disquiet contributions

The Assignment: Collaborate posthumously with the late Jeffrey (Nofi) Melton.

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto Project 0066: Communing with Nofi

For the Disquiet Junto project:

http://disquiet.com/2012/12/13/disquiet0050-morsebeat/

"This week’s project explores invokes Morse Code for its rhythmic content. The instructions are as follows: Select a word or phrase. Encode that word or phrase by the Morse method. Record a rhythmic foundation in which the dash is represented by a long beat and the dot by a brief one. Use that rhythmic foundation as a loop for the length of your track, at the speed you desire — speed can vary over the length of the recording. Record accompanying drone/melodic material that takes the underlying rhythm as its compositional foundation."

Translated the basic phrase "never again" into morse code. Then assigned (essentially arbitrary, for the sake of rhythm) time values to the characters {dot = 1 beat, dash = 2 beats, space-inside-character = 1 beat, space-between characters = 2 beats}, used simple MIDI to "draw" the rhythm.

Then a brassy softsynth with resonance set to match was put on top. Several processed/treated low-register instruments floating throughout.

Used Logic Pro and Audacity.


never again [disquiet0050-morsebeat]

Downloaded the three original tracks and converted into wav (with Audacity).  Used Ableton Live to create six core sounds/loops (two from each original piece) and treated/processed them for pitch, texture, etc. Then basically played the resulting Live set (using two Korg nanoKontrollers) with the available sounds.

Some minor edits done afterwards (small volume adjustments throughout, removed a few bars to fit under 5 minutes, put a limiter at the end before rendering), but this is basically the Live set, as "played".

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This Disquiet Junto project was done as a celebration of the efforts of the Bump Foot netlabel, and to support its employment of licenses that allow for derivative works. These Junto netlabel remix projects are intended to promote reworking as itself a means of music distribution. This track is comprised of three pieces of music, all originally released on Bump Foot: "Bongo" off the Aguas Tonicas album titled Los Desposeídos, "Broken Robots" off the Gridline album titled Red Music, and "The Cat in the Ocean" off the Pics Frunk album titled Low Voltage. More on the Bump Foot netlabel, and the original versions of these tracks, at www.bumpfoot.net/. ;

More on this 52nd Disquiet Junto project at:

disquiet.com/2012/12/27/disquiet0052-bumpcc/ ;

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: Groups – Disquiet-junto

The boatman's dream [disquiet0052-bumpcc]

Recorded about 20 seconds of ice tumbling around in a 12oz pint glass using an iPhone.

Used Ableton Live to slice out various segments, treated and processed those to end up with a total of six distinct 'voices'.  Played the resulting set in Live with Korg nano-Kontrollers.

Used Audacity to process the rendered result and convert to FLAC for upload.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0053: Ice for 2013

Happy new year! This week’s project is as follows:

Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single sentence as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series on the first Thursday of 2012. Revisiting it a year later provides a fitting way to begin the new year. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it’s helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a weekly habit. It’s beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

Deadline: Monday, January 7, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.

More on this 53rd Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/03/disquiet0053-ice2013/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

the ice factory [disquiet0053-ice2013]

Downloaded the two source pieces, loaded them into Audacity and sliced out a few notes or note-runs, essentially at random. (Beautiful pieces, felt a bit unnatural to splice them like this).

Out of this pool chose nine, five from 'Do', four from 'Re'. Loaded these into Ableton Live. So as not to offend Re, chose four additional (very small) snippets from that to build the background noises. Seemed fair: 'Re' loops, 'Do' doesn't. Transposed and/or added effects as needed, and assigned triggers to pads on a Korg nanocontroller.

Allowed myself a bit to find out which-went-with-whatsit, hit record and improvised for a little over four minutes.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0055: Two Screws

This week’s project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album ‘Screws’ by Nils Frahm.

Frahm, who’s based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs. He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received.

For this project you will take two of the source tracks — “Do” and “Re” — and create a new track from them, in the process creating a work for two pianos.

Source Audio: You can download the files as sets of MP3 or AIF audio:

http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046NilsFrahmScrewsmp3.zip
http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046NilsFrahmScrewsaif.zip

Or download the individual file directly from their links here:

https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes/sets/nils-frahm-screws

You can only use those two Frahm tracks as audio source material for your track, and you cannot add anything other sounds, but you can transform the two Frahm tracks as you please. In the end, though, the sound of a piano should be evident.

More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Frahm project at:
http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/


splice nine [disquiet0055-twoscrews]

A somewhat disturbed woodpecker decides that it can control the flow of time itself. It takes a little over two and a half minutes, but it does eventually manage to summon the original once-per-second tick sample.
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Found a battery-powered mantle clock in the house that had a discernable tick. I have no contact/piezo mics handy, so put the clock on a stool and recorded with an SM57 running through an RP355 guitar pedal with all the effects/amps turned off (easiest way to sample the tick).

Loaded into Audacity. Did one stage of minimal noise filtering to get rid of some hiss. Then generated eight basic variants of the initial tick. From there on it's Ableton Live.
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Disquiet Junto Project 0056: Matter of Time

This week’s project requires you to make a field recording to serve as the source audio. These are the steps:

Step 1: Locate a clock that has an audible, even if very quiet, tick to its second hand. A watch or other timepiece is also appropriate to the task.

Step 2: Record the sound of the clock for at least 30 seconds, and do so in a manner captures the sound in the greatest detail. A contact mic is highly recommended.

Step 3: Adjust and otherwise filter the recording to reveal the various noises that make up its tick. The goal is to get at the nuance of its internal mechanism.

Step 4: Create an original piece of music employing only layered loops of that sound. These layered loops can individually be transformed in any manner you choose, but at least one unaltered version of the original recording should be included in your piece.

Deadline: Monday, January 28, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes long.

More on this 56th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/01/24/disquiet0056-matteroftime/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/




woodpecker summons time [disquiet0056-matteroftime]

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

I took 3 minutes between 54:23 and 57:23, a section with a strict rhythm and a crawling synth part.  My goal was to play off the strict rhythm.

My loops included a layering of the "plane" sounds and the "carfadeout" sound I created for Disquiet 64.  They were layered to go off-rhythm and out of phase.  

Also included are a couple of samples from my track "You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - which is a piece of music I made last year that I thought turned out rather well, the title of which is kind of a call to arms for me to get on with things - making sounds, art, or whatever, and to not worry about all the other noise of life.

"You've Got Less Time Than You Think" - https://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/youve-got-less-time-than-you

"Rochester Ridge (disquiet0064-halflive)" - http://soundcloud.com/markrushtoncom/rochester-ridge-disquiet0064

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Noise Of Life (disquiet0066-nofi)

This is a special project. Very nice Marc.
I turned off the lights and lit a candle to listen to Jeffrey's track. It was a pleasure getting lost in his sound.

This track was recorded in Ableton Live and mastered with iZotope's Ozone 5.
I used a bass guitar and ran it through Komplete's Guitar Rig 5. The patch is called Christal-MC and it provided the sweeping echo chorus pad sound off of the bass notes.

Thank you for listening.

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwa…amp;pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Groups – Disquiet-junto





much too young to... [disquiet0066_nonofi]

Very special project this week - very fine idea, Marc - happy to be part of it.
I fumbled around with the source for a while, found a part I liked, plus a few others I liked after bending them a bit - Paul Stretch shortened the track - I also used the very beginning as a layer...Time too play along, hmm tried a bunch of different things out: AM radio, a feedback box, Granulator in Ableton, E-Bow on guitar etc. etc. nothing worked for me....finally my old Strat through Abletons amp rack with plenty of dissonant noises...Couldn't really think of a title, so left it without 
This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed
away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton
live recording.
More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/
More of Melton/Nofi’s music at: http://www.nofi.org/
Read Melton’s obituary here:http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/


“disquiet0066-nonofi”

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:

http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Transmissions (disquiet0066-nonofi)

Went to random.org to get two random numbers: Got 72 and 227.  I interpreted this as "start 72 mins in, go for 227 seconds" and excerpted that in Audacity.

Loaded this into Ableton, treated the original excerpt slightly, and just played Strat with a couple of Ableton effects. Tried to play not so much 'with' the piece, as 'under' it.

RIP.
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Disquiet Junto Project 0066: Communing with Nofi

This week’s project is a tribute to the late Jeffrey Melton, the talented musician, best known on SoundCloud and Twitter as @nofi. Melton passed away a few days ago, on March 30, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he lived with his wife and seven-year-old son. He was 42. Melton had been involved with the Disquiet Junto since the very first Junto project, back in January 2012, and he early on volunteered to create a Twitter list of the handles of participating Junto members.

The theme of this project, the 66th in the weekly Disquiet Junto series, is “posthumous collaboration”: communing through music.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Download the following live session of Jeffrey Melton performing. It was recorded in June of last year. Warning: it’s fairly sizable, at over 350 MBs:

http://nofi.org/media/2012-06-15-Unwind-live-session.mp3

Step 2: The track is quite long, so select a segment of between 2 and 5 minutes. The best way to go about this might be to do it at random (just put the needle down, as it were), but of course feel free to listen at length and select a favorite section.

Step 3: Once you have your extracted segment, set the opening of the track to fade in.

Step 4: Set the ending of the track to cut out suddenly.

Step 5: Listen to it several times, to get to know it.

Step 6: Record yourself performing live along with the segment you have selected. Any instrumentation is fine. Just no voice. Be sure to play alone for approximately 10 seconds after Melton’s performance cuts off.

Deadline: Monday, April 8, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be the length determined in steps 2 and 6 above.

This track is a posthumous collaboration with Jeffrey Melton, aka Nofi, who passed away on March 30, 2013. It was recorded live in April 2013 atop a June 2012 Melton live recording.

More on this 66th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/04/04/disquiet0066-nonofi/

More of Melton/Nofi’s music at:
http://www.nofi.org/

Read Melton’s obituary here:
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/fortwayne/obituary.aspx?page=lifestory&pid=163988588

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

on the head of a pin [disquiet0066-nonofi]

the bell mechanical