Disquiet Junto submissions

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).

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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

Track notes: An interesting challenge this week. I decided I would attempt to 'parse' the ambiences in these recordings and represent the space(s)in terms of weight, lightness and shade. I selected about half the available samples (metal bin, skate ramp, stage ambience, bridge)and composed a short collage in Logic X exploring aspects of dynamic, duration and texture using only volume and panning automation, along with a single band EQ to set and sweep through the frequency range of given samples.

Challenge for Disquiet Junto 399 "Edges & Echoes"

The Assignment: Make sonic art for a space with the sounds of that space.

This project is the second of three that are being done in collaboration with Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 11 through 15. For this reason, a German translation is provided below. We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects will be played publicly as part of the Rauschlabor Schützenmatte (musikfestivalbern.ch 2) or broadcast on the festival’s radio show, Radio Antenne (radioantenne.ch). If you don’t want your recording to be used in this way, please note so wherever you post it.

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the German word “rauschen,” the theme for this year’s festival. Understand that “rauschen” is noise in the sense of white noise, waterfall noise, background noise, static, wind in trees, rain, etc. The blurred, diffuse, continuous kind of noise, not short individual non-tonal sounds.

Step 2: Provided are several recordings capturing the sounds of the empty performance space for the festival. Access them at the following URL and listen to them:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jy7ou2ssdvl8til/Bern%20Audio.zip 20

Step 3: Create a piece of sonic art intended to be played back in the festival performance space utilizing only the source audio.

[disquiet0399] parsing the air

With thanks to both Malka and Marc for facilitating this wonderful Junto challenge. A real pleasure to be a part of it! 

I listened through the story reading several times and noted down some key observations and motifs. The sections that really clicked with me were 5 and 6, which reflected strong impressions of wide-scale desolation and collective resilience to the conditions that the walls imposed. I was particularly struck by the imagery of flowers (roses, cactus gardens) and shrines placed at the walls. A reflection of natural beauty, devotion and faith set against absolute devastation and bleakness. 

My source audio is derived from a segment of section 6 where Malka mentions the cactus garden. I stretched this audio out a little, so as to coax some harmonic artefacts from the speech and layered shorter clips against each other in tight loops with some resonators and filters patched in Max. First, I set pinched bandpass filters in and around ~400-500 Hz to create two harmonic drones; then, I set the filters up and around 8-10kHz to create a swirling, sibilant texture. Lastly, I mixed these audio tracks with the spoken text from section 6 in Logic X with a smidge of compression and EQ applied.

Submission notes:

Disquiet Junto Project 0400: Sub Divided
The Assignment: Create a score to a Malka Older story using the author’s own voice as source audio.

Step 1: The author Malka Older ( Infomocracy , Ninth Step Station , Orphan Black: The Next Chapter ) has generously recorded herself reading her own short story, “The Divided,” and made that recording available to the Disquiet Junto community for this project. Acquire the nine (roughly) one-minute segments of the recording in this zip file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mgwx9fa9bwz76ll/0400-stems.zip 12

Step 2: Select one of the nine tracks at random.

Step 3: Listen to the entire story, which is about nine and a half minutes long. Consider the narrative sensibility of your assigned subset of that story.

Step 4: Create a score and sound design to accompany Older’s reading of her own short story in the track that you selected in Step 2. Primarily use Older’s own voice as the source material for your score — bend it, shape it, extract from it, and burnish it to your creative ends. Additional sonic elements, both musical and foley, are welcome, but a substantial percentage of the sound should be from Older’s own voice. Also: keep Older’s own reading audible and inteligible; don’t slow or speed or otherwise edit it. Your score should accompany the reading, not supplant it.

Step 5: This is important. Please title your track “Malka Older – The Divided – Part X/9 disquiet0400” where “X” is the segment number you were assigned. (Don’t include the quotation marks.)

Malka Older – The Divided – Part 6:9 Disquiet0400

For this week's Junto I used a field recording of the Ingalalla waterfall, which is located on the Fleurieu Peninsula. I added samples to Ableton's Simpler and applied filters, delay and a bit of spatialisation, accentuating some of the sibilant character of the water sounds. It's quite thin on melody and instead heavily emphasises complex grains and narrow bands of frequencies.


Assignment notes:

Disquiet Junto Project 0401: Noise Pacing
The Assignment: Use background noise as a beat, as a rhythm.

This project is the third and final of a series being done in collaboration with Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 11 through 15. For this reason, a German translation is provided below. We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects will be played publicly as part of the Rauschlabor Schützenmatte (musikfestivalbern.ch) or broadcast on the festival’s radio show, Radio Antenne (radioantenne.ch). If you don’t want your recording to be used in this way, please note so wherever you post it.

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the German word “rauschen,” the theme for this year’s festival. Understand that “rauschen” is noise in the sense of white noise, waterfall noise, background noise, static, wind in trees, rain, etc. The blurred, diffuse, continuous kind of noise, not short individual non-tonal sounds.

Step 2: You are going to make music in which one or more “rauschen” noise(s) will be used as the beat or rhythm for a track. Record and listen back to such “rauschen.”

Step 3: Select one or more noise elements from Step 2.

Step 4: Create a track using the elements from Step 3 as beats or rhythmic material, and then layer something melodic atop it.

[disquiet0401] choppy water

Disquiet Junto Project 0402: Music for Tasks
The Assignment: Record music intended as the backdrop/soundtrack to a chore.

Step 1: Think of chores or tasks you are responsible for regularly that don’t take a huge amount of time, like doing the dishes, or weeding the garden, or walking the dog.

Step 2: Select out of the list resulting from Step 1 a single chore or task, for which you will, in this project, create a score or sonic backdrop.

Step 3: Take a sonic inventory of the experience of doing the chore or task from Step 2. This means making a list of the various sounds inherent in the activity, and thinking about how they work together collectively.

Step 4: Record an original piece of music/sound that serves as a backdrop/soundtrack to the activity you selected in Step 2 informed by the theorizing you accomplished in Step 3. (The length is up to you. It should be the length of however long the task generally takes.)

Track notes:

I take a real pleasure in sweeping around the house: the kitchen, living room, the front porch. Maybe it's the repetitive process that leads to the satisfying outcome/objective of accumulated things (dust, grit, leaves, etc.) Incidentally, I utterly LOATHE leafblowers - they're lazy and a sonic horror. Typically, I'll only sweep in short bursts, so this is why the track is about a minute and a half in duration.

If I'm listening to music in the background, it could be anything, but my preference would be something quite discrete (with little repetitions or motifs) that sits in the background, like Eno's ambient work or the small music of Miki Yui or Rolf Julius.

My composition is derived from the single 1/8 note pulse of Ableton 'African Bars', with the note subsequently processed through filters, a glitch plugin, and a couple of busses with delay and grainy modulation applied.

[disquiet0402] music for motes

THIS SUBMISSION WAS PULLED FROM THE LINES JUNTO THREAD SINCE I DIDN'T READ THE BRIEF PROPERLY! 403b IS THE SUBMISSION FOR THIS PARTICULAR WEEK..

Disquiet Junto Project 0403: Filter Box

The Assignment: Record music a piece of music in which a sequence of sounds is treated by the same filter or process.

Step 1: Come up with a filter or process that might be applied to a wide variety of sounds. It could be a preset in a piece of equipment, or a matter of recording something through a closed door. It’s up to you and your ears and your imagination.

Step 2: Select a sequence of sounds that are unrelated. The number is up to you, but between a half dozen and a dozen is recommended.

Step 3: Create a recording that consists of the sounds from Step 2 being played in sequence, with little to no overlap, with each sound being treated by the filter or process from Step 1.

Track notes:

I used a selection of my own recordings sourced from the following:

Several digital audio transfers from a 45 rpm record of Australian birdsongs from the 1950's. Featured birds include, the Blue Penguin; Laughing Kookaburra; Willy Wagtail; Grey Thrush; Olive Backed Oriole; Rufous Whistler.

A field recording from the Climate Strike Rally in Adelaide that my partner Lauren recorded on her phone.

A recording of radio static.

Coastal ambience.

Wind through trees.

A small creek.

[disquiet0403a] domestic void

Disquiet Junto Project 0403: Filter Box
The Assignment: Record music a piece of music in which a sequence of sounds is treated by the same filter or process.

Step 1: Come up with a filter or process that might be applied to a wide variety of sounds. It could be a preset in a piece of equipment, or a matter of recording something through a closed door. It’s up to you and your ears and your imagination.

Step 2: Select a sequence of sounds that are unrelated. The number is up to you, but between a half dozen and a dozen is recommended.

Step 3: Create a recording that consists of the sounds from Step 2 being played in sequence, with little to no overlap, with each sound being treated by the filter or process from Step 1.

Track notes:

I used the following sounds from my personal collection:
- tape hiss emulation
- radio static with a high frequency tone
- microwave oven operating
- the resonance of a tank/cannon shaft
- walking through the city
- Climate Strike protest
- Blue Faced Honeyeater (from a 1950s EP of Australian Birdsongs)
- Runout groove of the above EP.

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I sequenced these tracks in Ableton and applied 3 Filter Delays. A bandpass for low, mid and high frequency bands.

[disquiet403b] going, going, gone

Disquiet Junto Project 0404: Seven (St)ages
The Assignment: Record a piece of music that follows the arc of Jacques’ “All the world’s a stage” speech from Shakespeare’s play As You Like It.

Step 1: This project is inspired by a famous speech from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. The speech is the one that begins “All the world’s a stage,” and is spoken by the melancholy character Jacques.

Step 2: Familiarize yourself with the speech, in which Jacques lists the “seven ages” that people move through over the course of their lives, should they lead full and long ones: the infant, the student (“schoolboy” in the play), the lover, the soldier, the justice, old age, and the final decline (likened to a “second childishness and mere oblivion”).

Step 3: Consider how those seven ages might be explored in musical terms. Consider concepts in the original text, such as how in old age “his big manly voice, / Turning again towards childish treble, pipes / And whistles in his sound.”

Step 4: Record a piece of music that occurs in seven stages, following the seven ages of Jacques’ speech. One possibility is to have seven related pieces of music, as i na suite, that represent the ages. Another is to have one consistent source audio throughout, but to treat/filter/process it in accordance with each successive (st)age.

Track notes:

Since I'm currently on vacation at the moment, I felt like throwing a bit more into this week's challenge - such as the proverbial kitchen sink. I worked out a few little sections based on an acoustic guitar tuned to Modal G tuning (CGDGBE), then once that was in place , I fired up Logic and went for broke channelling a bit of Richard Thompson, Jim'O Rourke, Andrew Tuttle and a general indulgent racket.

Where the source material is concerned, I was intent on channelling a feeling of innocence, whimsy and foreboding in equal measure, with seven sections in total. The whimsical section is reprised before things get a bit dark and then eventually subsume into the cold, muted embrace of oblivion.

Thanks for the challenge! I had a blast putting this together over a few hours in the studio. Now I'm in need of a lie down and maybe a drink. :)

[disquiet0404] - in a blink

Disquiet Junto Project 0405: Trustable (C. Remix)
The Assignment: Remix music from C. Reider’s album … a trustable cloud.

Step 1: The album … a trustable cloud by the Colorado-based musician C. Reider is available at the following URL. It is downloadable for free. Reider, a longtime Junto participant, has given us permission to remix it for this project.

https://c-reider.bandcamp.com/album/a-trustable-cloud 24

Step 2: Remix the album to your heart’s content, and your ears’, for that matter. Focus on one track, or combine elements from various tracks. Add your own material, or stick with Reider’s. The direction is up to you. (Note: Reider created the album using online tools, and you might consider using one or more of those tools yourself.)

Track notes:

With thanks to C. Reider and Marc for facilitating this week's challenge. I sampled sections of Track 1 from A Trustable Cloud, using predominantly drone-based and percussive elements. These were arranged as a series of tight loops in Ableton which I applied degrees of pitch shifting, filtering and modulation to. With the main sequence complete, I then applied some additional processing (reverb, modulated tape delay) in Logic X.

[disquiet0405] cloud wandering, wondering (Trustable [C.Remix])

Disquiet Junto Project 0407: Dark Pitch
The Assignment: What do you hear between stations on the radio dial during a drive in the middle of night?

This project has one step:

Step 1: It’s 3am. You’re driving across a very dark, very flat territory. There are no other cars in sight. The radio signal begins to fade. You turn the dial. You hear something strange between stations. You grab your phone to record what you’re hearing. Now share that recording.

Track notes:

I've just arrived back from a week-long hike along Kangaroo Island's remote western fringes. I got the e-mail for this week's prompt as we made our way back to the eastern side of the island (by car), where mobile coverage is much better.

With the prompt in mind, I asked my partner to record the car in motion for a minute on her phone. For the other sources, I used some archived radio static and grainy conversation and blended this as textures and stray fragments. Hauntologies ensued! All mixed together in Logic.

[disquiet0407] errant sig

Disquiet Junto Project 0408: Fritiniency Tronics
The Assignment: Were “fritiniency” (“the chirruping sound made by birds or insects”) a musical genre or technique, what would it sound like?

Many thanks to Michael Upton for having initiated this project.

Step 1: Familiarize yourself with the word “fritiniency.” It was described in a tweet by the author Robert Macfarlane as follows:

Word of the Day: “fritiniency” – “the chirruping sound made by birds or insects; an ambient creaturely hubbub (17thC English; from Latin “fritinnīre”, onomatopoeically meaning “to twitter”). “Fritiniency is a chirping like a Swallow” (Blount, Glossographia, 1656)

The original tweet is here:

https://twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1185797836585213953 8

Step 2: Now imagine the word “fritiniency” to be a musical genre or technique.

Step 3: Record a short piece of music that would qualify as an example of the genre or technique you imagined in Step 2.

Track notes:

As I mentioned previous in the Junto thread, the idea of Fritiniency and this kind of concept/approach is something I'm very interested in, and immediately I could see some parallels to the sound art explorations of artists such as Rolf Julius and Miki Yui (both of whom are massive influences on my own sound art practice).

I derived all of the sound material from a little clay whistle in the shape of a chicken. By filling it with a little water and blowing through it at the right intensity, it emits a regular chirping sound. It can also be played without water, resulting in a high pitched whistle, with a pitch that can be articulated marginally.

1) I made a couple of recordings with these playing techniques as short improvisations - varying breath intensity and repetitions, whilst employing brief silences.  

2) I then took the recordings and played these back in a simple Max patch that looped them back at different pitches (ranging from a slight detuning to extremes [digital artefacts/glitchy]), whilst randomly determining their spatial position (so they drift around a little).

3) Finally, I layered four of these Max renderings in Logic and mixed them so as to evoke an imagined soundscape. A little reverb was applied to add degrees of depth and space to the soundscape.

x TLR

[disquiet0408] yr tropic

Disquiet Junto Project 0409: Spooky 3.0
The Assignment: Raise haunting music to the next level.
Step 1: Consider what makes music spooky.

Step 2: Make some music that considerably outdoes what you thought of in Step 1.

The short story is that this piece was inspired by the later work of musician Scott Walker, in conjunction with the strangeways of Google Translate.

Full description here: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0409-spooky-3-0/26663

[disquiet0409] barracuda

Step 1: If you aren’t familiar with the concept of Op Art, read up. It employs optical illusions as raw material for artistic expression.

Step 2: Think about what the sonic equivalent of Op Art would be. For example, consider the Shepard tone (the illusion of continually rising or descending pitch).

Step 3. Record a piece of Op Audio resulting from your thinking in Step 2.

Track notes: 

Another really thought/imagination provoking prompt. Thanks to Marc and Nate Trier for the initiative!

Immediately I thought of Bridget Riley's work, which I've always loved; especially her intricate colour works, which started in the 80s/90s onwards with pieces like Achæan (1981) and Nataraja (1993). I've always appreciated the considered selection of colour palette along with the rigid repetition of lines or oblique shapes. Throughout her career, Riley has meticulously studied the use of colour in paintings across history, as well as colour's application in cultures around the world. Her late work - from the 2000's onwards introduced elements of curvature and fluidity, and the semblance of repetition and repeated patterns became less apparent/distinct. 

In a sonic/musical sense, her work from these respective periods suggests a strong correlation to movement/momentum, pulses, repeated motifs, polyrhythm, phase relation and colouration of tone, etc. 

I thought it might be interesting to reference this late development in Riley's work: from the rigid forms and colour palette of Achæan (1981) and Nataraja (1993)through to her more recent works, which pull away from repetition, yet eschew the broad colour palette to only a couple of colours (such as Blue and Pink, 2001). My piece is sort of caught between works such as Nataraja and Blue and Pink.

I used a customised synth patch on my microkorg and routed the output to three effects pedals (an Ooh Wah, DD7 looper and Earthquaker Transmisser). 

The Ooh Wah is a rare bespoke pedal which I'm borrowing from a friend at the moment. It's essentially a series of bandpass filters combined with a sequencer. It adds a nice warbling effect to the synth, whilst pressing out some interesting harmonic characteristics.

The DD7 is, well..a DD7. I'm using it to capture sections of my playing and repeat infinitum, whilst overdubbing additional sections as the piece goes on.

Lastly, the Transmisser is a glorified modulated reverb, which I've employed towards the end of the piece to essentially 'blend' the colours into a homogenous impression.

It's longer than my usual submissions, since I felt a length of at least four minutes was the only way I could get this idea across.

[disquiet0410] Achæan, Nataraja, Blue and Pink

Disquiet Junto Project 0411: Wrapped Up
The Assignment: Record a piece of music as a gift for someone special to you.

Step 1: Think of someone you’d like to give a gift of music.

Step 2: Record a piece of music for the person you thought of in Step 1. You don’t need to identify the person when posting the music.

TRACK NOTES:

This one goes out to my dear old mum.

Oh, I had some fun with this one.. Within seconds of of reading the brief, I immediately recalled a project/concept that I thought of way back in 2007. I'd recently come back from Melbourne, and I was intrigued by a business based there called T2 (https://www.t2tea.com/en/au/Home) that was selling a variety of teas and assorted tea accessories. What struck me about the business was their two-tone colour branding on the square boxes that the tea came in. There was a standard orange background, with another colour to denote the given tea - i.e red = English Breakfast; dark green = Japanese Sencha, etc.

Anyway, I thought to myself at the time: "wow, wouldn't it be cool if you could sell sounds that folks could put inside teapots?" At the time I got as far as designing some short loops and playing them back from an iPod shuffle and placing a loudspeaker on top/inside a teapot. It didn't really progress from there.

So, when this assignment came up I thought about this old concept and how T2 (which has since expanded nationwide in AU) is very popular for gifts - especially around Christmas. What if I was to create a blend of sounds that you could put in various objects around your home to discretely colour or articulate a space? I thought that this was similar also to the use of fragrances and diffusers in a domestic setting.

I made a little composition using a field recording I'd made on my phone of William Barton and a cellist performing at a morning meditation session in Fairy Glen during the MONA FOMA festival in Launceston back in January. I blended this recording with the iOS app AMG, which was playing a randomly generated series of tones in the Ryukyu scale in D. Both of these sources were routed to a mixer, and I used the built-in pitch shift FX send and EQ to manipulate the sounds a little.

Once I had my loop, I played it back via a DIY'd mp3 player and small loudspeaker. I placed this in my big red teapot and recorded the result in my studio. The audio here consists of the original loop, followed by the playback in the teapot. The resonant acoustic properties of the teapot clearly condition the composition and give it a unique character!

As you can see, I also appropriated the T2 box design for the cheeky artwork accompanying this track. Hopefully a 'cease and desist' won't eventuate. x TLR

[disquiet0411] fairy glen blend

Disquiet Junto Project 0412: One Chord Wonder
The Assignment: Play an extended chord where the instrumentation of each note changes as the piece proceeds.

Step 1: Choose a chord, any chord.

Step 2: Make a list of the notes that the chord is comprised of.

Step 3: Record a piece of music in which each of the notes in the chord are played by different instruments (more broadly: different sound sources).

Step 4: As the piece proceeds, change each of the instruments/sources, while never altering the notes that make up the chord.

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Track notes: What a horrendously bleak week it's been. I'm a bit haunted and depressed by the climate change-induced bushfires which are currently burning my country (AU) alive at the moment. Not to mention the complete lack of action/leadership from our government. In particular, the viral video footage of a koala being rescued and literally screaming in agony is one of the most devastating things I think I've ever watched/heard. I feel like the country I grew up in - cultural, spiritual, environmental - is disappearing rapidly. So, I'm pretty down at the moment. Very down.

With that in mind, I approached this week's assignment by taking a bunch of instruments (vibes, wurli, mellotron, horns) and grafted them to a Fmaj7/9 chord (FACEG) with instruments coming and going across their assigned notes. I then processed them slightly, exported and then crudely tuned the track down in Audacity by an octave. It's a pretty accurate sonic representation of my state of mind at present.

[disquiet0412] down, down

Disquiet Junto Project 0413: Objective Thankfulness
The Assignment: Highlight one piece of musical equipment for which you are particularly grateful.

Step 1: Think about all the tools you use to make music, hardware and soft.

Step 2: Focus on one tool for which you have, of late, been particularly thankful.

Step 3: Record a piece of music highlighting that tool’s employment. When doing so, imagine that the creator(s) of the tool might have the opportunity to hear it.

Step 4: When posting the completed track online, be sure to describe what the tool is, and why you chose to highlight it.

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Track notes: 

Thanks again Marc for an interesting prompt. Following last week's tumult, I thought I'd aim for something a little more gentle; albeit with slight uneasiness permeating the mood.

A tool that I've used consistently for the past few years in an Electroharmonix Pog 2 Polyphonic Octave Generator. I've used it primarily with an electric guitar and it renders some beautifully rich timbres which sound akin to a detuned organ mingling with a heavily compressed 12-string guitar. I employed it five years ago for a track called 'Red Eyes', where I used the Pog 2 in a signal chain with a EHX Memory Man and simple tremolo. It remains one of my favourite ambient/sombre guitar things I've done (https://soundcloud.com/red_robin/red-eyes).

I thought I'd revisit that setup and do something similar in honour of the Pog 2. To make things a little more skittery and uneasy, once I'd layered some takes in Logic X, I used Logic's AI drummer and created two opposing drum patterns in 7/8 with varying degrees of swing. So, it's less a rhythm per se, and more of a distant texture which underscores the layers of guitar.

[disquiet0413] trapped heat

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).