Disquiet Junto Project 0678: Commonplace Playlist
The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments.

As has become the tradition at the end of each calendar year, this week’s Junto project is a sound journal: a selective audio history of your past 12 months.

Step 1: You will select a different audio element to represent each of the past 12 months of 2024 — or you might opt for even more elements, choosing a segment for each week, or each day, for example. These audio elements will most likely be of music that you have yourself composed and recorded, but they might also consist of phone messages, field recordings, or other source material. These items should be somehow personal in nature, suitable to the autobiographical intention of the project; they should be of your own making, your own devising, and not drawn from third-party sources.

Step 2: You will then select one segment from each of these (most likely) dozen audio elements. If you’re doing a dozen items, one for each month, then five-second segments are recommended, for a total of one minute. Ultimately, though, the length of the segments and of the overall finished track are up to you.

Step 3: Then you will stitch these segments together, equally weighted, in chronological order to form one single track. There should be no overlap or gap between segments; they should simply proceed from one to the next.

Step 4: In the notes field accompanying the track, identify each of the audio segments.

Deadline: Monday, December 30, 2024, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0678

Disquiet Junto Project 0678: Commonplace Playlist

Model Kun Ko Nache Chora

I took this cloud photo last week whilst sitting on the beach in the early morning attempting to gather my thoughts, just before work. I had just captured a field recording of the sea when I noticed this cloud looming above the cliff edge, so I’ve chucked that in here too for good measure. 

I wanted to somewhat try to capture the mood I was in when I noticed the cloud. 

In response to the prompt I used:

Free image to MIDI Max for Live device in Ableton - to turn the cloud photo into midi data

https://tomcosm.gumroad.com/l/ZiGjZ

(White areas of cloud photograph image were rendered as absences of MIDI data i.e. 0s)

Probability gate on a Kontakt Irish Harp freebie VST I picked up recently which I'd been curious to try out and the prompt seemed as good a time to do so as any. I don't normally used sampled instruments much but this one was quite fun to work with. The multiple probability gates helped to make the rendered image to MIDI data less dense and more listenable to:

https://maxforlive.com/library/device/6982/mm4l-probability-gate

Disquiet Junto Project 0604: Heaven’s Gate
The Assignment: Use a picture of the clouds as a plan for adjusting your sound.

Step 1: Think about the use of a gate in music production. A gate can be described as an “on/off switch, allowing signals over threshold to pass while muting everything below.” (It’s likely that discussion will occur during this project regarding useful explanations of the concept.)

Step 2: Take a picture of some clouds.

Step 3: Think of how to interpret the clouds as a model of a gate.

Step 4: Record a track employing the approach you determined in Step 3 using the picture from Step 2.

I took the cover photo in Ashland, Oregon, earlier this year; no filters were employed. Regarding the title, I’m a Michael Cimino admirer.

Source: https://tapeop.com/interviews/33/noise-gates/ 2

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0604” (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 “disquiet0604” (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-0604-heavens-gate/

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. How fast are those clouds moving?

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, July 31, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, July 27, 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).

Cumuliform disquiet0604

My eyes lift to see
A sky that is entirely
magnolia blooms

This is a haiku taken from Kusamakura (or The Three-Cornered World), a novel by Natsume Soseki I'm currently reading.

A book that transcends the plot development of "standard" Western literature, this is a book about the nature of art and beauty, filled with lyrical beauty and internal monologues on what it means to be an artist.

To give you an idea, here's how the book starts:

“If you work by reason, you grow rough-edged; if you choose to dip your oar into sentiment’s stream, it will sweep you away. Demanding your own way only serves to constrain you. However you look at it, the human world is not an easy place to live. And when its difficulties intensify, you find yourself longing to leave that world and dwell in some easier one—and then, when you understand at last that difficulties will dog you wherever you may live, this is when poetry and art are born.”

One of the most influential modern Japanese writers, Natsume Soseki’s literary career started in 1903, with a series of haiku and renga published on various literary magazines.

Between 1900 and 1903 he studied at the UCL in London, but this proved to be quite a dramatic experience for the young Soseki. Despite this, when Soseki returned to Japan, he exploded into prolific writing activity.

magnolia blooms [naviarhaiku523]

Disquiet Junto Project 0628: Alchemical Brothers
The Assignment: Explore an aspect of the ancient occult science using music.

Ugh… I had a lot of ideas about alchemy, sound, music, art these last few days. Many thoughts that refuse — as I now try to put them to paper — te gel into some sort of coherent whole. 
Thoughts about how contemporary electronic music is the most ‘alchemic’ of musical traditions - focussed as it is on mutation and transformation of timbres, rather than on combining various unchanging parts -- as someone composing for orchestra would do. About timbral transformation as rather fundamental for how I approach many of the things I make. About how sound has this ‘Proustian' quality of making us remember places, people, events, in fundamentally different ways than the way that for example telling a story triggers memories. About how art can use sounds and their effect on memory to transform our attention in our (daily) lives, separating our perception from the many layers of thought, expectation, ideas, stories, meanings we attach to them. About how filter coffee machines can sound like a fairytale alchemist’s laboratory…

Anyway, here’s the piece. It uses a software audio device I programmed to remove/separate the first 8 partials of a sound. Basically, what it does is use pitch detection to set the frequencies of a series of notch filters. It’s rather crude and far from perfect, especially if you use it with polyphonic material. This leads to some interesting sonic results. Playing zither into it will make it sometimes sound like a cymbal. And mixing the transformed and dry sound of a piano, produces some quite interesting sounds: a bit like the instrument was run through a bandpass filter, but with some unusual timbral effects.
I combined these processed instruments with processed (granular delayed) field recordings from my usual morning routine: making coffee. It’s a bit of a gift to future me (and my housemates), perhaps hearing this little sketch some years into the future and remembering the house, and these mornings when all is still (and these days cold and dark).

More on this 628th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Alchemical Brothers — The Assignment: Explore an aspect of the ancient occult science using music — at: https://disquiet.com/0628/

Coffee ritual (disquiet0628)

This is my submission for this week's Disquiet Junto assignment exploring the alchemical concepts of separation and transformation.

More on this 628th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Alchemical Brothers — The Assignment: Explore an aspect of the ancient occult science using music — at: https://disquiet.com/0628/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co 1: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0628-alchemical-brothers/

Separation/Transformation [disquiet0628]

Separating a melody from pink noise and resonating a pipe through a convolution reverb.
--
More on this 628th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Alchemical Brothers — The Assignment: Explore an aspect of the ancient occult science using music — at: https://disquiet.com/0628/

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-0628-alchemical-brothers/

The image associated with this project is a detail from a 16th century alchemical text in the public domain.

separation anxiety (disquiet0628)

My shadow eats the winter sun.(NaviarHaiku524)

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0632: Shear Wind

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0632 discussion thread:

Used audio from a video taken a few months ago at a local beach using my iPhone. The surf was fairly large and the wind was moderately strong. I recorded the audio into Morphagene and changed playback speed/direction by manually manipulating the Vari-Speed control. Also used a LFO from Pamela’s Pro Workout to modulate the Morph level. A semi-generative ambient melody created by the SDKC Helical module was mixed in. Reverb effects by Strymon BigSky and Phonolyth Cascade were added in Ableton Live. Was a little crunched on time in creating this, so I’m somewhat happy with the outcome. Perhaps I’ll flush it out some more in the near future.     

More on this 632nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Shear Wind — The Assignment: Make the most of the disturbance within a field recording — at: https://disquiet.com/0632/
About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1
Subscribe to project announcements: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0632-shear-wind/

Shoreline Field Notes With Wind [disquiet0632]

Sound Fantasy on: 
A distant mountain 
Seen in the sunlight: 
A desolate field  

by: Takahama Kyoshi 
Naviarrecords Haiku Challenge 529

Distance

Distance_Naviarhaiku 529

0:00 Janvier: dictaphone handpan
0:16 Février: synt D05
0:32 Mars: otis 210424
0:48 Avril: tape 0006
1:04 Mai: tape 0012
1:20 Juin: tape 0033
1:36 Juillet: 07 operator backup 11 
1:52 Août: zadar sea organ 26 août 17h40
2:08 Septembre: dt A10 sofia (C10)
2:24 Octobre: 10 operator backup 11
2:40 Novembre: electro-mechanical ventilation (VMC)
2:56 Décembre: dt Norda

More on the 678th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Commonplace Playlist — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at https://disquiet.com/0678/

2024 sound journal disquiet0678

Check out the accompanying visuals at https://youtu.be/UA7ynWm0t74

Here are the links to full videos for each 10 second snippet, January to December 2024:

December 2024: https://youtu.be/f8gy5dZQX3M
November 2024: https://youtu.be/2AUEC9qD69U
October 2024: https://youtu.be/riLSFwyHed4
September 2024: https://youtu.be/72mXDi5sUeU
August 2024: https://youtu.be/Sp4ZHHzsAGc
July 2024: https://youtu.be/GWVLIyx5kMM
June 2024: https://youtu.be/asYHnyxSXZc
May 2024: https://youtu.be/YcUq1eRvUDA
April 2024: https://youtu.be/2WlUiN3crBQ
March 2024: https://youtu.be/2yy4OxpBybE
February 2024: https://youtu.be/8-DOBssq2So
January 2024: https://youtu.be/2SJWl-c4LOQ

More on the 678th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Commonplace Playlist — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at https://disquiet.com/0678/

Year's end,
all corners
of this floating world, swept.

The final poem of the year is by the greatest haiku master of all.

Haiku by Matsuo Bashō (translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto): https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/basho

To find out more and participate, visit https://www.naviarrecords.com/haiku-music-challenge/

visuals (YouTube)

halF annuaL [disquiet0678] [naviarhaiku573]

More on the 678th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Commonplace Playlist — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at https://disquiet.com/0678/

Disquiet Junto | Commonplace Playlist - disquiet0678

More on the 678th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Commonplace Playlist — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at https://disquiet.com/0678/

My review consists of 12 parts, one for each month:
01 Track from Jamuary, named split in two halves 
02 Field recording from the local carnival.
03 Track Karbid / Schpokau, inspired by a documentary about a factory in the GDR.
04 Disquiet 0643
05 Field recording from a mountain village.
06 Disquiet 0651
07 Field recording form another mountain village.
08 Disquiet 0658
09 Disquiet 0661
10 Field recording from the seaside.
11 Track Something Slow For November
12 Disquiet 0677

Disquiet0678 - Rückblick

5 seconds from each month in 2024. mostly taken from unedited tascam recordings; april and june are field recordings, all others are mostly jams with my smaller eurorack palette case

--

More on the 678th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Commonplace Playlist — The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at https://disquiet.com/0678/

disquiet0678 - 2024 (60sec)

Audio Journal 2024, "Composing In the Gutter"

Jan: One for Nellie / Perfect Game (Moonlight Version)
Feb: Double Crossed
Mar: What Did I Just Witness
Apr: Michael Anderson / Freddy Anderson / Nancy Anderson
May: Rocky's Tune
Jun: Candles / Tokyo Wasn't Built In a Day / In a Dark Elevator
Jul: Tenner / Very Much Obliged / Switchblade
Aug: Don't Pull Back
Sep: The Cold Winds of Nothingness
Oct: O Canada
Nov: The Stompout (Sig Sounds stem)
Dec: Christmas In the Gutter (Demo)

Composing In the Gutter [disquiet0678]

All music is available for licensing. Inquiries: AskSunHammer@gmail.com See also @jaybodley

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.

Composing In the Gutter [disquiet0678]

Sun Hammer

Related tracks