Disquiet Junto Project 0718: Planet Jam It

The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization.

The year is 2126, and your spaceship is on a routine science expedition of the outer reaches of previously unexplored parts of the universe. Your crew has encountered, for the first known time in human history, a planet that is home to sentient life that has developed an advanced civilization not unlike our own. After settling into geosynchronous orbit, you send down a stealth drone to explore. The drone captures audio and video. Please share the audio of your drone’s reconnaissance mission.

Deadline: Monday, October 6, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: https://disquiet.com/0718/

Disquiet Junto Project 0718: Planet Jam It

More on the 718th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Planet Jam It — The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization — at https://disquiet.com/0718/

telepathy disquiet0718

An electronic composition, sounds from various sources.

More on the 718th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Planet Jam It — The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization — at https://disquiet.com/0718/.

Exoplanetary Noise Soup (disquiet0718)

sound art for disquiet0718.

More on the 718th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Planet Jam It — The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization — at https://disquiet.com/0718/.

artificial planet (disquiet0718)

While the far-flung Asarian homeworld is the first inhabited system that we've discovered, this is not our first time encountering the intelligent cloud beings of Asar. We've learned that Asarian explorers visited our earth thousands of years ago, touching down somewhere in the Nile river valley. When the gas giants finally departed, the Pharaoh whose hospitality they had enjoyed bestowed two gifts on her alien visitors. The first was a scroll with plans they could use to build their own pyramids back home. But the most remarkable gift was a papyrus describing a peculiar set of frequencies that, when resonated in certain sequences, could reveal spiritual and mathematical truths. We believe the audio captured by our surface drone may be a sacred performance of this ancient harmonic "spell".

This one was a lot of fun to put together! It gave me a great excuse to experiment with microtonal composition, and learn how to configure custom tunings in Logic. I chose the Maqam scale, a traditional scale in Arabic music believed to have originated in ancient Egypt. The scale consists of two "half-flats": in this case, A, B half-flat, C, D, E half-flat, F, G, and A. The main melodic line is typical for the scale, arcing from root to  octave and then descending again. The percussion was inspired by reading about Wahda w-Nuss rhythms. 

More on the 718th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Planet Jam It — The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization — at https://disquiet.com/0718/.

The Asar Sequence (disquiet0718)

Landing on what has been code named the 'Red' Planet, the cautionary exploration takes plae in an abandoned unidentified technological facilty in the middle of a desert of this newly identified planet. Here is a short audio extract of what the stealth drone recorded during that search.

This piece is in response to this week's @disquiet project. More on the 718th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Planet Jam It — The Assignment: Record the sound of an advanced alien civilization — at https://disquiet.com/0718/.

Red Planet (disquiet0718)

Artist and non-musician making sound art with found objects.

artificial planet (disquiet0718)

Raincat