I think this is pretty cool. It can definitely be background like you wrote on the lines forum post, but IMO it does give something if you pay attention too.

Disquiet Junto Project 0601: Hard Six
The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track.

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard. 

Step 1: Choose six brief segments of sound that you have recently recorded. Or record some new segments now. Either way, select six of them, and label them one through six.

Step 2: Roll a single die for each of the six segments chosen in Step 1.

Step 3: The result of each roll in Step 2 represents the relative presence of that given segment in a finished piece of music. Think about how the pieces might relate to each other. This idea of relative presence can mean whatever you want: frequency of appearance, relative volume, intelligibility etc.

Step 4: Record a piece of music in which the relative presence of the segments chosen in Step 1 correlate with the results from Step 2.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, July 10, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 6, 2023.

More on this 601st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Hard Six (The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track), at: https://disquiet.com/0601/

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/

Disquiet Junto Project 0601: Hard Six

More on this 601st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Hard Six (The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track), at: https://disquiet.com/0601/

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/

Plums (disquiet0601)

Composition made with a Sputnik Modular System. 6 tracks arranged by chance rolling of dice. Dice roll sequence....
6
6
6
1
2
1

666211 Disquiet0601

This piece might match the form of Beethoven's Sixth "Pastoral" Symphony using mostly sculpted noise.

Recorded, mixed & mastered 06 Jul 2023 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa.

©2023 Jim Lemanowicz

This original version of "49 Nudes & 6 Dogs In Church Arouse Cops" was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0601: Hard Six The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track.

Outdoor ambience, xylophone, voice, effects

Artwork/photo by Jim Lemanowicz, 22 Jul 2018, Tackapausha Pond Park, Seaford, NY, USA

---

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

Discussion took place at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/ 

This track was originally released under the artist name "Don't Touch Loretta."

49 Nudes & 6 Dogs In Church Arouse Cops (disquiet0601)

More on this 601st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Hard Six (The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track), at: https://disquiet.com/0601/

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co : https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/

From Steam To Source (disquiet0601)

I split six samples into smaller segments, arranged them according to the throw of the die & adjusted the volume to bring each into prominence in its turn.

More on this 601st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Hard Six (The Assignment: Let a roll of the dice determine the relative prominence of various parts of a track), at: https://disquiet.com/0601/

The project was inspired in part by recent correspondence with Junto participant Robert Precht. More to come in that regard.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 1: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/

The Die is Cast (disquiet0601)

Disquiet Junto Project 0601: Hard Six
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0601-hard-six/63126/1

Step 1: Choose six brief segments of sound that you have recently recorded. Or record some new segments now. Either way, select six of them, and label them one through six.

Step 2: Roll a single die for each of the six segments chosen in Step 1.

Step 3: The result of each roll in Step 2 represents the relative presence of that given segment in a finished piece of music. Think about how the pieces might relate to each other. This idea of relative presence can mean whatever you want: frequency of appearance, relative volume, intelligibility etc.

Step 4: Record a piece of music in which the relative presence of the segments chosen in Step 1 correlate with the results from Step 2.

--

I created 6 tracks with 6 clips of midi notes.  Each clip is 6 bars long.  Each note on each track is the same, but the length of each note, when it begins, and its place in the stereo field were determined by rolling a 6-sided die for each parameter on each clip.  After that I recorded several clips of acoustic guitar, with the number of notes in each phrase set by another roll of the die.  

Everything setup Ableton with follow actions applied to allow the arrangement to sort itself out.  Click record, let things play, export, done.

Disquiet0601 - Throw Roll

I started out on this track by trying to put together a self-modifying feedback loop in VCVRack. Much to my dismay, I am really out of practice with Rack, and was getting absolutely nowhere. The number of modules is now astronomical, and I was getting bogged down in “what module do I use, and they're so small I can't really see this anyway” decisions, dragging modules around, flailing, and definitely not progressing.

So instead, I abandoned that, opened up Live and went to my old favorite, Buchla Easel V. It is possible to feed audio from one track to another via sidechaining in Live, so I sidechained the two instances to each other, chose an interesting self-playing patch, switched it around to feed in the preamp input to the patch, and started cranking up the various gains. It was then a matter of carefully tweaking levels inside the plugins and the feedback between each of the instances to send them into just-controlled mutual feedback oscillation.

To make it a bit more tasty, I added Valhalla Supermassive delays, set slightly differently, to both instances, and fed back the post-effects signal instead of the dry one. This finally got me to the density of texture I was looking for, and after a couple of takes to practice tweaking the feedback in real-time (adding the effects made it quite a bit more sensitive), I finally hit record in Audio Hijack and got a usable take. A little trimming of the silence in Fission and it was complete.

The title is from an early poem of Keats, “Woman! when I behold thee flippant, vain”. I first saw it quoted in a Dorothy Sayers mystery and as faintly ridiculous and infelicitous as it is, it’s still stuck with me.

…but when I mark
Such charms with mild intelligences shine,
My ear is open like a greedy shark,
To catch the tunings of a voice divine.

Disquiet Junto 

My Ear Is Open Like a Greedy Shark [disquiet0611]

This is my submission for this week's Disquiet Junto assignment.

More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357 2

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

Feedback Gamelan [disquiet0611]

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0611: Music That Listens To Itself.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0611 discussion thread:

Here's my attempt to create music that listens to itself by using delay, reverb, granular and tape effects. As the piece progresses and additional tracks were added, the mix levels of the effects were increased. Tried not to go overboard but might have done that anyway. Some tones toward the end started to feedback on itself, so had to dial things down a bit. 

Tracks were created in Ableton Live using Ableton's Wavetable synth, Max for Live Tombola, Sonic Beds Vol.1 by Jogging House, and Slate+Ash Choreographs/Landforms. Ambient noise tracks were added using Audio Thing Noise and FIELD by ELPHNT. Effects used: SoundGhost Drift, Cableguys Shaper 3, Baby Audio Transit, Inorganic Audio Liquid, Arturia Coldfire, Audio Damage Other Desert Cities, Sugar Bytes Graindad, Strymon BigSky, ValhallaRoom and Phonolyth Cascade.  Image by Vedanti via Pexels.

More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/
Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357 2
About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

Lesser Facets Glowing [disquiet0611]

pitched down sample being played back repeatedly via a filter and granular delay/reverb, going into two feedback loops
- one immediately feeds output back to input of rings, which dumps its output back into the filter
- another copy runs via a high pass filter into a delay, with envelope opening at regular intervals, again back into the main signal

recording gradually hands over more emphasis to the feedback signals away from the original sample loop 

some editing in ableton live

--

More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357 3

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

disquiet0611 - riemann loops

I started by recording a couple of modular feedback patches, with a loose goal of generating steady, slowly animated tones. A Doepfer BBD delay was used as a hub to process a mix of droning pulse waves from two VCOs—the result of which was fed back into the delay. The BBD also outputs CV that corresponds to manually set controls as well as input CV signals, and this was used to modulate other patch parameters in the feedback loop.

The output was split to a crossfader that was sent to a handful of filters and another delay with a long interval—the idea here was to create a bit of slow movement to keep the timbral/spectral qualities in slow motion. 

I stacked a couple of sections of the drones together in Ableton, and layered in parts of a recent recording Tides (in chord mode) being granularly processed with Nebulae v2. This created some mid-higher frequency 'blooms'. Also added some simple granular processing in Ableton that was spread wider in the stereo field. Lastly added in some looped field recordings that introduce some higher frequencies and textures that I wanted to include.

– • — • – • — • – • — • —

Disquiet Junto Project 0611: Music That Listens to Itself

The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds.

Background: On September 29, 2023, there is going to be an event at a place called the Berkeley Alembic, in Berkeley, California, where I’ll play recordings of music that share a specific theme, and I’ll discuss the sounds with the people who come to listen. The event is titled Music That Listens to Itself, part of the Expanded Listening series developed by Erik Davis (Techgnosis, Burning Shore). That is the theme. Part of the goal of this project is to develop tracks for potential inclusion in the event, and to pursue ideas related to the event’s theme.

Step 1: The underlying idea is to produce music that, so to speak, listens to itself. This would be music that employs techniques to revisit itself — repurposes itself — as it proceeds. From reverb to echo to tape loops to granular synthesis to accessing a buffer, various techniques serve such a compositional and performance purpose. Consider a means to achieve this result.

Step 2: Record a piece of music that employs the technique you focused on as a result of Step 1. Please note: for the Berkeley Alembic event, I’ll be sharing music that is particularly quiet, particularly appropriate to a meditative state of mind. You don’t need to record quiet music for this project, but quiet music is what I’ll be playing at the event.

Additional details: disquiet.com. Tickets: eventbrite.com 1. About the venue: berkeleyalembic.org.

(...)

More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-list…ts-712124101357 1

About the Disquiet Junto: disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-pr…-listens-to-itself/

Pulse Animation • [disquiet 0611]

Disquiet Junto Project 0611: Music That Listens to Itself
The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds.

Background: On September 29, 2023, there is going to be an event at a place called the Berkeley Alembic, in Berkeley, California, where I’ll play recordings of music that share a specific theme, and I’ll discuss the sounds with the people who come to listen. The event is titled Music That Listens to Itself, part of the Expanded Listening series developed by Erik Davis (Techgnosis, Burning Shore). That is the theme. Part of the goal of this project is to develop tracks for potential inclusion in the event, and to pursue ideas related to the event’s theme.

Step 1: The underlying idea is to produce music that, so to speak, listens to itself. This would be music that employs techniques to revisit itself — repurposes itself — as it proceeds. From reverb to echo to tape loops to granular synthesis to accessing a buffer, various techniques serve such a compositional and performance purpose. Consider a means to achieve this result.

Step 2: Record a piece of music that employs the technique you focused on as a result of Step 1. Please note: for the Berkeley Alembic event, I’ll be sharing music that is particularly quiet, particularly appropriate to a meditative state of mind. You don’t need to record quiet music for this project, but quiet music is what I’ll be playing at the event.

Additional details: disquiet.com 1. Tickets: eventbrite.com 3. About the venue: berkeleyalembic.org 1.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0611” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0611” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. About 10 minutes maximum is best, and probably no shorter than three minutes.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 18, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 14, 2023.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

Memory of a loss - disquiet0611

Music that listens to itself.

More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

certain debt [disquiet0611]

This track was inspired by the Disquiet Junto Project 0611 and was created with the intention to leave the impression that the music is listening to itself: After some considerations the music is repeating itself, like somebody who is whistling a short tune he has heard on the radio. In this case this are just some notes played by different classical instruments.

The title is inspired by the concept of spontaneous combustion featuring in the TV series "X Files".

More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357 3

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

Spontaneous Selfinspiration  (Disquiet0611)

A self-generating patch on semi-modular and modular and sent through a spring reverb before being recorded into Ableton. There, the 'melody' was converted to MIDI using Ableton's built-in converter. Both them melody and MIDI were then played at half-speed. The melody was forced into the Lydian mode, and played with Reason Studios' Objekt. At the same time, Objekt was being resonated by the original recording (pitch processed into Lydian), via its sidechain channel. The resultant combination was then processed with the Remants granular delay, a Valhalla Supermassive delay, and the Wavesfactory Echo Cat tape delay simulation.
--
More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

gwrandewch (disquiet0611)

This week's prompt was to compose music that listens to itself.

So glad you asked! I have been wanting to make a project like this for years as part of my interest in structured improvisation.

I'd still like to do something clever with MAX/MASP and MIDI, but for now I kept myself quite busy with using audio processing in Ableton Live.

Basically, I tried to construct effects chains that would grab short snippets of audio (from a piano improv and also from each other!), process them, and and repeat them much later in the piece (via gates, envelope followers, or LFOs mapped to the inputs of delays and pitch-shifters). I altered the musical material using pitch-shifters (Cableguys, Ableton's Shifter) or delays with very short settings to make percussive sounds.

I also really tried to prioritize changing pitches, with the idea that altering the source tonal material would be a fun nod to classical music's idea of theme and development.

Then I loosely grouped them into things that generated low pitches, medium pitches, and high pitches.

I had a *lot* of material at the end, so I ended up cutting out a few tracks completely. 

Beyond that, my editing was minimal. I managed to volume spikes, and I also cut out some parts of the piano improv, because the generative devices were making their own musical material!

I'm happy with this one - I think it could be done at about 2 minutes and 40 seconds, but I figure this is a good audience for a slightly longer version of the piece.

* * * * * *
More on this 611th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Music That Listens to Itself (The Assignment: Record a piece of music that repurposes itself as it proceeds), at: https://disquiet.com/0611/

Some of the music resulting from this project may be included in a September 29, 2023, event at the Berkeley Alembic in Berkeley, California: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/expanded-listening-music-that-listens-to-itself-tickets-712124101357

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0611-music-that-listens-to-itself/

Soliaudium (disquiet0611)

My 33 1/3 series book about the Aphex Twin album <i>Selected Ambient Works Volume II</i> was published in 2014. The book was one of the top 5 bestselling titles for the calendar year, and in 2015 was ranked by Pitchfork as one of the "33 best" of the 100-plus books in the 33 1/3 series. It has subsequently been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018)

Since 2012 I have moderated the Disquiet Junto group, which began on SoundCloud. More at disquiet.com/junto. 

I've written for Nature, Pitchfork, The Wire, Down Beat, Boing Boing, NewMusicBox, Red Bull Music Academy, Art Practical, the website of The Atlantic, and many other publications. 

I've exhibited sound art at galleries in Los Angeles (Crewest), Manhattan (apex art), and Dubai (DUTAC), and I had a audio-visual installation at the San Jose Museum of Art as part of its 45th anniversary.

And since 1996 I've run the website Disquiet.com about the intersection of sound, art, and technology.

Disquiet0601 - Throw Roll

spacelordmother

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Jimmy Lem

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