My contribution to Disquiet Junto Project 0655: Soothing Sounds II.

The Assignment: Make music for babies.

I made something to fall asleep to.

More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/

disquiet0655 lullababy

This week's Disquiet Junto introduced me to the work of Raymond Scott, beginning with his 3-volume "Soothing Sounds for Baby" and back and forth in time between The Quintette and Looney Tunes and Manhattan Research. I've got a lot of catching up on history to do.

I wanted to do something that was lovely and curious, a dark fairy tale, a sort of lullaby that evoked the clockwork precision of the songs on the Soothing Sounds records. I learned that Scott was the inventor of the sequencer, so I decided to use a hardware sequencer and analog circuits to create an homage. I tried to reflect the ostinato sequences, the wandering key changes, the intricately overlapping patterns, and the stiff improvisation that I heard in Scott's work.

All of the sounds came from a Roland JU-06A, the boutique reissue of the venerable Juno-60 and Juno-160. I also used that unit's 12-step sequencer to create each iteration of the ostinato pattern (through 7 key changes.)

I swear I tried not to use reverb. I swear I swear.

"Baby's First Harmonic Minor" is best enjoyed curled up under a soft blanket, nightlight aglow, with the hall light on and the bedroom door left open just a little bit. 

Recorded at NOSIGNAL Multimedia Lab in The Shambles. Chicago, USA.

More about this week's Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/0655

Disquiet Junto

Baby's First Harmonic Minor (disquiet0655)

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0655: Soothing Sounds II 

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0655 discussion thread on Lines:

Congratulations to all the recent parents out there. Here's to magical, hopeful, and loving years ahead together. And to the newly born – may your life unfold and blossom, interlaced with all the beautiful wonders this planet has to offer. 

The main track was created on a modular synthesizer using Norns/Grid with Meadowphysics to sequence Just Friends via Crow. I liked the accordian-like tones it generated. 4ms EnvVCA was used for modulation. Calsynth uBurst (Clouds) was used for reverb effects. An additional synth track using Fors Tela, along with field recordings, were added in Abelton Live 11. Other effects, Phonolyth Cascade and Valhalla Delay plugins, were also added.

More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/ 1
The image associated with this project is from an early patent for a pacifier.

Blossom [disquiet0655]

sound art for disquiet0655.

More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/

welcome to the world (disquiet0655)

More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/

Early Memory By Starlight (disquiet0655)

For more on this disquiet junto prompt, see https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0655-soothing-sounds-ii/67983

Congrats to the new parents in the Junto!

Technical stuff:
Made with SuperCollider and processed in Audacity. The background paddy stuff is a chorused morphing wavetable synth and the foreground is a perc-enveloped FM synth, both playing notes from the same chord throughout.

dream, kiddo (disquiet0655)

Disquiet Junto Project 0655: Soothing Sounds II
The Assignment: Make music for babies.

Step 1: Back in the early 1960s, Raymond Scott released a set of music for infants, titled Soothing Sounds for Baby. We’re going to produce music along those lines. Feel free to revisit Scott’s great collection. (Not one but two Junto participants give birth this month — one did a week-ish ago, and one is due to very soon. We’re doing this project in their honor and with their approval. Perhaps there are other brand new parents in our digital midst, as well. We did a project just like this one way back when we hit the 250th consecutive week 2, in October 2016.)

Step 2: Compose a piece of music intended for a newborn child, something peaceful as they first experience the world outside the womb.

I have a 2 year old great-grandson, the Tommaso to whom I dedicated the piece. The piece begins with a sample that forms the basis for the entire track. It is the sound of the sea which, like other sounds very similar to white/pink noise, rain, water etc... is used to calm him and help him fall asleep. Very common practice for all newborns/children.

This type of repetitive mechanical dance is grafted onto this element, with sounds reminiscent of music boxes.

Track instruments/tools: Euclidean sequencer, percussive and (prepared) piano sounds, cello pizzicato...the usual "palafernalia".

 Picture of Tommaso by Maura Marongiu

PS.: above all, so as not to be hypocritical and live only on aesthetics and superstructure, let's remember the daily massacres in many parts of the planet which, apparently, are now the distinctive sign of our civilization, so advanced and fake.

Tommaso's Lullaby [disquiet0655]

Welcome to the world. May you find peace and happiness.
--
More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/

bienvenue (disquiet0655)

The Assignment: Make music for babies.

More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/

Disquiet Junto Project 0655: Soothing Sounds II

This track was inspired by this week's Disquiet Junto project: Composing a track for a newborn child.
I thought of the mother's heartbeat as a constant companion, and of pleasant sounds from the outside world being somehow transformed on their way to the baby's ears.

More on the 655th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Soothing Sounds II — The Assignment: Make music for babies — at https://disquiet.com/0655/

It Is Much Better Than You Think (Disquiet0655)

Somewhere on the California Central Coast

Artist and non-musician making sound art with found objects.

Electronic music ranging from ambient to experimental.

I create original experimental, postpunk, and experiential music from my studio in Chicago. The Hard Times described my work as "creepy, haunted, but also a little bit uplifting." Prolific.

Electronic music, field recordings and weird electroacoustic sounds.

RabMusicLab produces instrumental music of various genres from classical to electronic without shying away from excursions into pop or experimental music. The tracks are published for the pleasure, entertainment and inspiration of every listener.

RabMusicLab loves to participate in the Disquiet Junto Projects of https://soundcloud.com/disquiet to fuel his creativity . All tracks that have "disquiet" in the title were created as response to these projects. Further informations can be found in the respective track-information,

All images used are photographs by RabMusicLab, unless otherwise indicated in the track-informations.

New tracks tagged #disquiet0655