: Monday, June 23, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: at https://disquiet.com/0702/

Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before

Disquiet Junto Project 0703: That’s How You Got Killed Before

This one’s been sitting on my hard drive for 16 months. It came from a session with my friend and collaborator Bobby Rangell — we had recorded some flutes for a job, then took advantage of being in the studio to jam a bit: bass and flute, sometimes with a drum machine click.
It was a super productive day. I later revisited and shared many of those flute-based tracks… but this one?
Like the others, it was just two tracks: mono flute and stereo bass, with a 2-bar drum machine loop. But I made a patching mistake that day — the bass came out super thin and low, and mixed weirdly with Bobby’s long reverb. So I just… deleted my bass track. Why? No idea.
Months later, I went back to it — and found only Bobby’s flute and a 3-note Roland 707 kick pattern. No idea what I originally played. Worse: Bobby’s blowing was super abstract. I couldn’t even figure out the key. Still can’t.
Then I got Marc’s email this morning and thought, why not try something different?
Instead of trying to remember what we did, I improvised on top of Bobby and the 707 kick playing electric bass, just following my own ideas and added some drum loops that weren’t there when we played, then I played a Fender Rhodes and some synth textures following my new bass, trying to structure what was probably and abstract free impro.
instead of trying to figure out what key were we playing in (I recall in all our impros we just kept one steady key) I introduced chord changes, played around with modulations, and laid down harmonies that don’t necessarily match what Bobby was playing. So now you hear his flute moving freely over harmonies that were never there in the original — sometimes clashing, sometimes strangely aligning. I liked the tension it created.
I spent a full day in the studio doing this. Honestly, I don’t think it’s done, but I’m leaving it here for now.
Side note: if anyone asks “what’s the point of the Junto challenges?” — this is it.
Sure, I could have called Bobby back and spent the same 8 hours creating something much more polished and coherent from scratch. But we never would have ended up with something like this. And without this challenge, I never would’ve bothered digging into a broken, abandoned track like this.


Performed by Daniel DIaz (June 2025) and Bobby Rangell (March 2024)
Photo by DD, Carilo, Argentina. 2025

That’s How You Got Killed Before (disquiet0703)

More on the 703rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, That’s How You Got Killed Before — The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time — at https://disquiet.com/0703/

disquiet0703 - Environmentally-Sustainable Victorian Home

This week's Disquiet Junto prompt challenged us to revisit something musical—a piece of software, an idea, a technique—that we couldn't get to work in the past, and to dedicate time to improving it, capturing the result in music.

I decided to go with my Sequential Prophet-6 analog synth. I had inherited it from an ex who moved out of the country, and for complicated reasons just never really connected with it as an instrument. Intellectually, I knew that it was a fantastic synth, but I didn't know how to make it mine, if that makes sense. I couldn't speak through it. What's worse, the last time I had fired it up, it exhibited a rare but not unknown bug where every sixth note would be extremely loud, rendering it unplayable.

But today I decided to try again, to give it a second chance. I set aside time to just play around with it, experimenting with patches and tweaking parameters. I realized that the volume bug wasn't happening, the synth was being cooperative. Eventually I landed on a set of ideas that I think work well together. Most importantly, I feel like I can hear my voice in this piece, through an instrument that I couldn't do that with before. I'm even playing the lead synth like I do an ebow guitar. 

What a great prompt and a great experience.

--

More on the 703rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, That’s How You Got Killed Before — The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time — at https://disquiet.com/0703/

I Don't Trust This Prophet (disquiet0703)

I always keep a quantity of unfinished, discarded or 'dead' material which I attempt to resurrect from time to time. In this case, after considering and experimenting with various possibilities, I eventually combined two contrasting electronic sequences (drone and random noise), slowed them down by a quarter and added a touch of delay, etc.

More on the 703rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, That’s How You Got Killed Before — The Assignment: Revisit something that you just couldn’t get to work last time — at https://disquiet.com/0703/

Quarter-Speed Resurrection (disquiet0703)

too long between waters - disquiet0703

A friend gave me a Tanzbär that drove him insane. Then it drove me insane.... it sat on the shelf for 2 years. I finally decided to figure it out and sync it with my modular system. So consider this a successful patch but not a really successful piece of music.

Death of a Thousand Wires disquiet0703

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0705: Book Start. The Assignment: Let the beginning of a book help you begin a new piece of music.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 07045 discussion thread on Lines:

“The girl and the elderly man descended the steep stairs to the channel's narrow beach and walked along by the water's edge. Several small fishing boats were moving out to sea, passing a freighter entering the bay, booms raised, a…” 

So starts the first story in a collection of fascinating and contemplative short stories in “The Infinite Passion of Expectation” by Gina Berriault. I randomly picked the book, which had been sitting on our bookshelf for years, having read it decades ago. The stories, which take place in or around San Francisco, remind me of a unique, and sometimes surreal time in my life when I lived and worked there. 

This was created in Ableton Live and was inspired by the opening lines of the story, the book itself, and my reflection of a time many years ago. Thank you, I really enjoyed this prompt, and the creative journey it sent me on. 

More on the 705th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Book Start — The Assignment: Let the beginning of a book help you begin a new piece of music — at https://disquiet.com/0705/. This week’s project was proposed by Neil Stringfellow.

The Infinite Passion of Expectation [disquiet0705]

I Contain Multitudes

Verse 1
I walk through fire just to chase the rain,
Whisper truth, then lie again.
I'm the preacher and the heretic,
The holy book and the heretic's trick.
I say I won’t, but then I do—
Don’t look for logic, I’m just passing through.

Pre-Chorus
I’m not broken, I’m just wide—
A thousand voices deep inside.

Verse 2
I loved you and I walked away,
I begged for night, then prayed for day.
I'm soft as silk, I’m hard as stone,
A crowded house that stands alone.
Don’t try to pin me to one name,
I’m changing every time you say it’s the same.

Pre-Chorus
You can’t cage what never hides—
I live on both the wrong and right sides.

Chorus
From chaos to the calm, 
from crimson to blue,
I’m the echo, I’m the spark, 
I’m the old and the new—
Every fire, every fuse—
But that’s the path I choose.
Do I contradict myself? I surely do.
I contain multitudes.

Verse 3
I’m thunder rolling in a lullaby,
A laugh that ends in a cry.
I’m the dream and the doubt, the whisper and shout—
The silence you can't figure out.
So let me be messy, let me be wide,
I’m not one thing—I’m all I hide.

Pre-Chorus
I’m not broken, I’m just wide—
A thousand voices deep inside.

Chorus
From chaos to calm, 
from crimson to blue,
I’m the echo, I’m the spark, 
I’m the old and the new—
Every fire, every fuse—
that’s the path I choose.
Do I contradict myself? I surely do.
I contain multitudes.

I Contain Multitudes

Every night I wonder
Every night I hurt
Every night I cry
Every night I die a little inside
And I wonder why
I wonder why I
Why I cry myself to sleep at night
I wonder

Everytime I hear you
I hear you walking down the hall
Everytime I see you
I begin to crawl
And I wonder why
I wonder why
Why I'm still alive
And you've gone on by
Ooh I don't deserve this life
No I don't deserve this life
And I wonder why

I wonder why
I wonder why
Why I wonder why
I wonder why

Break

Why did you have to leave
And why did I have to stay
I just can't believe
You have gone away
And I wonder, I wonder, I wonder where you are
Yes I wonder
I wonder where you are...

I Wonder Why

https://youtu.be/5nnEKvhvy9Y?si=YpvcAU3I_xwVPdYI

after 2 months I found effects and a synth in koala sampler!!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Sunrise (Inst.)

Hideri (dry spell)

日照り
日傘を差し
ぬるい風をよける
砂がとんで靴がよごれる
蜥蜴の背かわいている
草の葉もしおれている
雨はいつ？

日照り
塩を舐める
日差しは唸る
溶ける時計
旗は重く垂れて
蜂に追われ
檳榔子の銃弾で撃つ

日照り
虎が溶ける
石に絡まる

日照り
影は黒い橄欖の枝
笛が鳴る噴きこぼれる
竈の焚口から火の舌


The dry spell continues.
Sand blows in the wind, dirtying my shoes.
The dry back of a lizard.
Withered blades of grass.
When will it rain?
The dry spell continues. 
I lick salt.
The sun howls.
A clock melts.
A flag hangs heavy.
Bees are chasing me.
I shoot them with betel nut bullets.
The dry spell continues. 
A tiger melts and flows over large stones.
The dry spell continues.
Dark shadows of branches of a Canarium album.
A flute sounds. The world boilds. 
Tongues of fire poke out from a stove.


Hideri (dry spell)

Q-The Sonnets

ponderous but insistent guitar figure and itchy beat gives way to a slower version of the beat with abrasive  washes of cronch.Wooof.

Woof Mentat

Cephalopods

Warning! ... This track is not 'music' enough for the SC algorithm to recommend it to potentially interested listeners ... You have been warned 😁😜

More on the 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/

more halF unusuaL

halF erR [disquiet0715]

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album <i>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</i> was published in 2014. The book was one of the top 5 bestselling titles for the calendar year, and in 2015 was ranked by Pitchfork as one of the "33 best" of the 100-plus books in the 33 1/3 series. It has subsequently been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018)

Since 2012 I have moderated the Disquiet Junto group, which began on SoundCloud. More at disquiet.com/junto. 

I've written for Nature, Pitchfork, The Wire, Down Beat, Boing Boing, NewMusicBox, Red Bull Music Academy, Art Practical, the website of The Atlantic, and many other publications. 

I've exhibited sound art at galleries in Los Angeles (Crewest), Manhattan (apex art), and Dubai (DUTAC), and I had a audio-visual installation at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its 45th anniversary.

And since 1996 I've run the website Disquiet.com about the intersection of sound, art, and technology.

Death of a Thousand Wires disquiet0703

pineyb

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