fascinating listen and very interesting reading as allways.

In his excellent book The New Analog, Damon Krukowski suggests that listening to a quadraphonic recording is a simulacrum of the geocentric model proposed by Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy in 150 (CE). Ptolemaic cosmology assumed that the Earth was a stationary object situated at the center of the universe, and that other heavenly bodies traveled uniformly in a perfectly circular motion around it.

A different stereophonic geometry can be observed in “gandy dancers,” a nickname given to African American railroad workers in the 1920’s. Their job was to maintain and repair miles of railways in the segregated US south: replacing rotted cross-ties, refilling ballast, locking pieces of track into place, and straightening and leveling the lines to ensure safe train passage. The workers were known for their synchronized, graceful ballet that required strength and agility. 

An important aspect of railway work was the transport and installation of heavy steel rails lining both sides of the track, a process called “dogging” in which a lead workman served as the “caller” or “call man.” The caller would sing a four-beat song to mark time, and the rest of the crew would follow in rhythm, working shoulder-to-shoulder in pairs. As they tamped the ballast under ties raised with square-ended picks, the workers engaged in call-and-response to ensure that all tasks were executed safely and correctly. 

For this week’s project, Suss Müsik took inspiration from a 1939 field recording* of Zora Neale Hurston singing a traditional railroad “spiking” tune. A pair of percussion “lines” represent two sides of railroad track, each treated with glitched stereo delay in opposite left-right channels. A synthesized melody accompanies the lyric, which was passed down from a Jacksonville caller named Max Ford. The hammers heard in the original were intended to replicate the sound of spikes being driven into cross-ties, and they’re faithfully included here with bidirectional panning.

The piece is titled Gandy Dancing and is presented in honor of those who risked physical safety to produce not only infrastructure, but also a rich cultural legacy. May we celebrate their voices heard softly in the thick southern humidity, the kudzu creeping slowly onto the railway edges. 

Learn more about gandy dancers from this fascinating Folkstreams documentary: https://www.folkstreams.net/films/gandy-dancers.
More on this 549th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Sidelines (The Assignment: Get intentional with stereo) — at: https://disquiet.com/0549/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0549-sidelines/

*Citation: Kennedy, Stetson, Herbert Halpert, Zora Neale Hurston, Herbert Halpert, and Zora Neale Hurston. Dat Old Black Gal. Jacksonville, Florida, 1939. Audio. https://www.loc.gov/item/flwpa000005/.

Gandy Dancing [Disquiet0549]

Statum

a track by Marco Lucchi reworked by Ivan Black

maggio 2023

Ivan Black & Marco Lucchi - ὁ γὰρ καιρὸς ἐγγύς

white noise

The 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.

Process notes - 

6-sided die rolls were 5, 2, 5, 2, 5, 1. These numbers helped determine the amounts of echo, warp flux, delay, echo offset, EQ freq, limiter ceiling & reverb for each track with 5/6 being highest and 1/6 being lowest. These numbers also determined frequency of occurrence in the track as a whole. These actions were all performed after the audio had been edited and brought into Ableton Live.

I used the following for the original recordings - three takes, one of backyard ambience, one adding xylophone and one primarily using my voice.

iPad 9th Gen
1 mic
xylophone
house alarm
backyard sounds - birds, wind
voice
dice 

AUM settings - 
Midi channel 1
mLFO 

Mic to audio channel 2
Audio Thing Crusher
Audio Thing Mantis
Audio Thing Wires

Mic to audio channel 3
DyStorT by Anthony Di Furia
Bleass Delay
Moloch Vox One Pitch Shifter by Anthony Di Furia

Bus of both mic channels
Audio Thing Bubbles

----

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

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

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

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 612th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Drum Vector (The Assignment: Walk the listener through variations on the same percussive instrument), at: https://disquiet.com/0612/

Thanks to Mahlen Morris for having proposed this project.

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-0612-drum-vector/

more halF unusuaL

halF vectoR [disquiet0612]

Wyżyny Absurdu

JAMUARY 24 - Day 8

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]

Yamaha is in the snow

The cormorant in the forest;
The cherry blossoms
Along the evening path.

haiku by Tan Taigi

picture by Redd F

strofe ardesia - naviarhaiku539

Post-classical ambient minimalism for crepuscular airports.

Gandy Dancing [Disquiet0549]

Suss Müsik

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Daniel Diaz

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