Disquiet Junto Project 0711: Show & Tell &

The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback

Step 1: Choose a track/composition you’re working on. Share the recording on the Lines forum on the llllllll.co discussion thread at:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0711-show-tell

Step 2: When posting the track, mention that you’re looking for feedback, describe what you’ve been up to on the track, and if applicable specify some aspects of the recording you might want input on.

Deadline: Monday, August 18, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0711

Disquiet Junto Project 0711: Show & Tell &

Disquiet Junto submissions

This is an experiment with a Buchla 100 system that I recently built. Everything you hear is generated by the Buchla and fed through a spring reverb and then mixed live on a Tascam recorder to emulate the experience of recording directly to tape.

disquiet0711

Disquiet Junto Project 0711: Show & Tell &
The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback

I have been working on a project: making a sort of mashup of sketches I’ve made over the last few years when away from home. I’ve made these on holidays, or when visiting friends: at times when I don’t have my usual music setup, but can do some noodling and experimenting, using music apps on a tablet and sometimes using a small semi-modular synth.
Since some of these sketches/fragments have nice sounds, or patterns, or themes, I thought I might select a bunch of them that I like, see if some match with respect to rhythm, tempo, tonality, vibe, and then see if I could maybe combine them into a longer piece (adding some extra parts or transitions as needed.

So this is a slightly edited version of a work in progress. Given the amount of material I have, the end result might be something like 3 different pieces that each are between 12 and 20 minutes long. We'll see...

I’m curious how you experience this. 
It will inevitably be, as a result of the process, a somewhat fragmented piece, consisting of bits that were not intended to fit together. Does it feel totally disjointed, like loose sand, random bits that do not gel? Or is it something of a musical journey (as I hope it might be). Would you like to stay a bit longer in the different segments? Or did you feel impatient to move on? Is it nice if some sounds or patterns or themes recur later on?

More on the 711th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Show & Tell & — The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback — at https://disquiet.com/0711/.


Some sketches (disquiet0711)

When I was recording my upcoming electronic album "Source", I challenged myself to use every synth that I own somewhere on the album. Happy to say that I did it, and it was a lot of fun. I hope you'll give it a listen when it comes out.

One thing that I have been trying to do with these vintage synths is to recontextualize them as contemporary sounds rather than throwbacks. In the attached piece for example, I wanted to use the Moog, and have it sound like a Moog, but without feeling retro or nostalgic. And that's what I'm most interested in hearing from the Junto, how it's landing for you and ideas for what I might do to meet my aesthetic goal: preserving the unique voice of the instrument without situating its sound in an earlier era.  

This piece was posted in response to Disquiet Junto #0711. More on the 711th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Show & Tell & — The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback — at https://disquiet.com/0711/.

Tethys (disquiet0711)

My track notes regarding the creation of this track can be found here:

[Disquiet Junto 0711] The Shape Of Honey (draft)

# Disquiet0711

Interlude 1 is my first sketch for an interlude within a ≈ 40 minute piece about the cosmos. It seems like maybe the piece is too thick, but I want to get it out and move on and come back to revisit it after I get all the other pieces in place.

I used Sound Particles to create a few background textures and then decided to improvise a synth bass sound, and then a synth flute, and a brief plucked string sound, all from the Roli Equator software synth. 

I added some delay chaos to the recordings with plug-ins from Valhalla, GRM, and some Tai Chi reverb.

Then in Pro Tools I cut and moved the separately improvised tracks into a composition that tries to capture the vibe while I was performing. 

All the tracks were recorded and mixed in 7.0.2 for this piece. For SoundCloud and your listening convenience I converted the surround sound piece to binuaral with APL Virtuoso. I always have trouble with binaural. It doesn't accurately convey the full spatial quality of the immersive mix as it is supposed to do.

More on the 711th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Show & Tell & -- The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback -- at https://disquiet.com/0711/ 

Interlude 1 - Binaural disquiet0711

Disquiet Junto Project 0394: You & Me

The Assignment: Accompany the music made by a species other than your own.

This is a project for World Listening Day.

Step 1: Think of an animal you would like to accompany. It may be one in your possession, like a household cat, dog, or bird, or perhaps it might be one for which you’ll need to locate a recorded example.

Step 2: Acquire audio of the animal you selected in Step 1, either by making a recording or locating one.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by playing along with the audio acquired in Step 2. In the final mix, you and the animal you accompany should be heard at equal levels of prominence (of course, you may also trade off).

--------------

Track notes:

This track was created with audio extracted from a video my partner had made of our cat, Neko snoozing in the afternoon. Her snore is supringly musical. I looped the recording in Max with a fzero~ object employed to detect the fundamental frequency of Neko's snore. The fzero~ is then delayed and used to provide the frequency for a triangle wave; in effect, creating a call and response to Neko's snore. In addition to this, each time a fundamental frequency is detected by fzero~, this triggers a snapshop~ with the output control the waveband of a noise filter. A couple of signal buses are also set up with tapout~ feedback set to near-infinity, creating a consistent sonic texture. Panning of the channels is controlled with cycle~ objects, whose respective phase are constantly shifting.

The title of this track is taken from a quote I came across recently by Japanese sound artist, Toshiya Tsunoda: "If you think about it carefully, the activity of an actual space always moves. [...] Place is always moving, like a sleeping cat." [1]

[1] https://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/quiet-storms_toshiya-tsunoda

Tristan Louth-Robins, July 2019

[disquiet0394] (place is always moving) like a sleeping cat

Disquiet Junto Project 0395: Acoustic Expanse
The Assignment: Make music with (samples of) the biggest guitar in the southern hemisphere.

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0395-acoustic-expanse/24269

This project was proposed by Jason Richarson. There’s just one step:

Step 1: The biggest guitar in the southern hemisphere is in Narrandera, Australia. Junto member Jason Richardson recorded a wide range of samples of the guitar and made them available under a Creative Commons license. Now it’s time for you to play this guitar. Get the samples at big-guitar.com/download.

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Track notes:

The inspiration for this piece comes from my childhood/teenage observation of my dad's guitars hanging in the living room and how human voices, impulse-like sounds and other musical instruments would - depending on their loudness and/or proximity - ocassionally cause these stationary instruments to resonate sympathetically and sound.

I started by selecting a few nice resonant tones from the Narrandera big guitar. Looping these in Ableton so that they drifted in and out of phase with each other, I removed the attacks from each of the notes to create a continous drone that pulsated periodically. I sent the output from Ableton - via a 20w amp - to a Digitech exciter (i.e. transducer) which I placed on the soundboard 'sweet spot' of one of my dad's old guitars. This guitar has been in my possession for over 20 years - a 1976 Tama acoustic.

The surface of the Tama in effect becomes a resonater for the Narrandera guitar tones as they are 'transplanted' into the acoustic body of the Tama. Throughout the recording I occasionally strum the strings of the Tama - slack tuned and in approximate harmony with the Narrandera guitar tones. I also physically move the transducer from the Tama's sweet spot to other areas of the soundboard surface; which in effect, articulate different resonant qualities of the Narrandera guitar tones, and also makes audible some of the discrete artefacts of the Narrandera recordings.

[disquiet0395] acoustic transplant

I was wracking my head on the drive down to my mum's farm this weekend. I'd made plans to start building a much-talked about aeolian harp on the property using found materials and various bits and pieces I had lying around my home studio. I was (over) thinking aspects of resonance, wire lengths, fundamental tones, harmonics, etc and in between this I was also thinking about this week's challenge.  A couple of days work resulted in the MiddlePhone* (see pic and footnote below) and an outcome for this weeks Junto challenge.

I attached one end of a slinky to the chimney flue on the MiddlePhone, and the other to a tin can. I fixed a contact mic to the interior surface of the chimney flue and pointed a shotgun mic off into the distance. Hitting record, I stretched out the slinky/can and hummed an improvised melody into the can for about a minute.

In the recording you can hear two simultaneous recordings which have been mixed together: the slinky's contact with the flue, and the shotgun mic; which is fixed on my position with the stretched slinky/can. I've mixed the track so that you hear only the shotgun mic recording at first (w/peripheral sounds) and then gradually crossfade into contact mic; the latter revealing the reverberent/harmonic effects of the slinky, as well the articulation of resonances. Which most of the resonances are derived from the flue/slinky combo, I'm fairly certain the network of stretched wires have had some effect too.

The MiddlePhone*

Yesterday afternoon, I deviated dramatically from my original design plan for the aeolian harp; to such an extent that it resembled a completely different instrument - which you can see pictured in the track cover. It comprises of an old tallowwood fencepost jammed between the branch stumps of a Melaleuca tree. The post has thin wires attached to it which are tightened and fixed to the ground, as well as run over an oil drum and also connected to a chimney flue. The wind interplays with it discretely, but is most effective as a ridiculous percussion instrument. However, attaching contact mics to it reveals a variety of resonances and sonic perculiarities. More recordings of the MiddlePhone to feature in the near future!

[disquiet0396] elastic hum

Track notes:

A quick and dirty one this week. I used an iOS 808 emulator, sent it through a stereo amp driving a couple of my corked speakers, using the vibrations to move and rattle objects. I stuck some old guitar strings in the cork of the left speaker to wobble about and strike a tambourine; on the other speaker I layered a tin foil bowl to rattle about. Then I move the objects around and incorporate a bit of tinfoil. I’m quite fond of the outcome; my partner, not so much.

Assignment notes:

Disquiet Junto Project 0397: Numbers Racket
The Assignment: It’s 808 Day. Do it up.

Step 1: It’s 808 Day today, August 8, the start of the latest Junto project. Let’s make it last through Monday.

Step 2: Make music with or about or somehow in the spirit of the Roland TR-808.

[disquiet0397] 808 junklet

For this week's challenge I decided to continue some explorations of the cycle~ object in Max where I've been using it (at very low rates) to control float values which oscillate back and forth; and subsequently transpose this float value to wider ranges to control things like frequency, amplitude and panning.

When thinking about the idea of 'rauschen', a lingering poetic over the past week had been a line from the song 'I Remember Me' by the SilverJews (aka, David Berman):

The tape hiss of the trees

There's always been something so striking and evocative about that line, and for me it does a wonderful thing of bridging the tricky gaps in (the English) language when it comes to accurately describing sounds. Sure, I guess imagining 'tape hiss' is pretty subjective and experiential, but for me it's such a strong (albeit, slightly surreal) poetic expression.

The objective for this week's challenge was for me to evoke the sound of wind through the trees using the hiss of a blank cassette tape. 

I set about building a little Max patch of four noise modules ,with the noise source derived from a hiss of a blank cassette played back on my old Tascam 424 Portastudio. The tape hiss recordings are routed to a bandpass filter, whose frequency range and amplitude are constantly moving. These (along with the panning) are all controlled with cycle~ objects set a different rates. When the four modules play back simultaneously, this creates a pretty dense noise texture which is constantly shifting - evoking the wind shearing through trees at varying intensities and trajectory. 

I've uploaded a breakdown of the Max patch on YouTube if anyone wants to explore the finer details of the process: https://youtu.be/5G59iszqXWw

[disquiet0398] the tape hiss of the trees

Tristan Louth-Robins is a South Australian artist working principally in the medium of sound art and field recording. Ideas of sound and its signification are key elements in Louth-Robins' practice, traversing the space between the visual and aural his work is realised through the mediums of recordings, installation, visual art and performance. He is interested in sound and its associative implications - including its relationship to objects, technology, urban space, memory and the natural world. 


Since 2005, Louth-Robins has presented work in Australia and internationally as a solo artist, whilst also collaborating with artists, writers, researchers, musicians and performers. 

Working across a vast array of activities encompassing composition, sound design, installation art, field recording and workshops, his work has been featured in events such as the Adelaide Festival of Arts (2006), The National Regional Arts Festival (2012), Mildura-Wentworth Arts Festival (2013), Fairfax Festival (2013) and Adelaide Fringe Festival (2014); and selected works exhibited at galleries including The Australian Experimental Art Foundation (2009), SASA Gallery (2012, 2015), Light Square Gallery (2012) and FELT Space (2015). His audio works have been broadcast on radio including Radio National, Classic FM, The BBC (UK), Acoustic Frontiers (USA) and RBB (Germany).