Disquiet Junto Project 0636: Left (1 of 3)
The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

Please note: While this project is the start of a three-part sequence that will unfold over the course of three weeks, you can participate in any or all three of those parts.



Step 1: This week’s Junto project is the first in a sequence intended to encourage and reward collaboration. You will be recording something with the understanding that it will remain unfinished for the time being. Your part will be done, but more will happen. Read on.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music using any instrumentation of your choice. Conceive the piece as something that leaves room for something else — other instruments, other people — to join in. (Keep in mind that your piece would appear panned to the left in the finished recording, after three weeks.)

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly two to three minutes in length, as described in Step 2.

Step 4: This is important: be sure to make your track downloadable because it may be used by someone else in the next Disquiet Junto project, and then after that.

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Track notes:

One of the few things I haven't been doing much of this year is playing guitar, which is my 'primary' instrument. However, since late last year the one guitar (within reach) has been a Danelectro electric 12-string, stripped back of its thick strings to only six strings and put through through a variety of modal open tunings. A few years ago I listened to Lee Renaldo talk about this kind of retrofitting, which was called an Angel Hair guitar and was pioneered in the 1960s by country guitarists to create a light, jangly accompaniment, that in some ways is reminiscent of a pedal steel guitar's upper timbre.

I don't know how much open tunings figured at this time, but I could certainly appreciate Lee's attraction to all things unconventional and open-tuned. My current set up for this guitar is a D-A-C-E-A-E tuning, which gives it a kind of pentatonic, suspended tonality. Given the unconventional order of string gauges from bottom to top, the unison notes have an especially interesting appeal. From a fingerpicking approach, it all opens up the guitar in unexpected ways, since a regular picking technique can be inverted by the string gauge order and also feels quite different too.

So with this in mind, I recorded a repeated fingerpicking figure which exploits the unique qualities of this setup, such as the unisons and harmonic attributes of the tuning. The main guitar (soft left) is run through an EHX Holy Grail Reverb with a smidge of spring reverb, whilst an accompaniment (same guitar and tuning) is on the soft right, also run through the Holy Grail, but with the weird 'Flerb' reverb, which is a kind of modulated effect.

It's at 72bpm and runs just a shade over 2 minutes, starting a fade at the 1:46 mark.

[Disquiet_Junto_0636] Epochs (Left 1 of 3) 72 BPM

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).

heart-open & earth-honoring 
synthesist & field-recordist 
journalist & dreamtime walker
visualist & connector
​
The seemingly limitless manifestations that are observed during improvisational performance of electronic audiovisual materials drive me to seek collaborative interactions between compositional systems, machines, and myself. In holding space to facilitate an emergence of indeterminate phenomenon through analog synthesis, feedback systems, and field recordings, I share elements from multiple sources to celebrate shapes, patterns, and spaces.
​
I hold BAs in Art and English from Andrews University, and am currently enrolled in the Electronic Integrated Arts MFA at Alfred University. I was an artist in residency in 2017 at Signal Culture in Owego New York and in 2015 at Sachaqa Centro De ARTE, San Roque Peru. My visual works, and live electronic improvisational performances, have been featured across Peru, at The MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, and throughout the Midwest of America.
 
Note: Much of the work here is subtle in nature and I encourage you to listen via headphones or using a decent system whenever possible. Most computer speakers will not reveal the tracks fully.  Unless otherwise noted in the track description, everything is recorded direct to stereo track live and on the fly with no overdubs. Thanks for stopping by and listening!

Welcome to halF unusuaL, an evolving space inspired by play in the spirit of ‘hai’ (meaning “fun” or “unusual” in the word haiku). Here, improvisation connects the unexpected, mining the boundary between music and non-music to shape sound worlds that feel oddly familiar in their oddity. Listen freely, explore deeply, and for the sounds to live for your eyes as well as your ears, please stop by the YouTube channel. Thank you for joining this journey! Your support helps keep this afloat ... and is HUGELY appreciated 🥰

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.

During the early 1990s I studied Mathematics and Computer Science. The world wide web was still largely text-based and mostly empty. Today things are obviously different, though I still thoroughly enjoy art, design, cinema and music in all its forms. I have traveled all over the world for nearly two decades, visiting just over 140 countries. Japan is my favorite. All of this I attempt to incorporate into my music and art.

What's the last thing the drummer said before being kicked out of the band?

"Let's try playing one of my songs."

Here are my songs.