The MiddlePhone is a work-in-progress instrument being constructed at Middle Farm near Yankalilla.

More can be read about the creation of the MiddlePhone here: https://tristanlouthrobins.wordpress.com/2019/08/07/communique-1-a-new-start-for-the-blog/

MiddlePhone tests (2019-)

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Un-Ravel

Disquiet Junto| Un-Ravel - disquiet0691

I selected the 4th movement of the quartet, chopped it up and remixed it to a stereo track. Then, by means of many adjustments and various effects, I converted it to a modern atonal/microtonal composition.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Ravel Revamped (disquiet0691)

Ravel from the 1920s, timestretched in ableton, then converted to midi and combined, fx etc

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

un-ravel +3 mix [disquiet0691]

Following this week's Disquiet Junto project this track was created using a historic recording of the Ravel string quartet from 1928.
This is the sound of a dream, dissolved beyond recognition, but still present as the conscious cause of this unconscious music.

The audio was transformed using spectral synthesizers and effect chains to create this dreamlike rendition. No other sounds or instruments were employed.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

rêver  (Disquiet0691)

Edited, mixed & mastered on 28 Mar 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA. 

This piece uses a 1928 recording by the Capet String Quartet of Ravel’s string quartet (Col. D 15057-60).

The original source is the Internet Archive: 

https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Photography - Jim Lemanowicz, 24 Apr 2009, Massapequa & NYC, NY, USA

©2025 Jim Lemanowicz

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This original version of “Chowder Spray” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel. The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

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

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The 
Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

Chowder Spray (disquiet0691)

“Unraveling a revealing Ravel” takes the final twelve seconds of Ravel’s Capet string quartet in F Major (1903) as the material to apply the idea proposed in Disquiet Junto 0691: “it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing”. 
The tripartite microstructure of those final measures has been mapped into the three sections of the track: the first one starts with the clean original audio and quickly derives into a vivacious sequence of micro-editions, gating and spectral smearing; the second section transitions from energico to adagio until the chords seem to be suspended for a while, just to be submitted to different kinds of decimation, downsampling, aliasing, vacuum tube distortion, vinylic noisification, and bitcrushing; the piece closes with an exagerated ritardando, and wild filtering and cutting of excerpts that maybe expose some microfeatures of the final chord before leaving it totally unravelled. 
More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

This piece uses a 1928 recording by the Capet String Quartet of Ravel’s string quartet (Col. D 15057-60).
The original audio source can be found here:
https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Unraveling a revealing Ravel [disquiet0691]

I was a bit lazy with this one and also pressed for time. I basically ran the original file through a number of granular plug ins, fading and mixing them against each other and towards the end rendering the mix into an ambient wash. Hints of Ravel remain, moving in and out, here and there....

disquiet0691

Disquiet Junto Project 0691: Un-Ravel
The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart.

Step 1: Download the first movement of the Ravel string quartet at this URL: https://bit.ly/un-ravel

The original source is the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/3-capet-sq-col-d-15057-60-ravel-1928-mov-3/

Step 2: Listen to the track closely.

Step 3: Create a new piece of music by employing the provided recording as source material. The goal for your piece is that it should make the Ravel sound like it is falling apart — that is, like it is unraveling, or un-Ravel-ing.

More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/

unravelling [disquiet0691]

Un-Ravel [disquiet0691]

the end result is not so much a string quartet falling apart as it is a resonator-granular garble, but that's how it is sometimes

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More on the 691st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Un-Ravel — The Assignment: Make a recording of a string quartet fall apart — at https://disquiet.com/0691/



disquiet0691 - gravel

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

The MiddlePhone is a work-in-progress instrument being constructed at Middle Farm near Yankalilla. 

This recording captures the resonance of the instrument - both at its resting state (i.e. being articulated by a soft breeze) and having its wires plucked.

MiddlePhone test - 4 August 2019

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).

MiddlePhone test - 4 August 2019

Tristan Louth-Robins

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