My Disquiet Junto projects...

The Disquiet Junto is a collaborative music-making space in which restraints are used as a springboard for creativity. It is produced in association with Disquiet.com.

Each Thursday a new Junto project is announced. Participants are expected to upload their completed tracks to the group by the following Monday at 11:59pm (that's 11:59pm wherever they are).

The "FAQ" at the link below has additional information about the Disquiet Junto group: how to participate, what the rules are and more. And no, you don't need to participate every week.

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

disquiet junto tracks

In 2018, my wife Cat costume designed the Amazon series Homecoming in Los Angeles, so we decamped Brooklyn for a 1930s cottage aerie perched halfway up Laurel Canyon for most of the year. I bought a knock-around Seagull Entourage Rustic Concert Hall at All-In-One Guitars (https://www.allinoneguitars.com), at the time in perfect-scaled storefront in Koreatown, and wrote a couple dozen demos in our Gould Avenue house. My "Gentleman of the Canyon" adventure took me to a songwriter time zero, stripped down and raw, to that place where I just sat and thought and wrote and strummed. And listened. And learned. 

This Canyon Drive video:
https://youtu.be/9M2kgtzeT6M

These tracks were recorded with the intention of evolution. But for now, they float the aether in their simplest, stripped state, kicking up some glorious west coast dust for me. Who knows where we'll meet again. Hopefully, in The Canyon.

Stripped State: Laurel Canyon

improvised guitar drones, loops and melody lines over beats. 

guitar / amp:
jolie (gibson es-335 dot reissue, peekamoose custom electronics)
vox ac4c1-bl tube combo

efx chain:
(ebow -->) earthquaker "warden" compressor --> ehx pog2 --> ehx freeze --> ibanez ts-808 tube screamer --> small sound/big sound mini overdrive --> tc electronic flashback delay+looper --> strymon blue-sky reverberator --> line6 pod xt phaser modeler

software / hardware:
sony acid, motu 828mk2, XP

title is reference to jack kerouac's "list of essentials" in his <i>belief & technique for modern prose</i>:
17. write in recollection and amazement for yourself

bandcamp

prologue: in recollection and amazement

An homage in drone to Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "Wind, Sand and Stars."

“The first stars tremble as if shimmering in green water. Hours must pass before their glimmer hardens into the frozen glitter of diamonds...”

The Shimmer of Stars in Green Water

My latest guitar is named Fabien, after the pilot in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's "Night Flight." It has quickly become my fav instrument. I read him the passage below from the book last night and woke up to this track in my DAW. Seems Fabien dreamed me reading to him in French. 

A Dick Dale-esque fast-picked drone over a sample of "the world's largest wind tunnel" simulates propellers and everything's capped off with some more samples of 1980s weather satellite telemetry. All samples are from a Bainbridge sound effects disc circa 1989. The beats are garage band.

"Night Flight" tells the story of a mail pilot lost over Patagonia and the ways tragedy and the relentless drone of modern life intersect and collide on the ground. In this track, one of my favorite novels meets my favorite guitar.

Fabien is a Peekamoose Custom M2 (http://peekamoose.com). He's pictured being held by his luthier, Paul Schwartz, in the shop where he was forged.

-------------------------------------------------
NARRATION

"Fabien, quel est votre position?"
Fabien, what's your location?
….

Sans avoir à lutter, il serrait les mains sur les commandes. Quelque chose se préparait qu'il ne comprenait pas. Il bandait ses muscles, telle une bête qui va sauter, mais il ne voyait rien qui ne fût calme. Oui, calme, mais chargé d'un étrange pouvoir. Puis tout s'est aiguisé. Ces arêtes, ces pics, tout devenait aigu : on les sentait pénétrer, comme des étraves, le vent dur. Et puis il lui sembla qu'elles viraient et dérivaient autour de lui, à la façon de navires géants qui s'installent pour le combat. Et puis il y eut, mêlée à l'air, une poussière : elle montait, flottant doucement, comme un voile, le long des neiges. Alors, pour chercher une issue en cas de retraite nécessaire, il se retourna et trembla : toute la Cordillère, en arrière, semblait fermenter.

"Je suis perdu."

Instinctively he tightened his grasp on the controls. Something he did not understand was on its way and he tautened his muscles, like a beast about to spring. Yet, as far as the eye could see, all was at peace. Peaceful, yes, but tense with dark potency. Suddenly all grew sharp; peaks and ridges seemed keen-edged prows cutting athwart heavy head wind. Veering around him, they deployed like dreadnoughts taking their positions in a battle-line. Dusk began to mingle with the air, rising and hovering, a veil above the snow. Looking back to see if retreat might still be feasible, he shuddered; all the Cordillera behind him was in seething ferment.

"I'm lost."

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More on this 181st Disquiet Junto project (“Imagine your favorite instrument is dreaming while it sleeps — what does it sound like?”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/06/18/disquiet0181-instrumentaldream/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/



night flight: le rêve de fabien [disquiet0181-instrumentaldream]

alan watts reflected in a disco ball

LYRICS

there’s a rip in the galaxy
sounds like wind through a door
it’s headed for us full speed ahead
we’ve got nothing to lose anymore

so no more running from the past
running from the dark
searching through the void
chasing love

let’s fly this town tonight
dance away from these city lights
take our cues from distant satellites
let’s fly this town

over the horizon lies 
a ring of endless light
made of the dreams we carried
through our coldest nights

there’s no more falling out of time
falling for the cons
calling out in vain
waiting on love

let’s fly this town tonight
dance away from these city lights
take our cues from distant satellites
let’s fly this town

fly this town

Elena lived on Avenue X, 
next to a trestle
all her life.

She dreamed of distant places
and of jumping random trains
a thousand times.

She craved a sky that let her know she was home.
An endless sky that left the stars alone
to shine.
Beyond her life,
that sky showed her some way home.

Counting the trains 
to and from Coney Island
every night,

searching in vain
for salvation, in a city
full of lies.

[ch.]

I’m still here, amidst the fallout of our life.
I’m still here, living with her dreams.

She found a sky that let her know she was home.
An endless sky that left the stars alone
to shine.
Beyond her life,
that sky showed her some way home.

Elena's Stars

PROCESS

Single notes in the key of C, staggered and stacked to move through different chords. "Attack" was eliminated using a combination of my trusted E-bow fed through an EHX POG2 with its attack setting jacked all the way up for max swell. Tape Delay, Phaser, Reverb added for space travel (or ocean travel as the case may be here).

RIG

Fabien (Peekamoose Custom Guitars M2), EHX POG2, Small Sound / Big Sound Sparkle Motion, tc electronic flashback delay, EQD Grand Orbiter, EQD Afterneath, Strymon blueSky, Line6 POD-XT (Vox AC-30 emulation), RECORDING DAW: Sony Acid 7.0 (Win 8.1), MASTERING DAW: Harrison Mixbus 2.5 (Mac OS 10.7.5)


PROJECT

Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source.

Step 1: Choose an instrument that can create extended tones.

Step 2: Record a short loop of a single held tone on that instrument. Use a volume pedal or other tool to eliminate the attack at the start of the tone.

Step 3: Create many more such loops, all with the same instrument, and layer them atop the original loop.

Step 4: Record a document of these layered loops lasting approximately 1 minute.

Step 5: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

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More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

c swells [disquiet0189-tonelayer]

PROCESS
20 bars of https://soundcloud.com/rupertlally "Sediment Layers"
https://soundcloud.com/rupertlally/sediment-layers-disquiet0189-tonelayer?in=disquiet/sets/disquiet0189-tonelayer

8 bars of https://soundcloud.com/ahornberg "Digital Frippertronics"
https://soundcloud.com/ahornberg/digital-frippertronics?in=disquiet/sets/disquiet0189-tonelayer

Loads of flying, fluttery harmonics and shifting undertones as these loops cycled together. Rupert Lally's track loop is 30% right and ahornberg's is 30% left in the mix and they're both blended (smeared?) together by a slight (27% wet) band-pass (1500Hz) resonance filter and a bit of room reverb. They're both in related keys (G and D, it seemed) so their ensuing conversation took some pretty turns. Put my guitar down this week in favor of Propellerhead's Figure app for iPad (the latest update's "arpeggiator" has become a tiny addiction). I programmed 8 bar synth and bass loops in the key of G at 96bpm and played the percussion pad live as the track streamed along with the sources on my Acid timeline. Figure ran via Audiobus into Flux:FX's "Multi-Verb" preset located in the app's stock Ambient bank.

RIG
Propellerhead Figure: "Sonny" drum kit (4/4 kick, 6/4 snareclap, 12/4 hats, 10/4 toms), "Bassguitar" bass (5/4 rhythm, 7 scale steps), "Super Poly" synth (5/4 rhythm, 7 scale steps)
Noiise Flux:FX for iPad (ver 1.01): Ambience "Multi-Verb" preset
Audiobus for iPad (2.1.17), Sony Acid 7.0, Win 8.1

PROJECT
More on this 190th Disquiet Junto project (“Set two out-of-sync loops atop each other, and then add sonic glue”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/08/20/disquiet0190-missedconnections/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

sedimentronic figures [disquiet0190-missedconnections]

ambient.drone.guitar

CHAIN
Pigtronix Infinity Looper --> Small Sound / Big Sound Sparkle Motion --> SS/BS Mini F*ck --> Electro-Faustus EF107 Regurgitator (send/receive: tc electronic flashback --> Earthquaker Grand Orbiter) --> electro-harmonix SuperEgo (send/receive: EQD Arpanoid --> Diamond Tremolo) -->  EQD Afterneath --> Strymon blueSky --> Line6 Fender Blackface emulator

chasing flight

PROCESS
Elementary school for me was in the early 1980s. So, drawing a straight line between the challenge and my experience, I fired up my old-friend Casio CZ-1000, programmed a quasi new wave dance groove with Acid loops and did a sight read of the notes in the photo. The CZ was set to a square wave with a slight detune and vibrato. Luckily, it goes 6-note polyphonic so it handled the 3-note chords fine. The 11-measure sequence in the photo is repeated as 8 measure sequences break it up into a couple verses, choruses and a bridge. The 11 vs 8 tension resulted in no two verses or choruses having the same melody line, which served to amplify the fun. Very meditative, too, to allow whole notes to fill spaces.

I had designs on recording the bass on the Casio, too, using the image's staff as a bass clef. This created more mess than movement, though, so I left the photo to represent a treble clef staff only and built the piece around a right hand melody.

122 BPM
Key: C

PROJECT
Sight-read the whiteboard notation from a children’s music class.

Step 1: Read the music notation in the following image (note that the photograph was taken at a music class for elementary and preschool students).

The image is here:
http://goo.gl/2C1mqT

Step 2: Record a piece of music based on that notation.

Step 3: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

Step 4: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This assignment was made in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, October 1, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, October 5, 2015.

Length: The length of your finished work should be roughly one minute, though longer is certainly fine.

META
More on this 196th Disquiet Junto project (“Sight-read the whiteboard notation from a children’s music class”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/10/01/disquiet0196-wholelottawhole/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

The Young Unicorns [disquiet0196-wholelottawhole]

It’s been so long 
since I heard the sun 
call my name. 
It’s been so long 
since I had the power to 
light my way. 

Dreams left me high 
and lovely, 
(but) in darkness 
with life undone. 

It’s been so long 
since I heard the sun. 

It’s been so long 
since I became 
a forgotten one. 
It’s been so long 
since I started spinning 
into oblivion. 

You can still be a refugee 
in a place you can’t escape, 
running ahead as lights turn red, 
trying to duck fate. 

It’s been so long 
since I had faith 
in future plans. 
It’s been so long 
since I had faith 
in a promised land. 

Dreams left me high 
and lovely, 
(but) in darkness 
with life undone. 

It’s been so long 
since I heard the sun.

Since I Heard The Sun

The records you make don't freeze so much as liquify time. As with Michel, 1983 was a pivotal musical year for me, too, so this week's challenge fired a wonderful cascade of memories.

Playing with the tonal and harmonics filters in Paulstretch, I stretched each of the three 32-year old samples to 32x their original length (and M1 also to 64x)a few times. Brought them into Sony Acid and started layering at random. Touches of reverb, compression, chorus and resonance found a sweet spot of lushness - where I was at ease with bygone days. The piece runs at 137.1 BPM (which is what M1 beatmapped to), so a sync'ed 8th note amplitude modulation was added to the M2 sample to create a ping-pong glitch beat at that tempo.

---------------------------

More on this 207th weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Rework source audio from Michel Banabila’s 1983 album, Marilli”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/12/17/disquiet0207-remixingmarilli/

The audio was sourced from the 1983 album Marilli by the album’s composer, Michel Banabila. This project marks the release of the 2015 album Marilli Remixed:
https://banabila.bandcamp.com/album/marilli-remixed-free-download

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

Parallel Memories [disquiet0207-remixingmarilli]

"Nothing means anything."
- Kurt Vonnegut

LYRICS
There’s no right and wrong or light and dark
There are only in-betweens
When this world gives you no end
And you know nothing but your means

Nothing means anything

I crossed state lines and changed my name
Twenty years down that way
Still lost in song; still don’t belong
Nothing’s changed nothing’s changed

Nothing means anything

It’s how you end, 
not where you start
Life is easy – 
it’s living that’s hard

Dispossession, constant rejection
A world designed to keep you low
So the smartest thing you can ever do
Is let go

Nothing means anything

Nothing / Anything

Dedicated to the ongoing effort to free Bassel Khartabil and to the memory of Berta Cáceres.

LYRICS

distant cries
of cracked-down souls
trapped underground
church bells at dawn
ringing for ones
silenced by crowds 

[ch.]
high lonesome faraway sounds
filtered through the air
echoing off clouds
lost frequencies explain
the essence that remains
high lonesome faraway sounds

could be something coming 
up through the earth or
falling from the sky
warning calls to stay away
no need to amplify

[ch.]

through a cone of confusion
lateral diffusion
jets descend overhead
truth blown by the wind
trains coming round the bend 
you know how these stories end

[ch.]


lonesome faraway sounds

Don't waste time on love with no return
Two sides always makes a third
In the end the sole unknown 
is the worth of words
Don't waste time on love with no return

I wanted that you found release
I wanted you lived in peace
Instead the world turned its back
On everything you believe
I wanted that you found release

An angel let you down
Tired of the work
Made a break for it, slipped town
No brakes no sound 
Left no trace no doubt
Your angel let you down

There are no permanent stars
Nothing points us back to the start
No use for home
where you (always) lose who you are
There are no permanent stars

It's not on you, It's not on me
Light’s what's blocked by what we see
Things as they are (against)
Things as they should be
It's not on you, it's not on me

040716.1534, 041416.0822

angel let down

All those years with you on the edge of a knife,
so many dark days set the sun on lost nights.
I hope the great beyond buries the reasons why,
and you spend your life emanating light.

Better a broken heart than a wasted soul.
Better to walk away than to cede control.
Better to be ripped apart
than forever fixing holes.
Better a broken heart than a wasted soul.

I saw you leave; you had no fear,
just calm and faith and courage beyond your years.
Carry on as the wind that carries your tears,
and on the other side of goodbye I’ll reappear.

broken heart > wasted soul

Out of time
This is my last call home

It’s a dream 
to fall back to
safe spaces
where you never change.

Where soft delusions
tell you you
never have to 
feel any pain.

Don’t lose yourself
in distant seclusion.
Keepers of the truth 
never walk alone.
Out of time,
I’m done with confusion.
This is my
last call home. 

It’s a dream
to find easy
answers on either
end of a gun.

Never forget what
made you you
and how we lived
in defense of love.

Last Call Home

Written early July 2016 on the way home from a final visit to my wife's family farm in Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, outside Gettysburg. RIP, Aunt Suzanne… 

This track also grieves not for an America that was - but for an America that could have been.

LYRICS
A few hours west of the City line
About 200 miles as the crow flies
Your family farm up on that hill
A place that made time stand still

Where Saturday nights on the outskirts of town
and ways of life were hand-me-downs
Every sunrise let you know just where you stand

There was love in this land
But time made other plans
In time you’ll understand
How much love was in this land

Now we’re taking one last drive tonight
To say one long last goodbye
To the land that held your family name
Thru an America getting auctioned away

By a world designed with no stop just go
That knows you never miss what you never know
That’s countin’ on you to forget where you stand

And all the love in this land

When the radio starts playing favorite songs
You can’t help (but) wonder, 'where did we go wrong?'

The moms and dads pass’d away
The kids flew away on the interstate
The farm is now in other hands
It’s up to you to still give a damn

Love In This Land (2016a)

The task to create a friendly "Hi" to the Juno probe based on the Morse Code for "Hi" (…. ..) became the perfect excuse to duet with my Teenage Engineering PO-16. I've owned it for a while and though I am fascinated by it and screw around with it at times, it hadn't yet found its way into the studio. Part of that is because it's one of those pieces of equipment I don't fully understand and really can't do much with, but its mystery deepens my affection. Kind of like astrophysics. 

In any case, the PO-16 generated all the Morse Code beeping in various notes around the key of D. The rest of the piece fell into place around the syncopated and stacked tones. Diving into my effect library, I found a sample of a countdown and liftoff of a Saturn I rocket, and the track crescendos around that. Built basic basic drum and bass tracks to keep it moving (one of these days I have to try to loose myself from rhythms) and dropped in a few sweeping pads from the archives. Ended up a bit longer than expected but there's not much difference between 1 minute and 2.75 minutes in light years, you know?

RIG
Teenage Engineering PO-16 factory, Peekamoose Guitars Custom M2, SmallSound/BigSound Sparkle Motion, tc electronic flashback delay, Earthquaker Devices Afterneath, Strymon blueSky reverb, Line6 POD-XT, MOTU 828-mk2, DAW: Sony Acid Pro (Win 8.1), Mastering: Harrison MixBus (OSX)

PROJECT
The Assignment: Say hi to the Juno Spacecraft by embedding Morse code in an original composition.

In this project we’re going to send a friendly signal to the NASA probe, the Juno spacecraft, that just entered orbit around Jupiter. Well, we’re going to compose such signals. Sending them is a separate endeavor. We’re going to build on the “Say ‘Hi’ to Juno” endeavor, which had thousands of ham operators sending a message to Juno during its five-year voyage. The “Say ‘Hi’ to Juno” message was Morse code for “Hi” — that is, four dots followed by two dots (…. ..).

Step 1: Listen to the Morse code for “hi” (four dots followed by two dots) on repeat for a short time.

Step 2: Create an original musical composition that in one or more ways interpolates that Morse code.

--------------------------------------------
More on this 236th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Say hi to the Juno Spacecraft by embedding Morse code in an original composition” — at:
http://disquiet.com/0236/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

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

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place on a Slack (send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for inclusion) and at this URL:
http://disquiet.com/forums/

More on the Juno Spacecraft technology at:
http://spaceflight101.com/juno/spacecraft-information/

More on the “Say ‘Hi’ to Juno” ham operator project here:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1263

europa sunrise [disquiet0236]

extended remix of my contribution to the july 2016 disquiet junto's collection of tracks saying "hi" in morse code to the juno jupiter probe...

ORIGINAL PROJECT
The task to create a friendly "Hi" to the Juno probe based on the Morse Code for "Hi" (…. ..) became the perfect excuse to duet with my Teenage Engineering PO-16. I've owned it for a while and though I am fascinated by it and screw around with it at times, it hadn't yet found its way into the studio. Part of that is because it's one of those pieces of equipment I don't fully understand and really can't do much with, but its mystery deepens my affection. Kind of like astrophysics.

In any case, the PO-16 generated all the Morse Code beeping in various notes around the key of D. The rest of the piece fell into place around the syncopated and stacked tones. Diving into my effect library, I found a sample of a countdown and liftoff of a Saturn I rocket, and the track crescendos around that. Built basic basic drum and bass tracks to keep it moving (one of these days I have to try to loose myself from rhythms) and dropped in a few sweeping pads from the archives. Ended up a bit longer than expected but there's not much difference between 1 minute and 2.75 minutes in light years, you know?

RIG
Teenage Engineering PO-16 factory, Peekamoose Guitars Custom M2, SmallSound/BigSound Sparkle Motion, tc electronic flashback delay, Earthquaker Devices Afterneath, Strymon blueSky reverb, Line6 POD-XT, MOTU 828-mk2, DAW: Sony Acid Pro (Win 8.1), Mastering: Harrison MixBus (OSX)

PROJECT
The Assignment: Say hi to the Juno Spacecraft by embedding Morse code in an original composition.

In this project we’re going to send a friendly signal to the NASA probe, the Juno spacecraft, that just entered orbit around Jupiter. Well, we’re going to compose such signals. Sending them is a separate endeavor. We’re going to build on the “Say ‘Hi’ to Juno” endeavor, which had thousands of ham operators sending a message to Juno during its five-year voyage. The “Say ‘Hi’ to Juno” message was Morse code for “Hi” — that is, four dots followed by two dots (…. ..).

Step 1: Listen to the Morse code for “hi” (four dots followed by two dots) on repeat for a short time.

Step 2: Create an original musical composition that in one or more ways interpolates that Morse code.

--------------------------------------------
More on this 236th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Say hi to the Juno Spacecraft by embedding Morse code in an original composition” — at:
disquiet.com/0236/

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

Join the Disquiet Junto at:
soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

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

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place on a Slack (send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for inclusion) and at this URL:
disquiet.com/forums/

More on the Juno Spacecraft technology at:
spaceflight101.com/juno/spacecraft-information/

More on the “Say ‘Hi’ to Juno” ham operator project here:
www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/details.php?id=1263

<american>crashes</american>

europa sunrise [disquiet0236] (escaping earth remix)

a riff on simulation theory, alan watts and the meaning of existence.

:^D

LYRICS

all the dreams have been blamed 
all the sources have been named 
there’s no hiding in the shadows anymore 
all the ‘steins have been ‘stained 
all the acid has been rained 
there’s no overriding the code 

[ch] 
we’re on the other side of the end 
with no trace no chance to defend 
the true meaning of our being, friends 
on the other side of the end 

the simulation reset 
everyone’s free to forget 
all the ways we used to agree 
and the lines of least resistance 
destroyed by destroying 
all the ways water courses to the sea 

easy to miss when everything’s not right 
the signs can hide in plain sight 

[ch]

cypher e/ dreams

the other side of the end

PROCESS

My 66th(!) junto contribution was written and recorded on Monday evening 26 Sep 2016 while watching the 1st 2016 US Presidential debate (on mute, CSPAN only) with the project photograph (http://goo.gl/djQ31Y) in my field of vision on an iPad and a few glasses of Russian River Valley Pinot Noir in my bloodstream. This may be the most normie crossover americana country pop track EVER posted to the Junto, but I’ve embraced that side lately, perhaps as a contrarian move to a deep dive into the dark web and anonymity in the last year (as well as being the caretaker of a terminally ill dog).

Acoustic and electric rhythm guitars and vocals are organic. Drums, bass, Hammond B3, pedal steel, and horn parts are built from samples looped in Acid (total ~60 tracks through 11 busses). If you think there's more than one human involved in this, I've done my job.

> 3/4 waltz + rock, 148 bpm.
> there are 27 figures in the graphic and the first verse has 27 words. couldn't hold myself to that in the 2nd verse, but all's forgiven.
> mostly a back-door tribute to Tony Rice's version of A Song For Life, but not slavish in its ape.

Enjoy life, fellow Junto-ers. Embrace melody and structure every once in a while. There's magic (and sanity) in the way a fifth and a third can play with each other.

Our world is fucked from here on forward, but fuck it.

:^D

LYRICS

Sing a song for life in the morning
As the sunrise waltzes through leaves
Let all the anger and pain
And destructive refrains
Dissolve into your dreams

Maybe we’ll wake up
It's time we wake up
Maybe we’ll wake up
Wake up time

The first thing you see before you open your eyes
Is the truest reflection of you
One day the first thing we’ll know
is a sunrise so slow
And a world renewed

PROJECT

More on this 247th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Interpret as a graphic score an illustration drawn upon waking by Lark Pien” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0247/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/a-cartoon-graphic-score-disquiet-junto-project-0247/4647

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Image associated with this project is the (unintended, but used with approval) graphic score by Lark Pien.
https://goo.gl/djQ31Y

wake up time [disquiet0247]

PROJECT
Devise a short piece of music in celebration of the Galactic Tick. 
http://www.popularmechanics.com/space/deep-space/news/a22492/galactic-tick-day-september-29/
http://galactictick.com/

PROCESS
Perfect excuse to play with the brilliant iPad app 'SpaceVibe' to generate all the arpeggio orbits and low frequency hums. Layered an AniMoog and live guitar over it with a basic click beat created in Acid using samples.
In the context of physics, "coherence" happens when waves exhibit similar direction, amplitude and phase and thus can interfere (i.e. play nice) with each other.
Celebration of the galactic tick struck me as a (re)discovery of the coherence our lives have with the milky way. And here in the USA we could certainly use some coherence these days.

RIG
Synths (iPad): SpaceVibe through FluxFX via AudioBus. AniMoog.
Guitar: Jolie (Gibson ES335 DOT (1999))
Pedal Board: SmallSound/BigSound Sparkle Motion -> Lotus Pedal Snowjob -> tc electronic flashback delay (tape setting) -> Diamond Tremolo (chaotic saw/square) -> Strymon blueSky reverb -> Line6 Pod-XT (Vox AC-30 emulator)
DAW: MOTU 828mk2 -> Acid 7.0 (Win 8.1)
Master: Harrison MixBus (MacOS) 

META

More on this 248th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Celebrate the new celestial holiday in music” — at:
http://disquiet.com/0248/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/music-for-the-galactic-tick-disquiet-junto-project-0248/4744

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is borrowed from the website galactictick.com

cypher e\ dreams

universal coherence [disquiet0248]

PROCESS
Thank you so much, Marc (@disquiet) for thinking of Sterling in this project. As I told Marc in an email exchange where he told me of the dedication in this week's prompt, my thinking about how the sound waves we produce may somehow go on forever began with the Junto's week dedicated to the death of Jefferey Melton (@Nofi).

Nick Drake's 'Northern Sky' open tuning resolves to a Dsus4 chord (with the suspended G as the center note and F# up high)
D-A-D-G-D-F#

I was gifted knowledge of Drake while working at Rolling Stone as an intern in 1992, and ever since, 'Northern Sky' is the song I turn to when skies darken. Felt right to invoke it here by striking its open chord for a few minutes. (Note: Soundcloud's auto-compression revealed my perceived silences to be not so silent. Hi ho.)

Sterling passed in our home on 22 December 2016 ~6:20 EST. I trust he's suspended somewhere now between space & time in painless parallel peace. Fwiw, we had David Bowie on random shuffle and 'Absolute Beginners' came on as the process began. Perfect is a strange word in this context, but life works in curious ways sometimes to deliver solace.

All the love.

:^D

RELEVANT EXTERNAL LINKS:
My reflections on Sterling:
https://medium.com/westyreflector/sterling-at-the-gates-dcff944b76df

Alan Watts on how the universe is made of vibrations:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhHfKqLR6NI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmkwqn0mSQs

My prior piece "Riding Waves" to honor the passing of Nofi:
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/riding-waves

RIG
Guitar:
Jolie (2000 Gibson ES-335 DOT reissue, modded 100% with custom http://peekamoose.com electronics)

Pedal Board:
EQ Devices The Warden optical compressor -> Lotus Pedals SnowJob Underdrive -> tc electronic Flashback delay -> Diamond Tremolo -> EQ Devices Grand Orbiter -> EQ Devices Afterneath -> Strymon blueSky Reverb

Recording:
Line6 POD-XT (Blackface Lux emulator) -> MOTU 828mk2 firewire interface -> AcidPro 7.0 -> Harrison Consoles Mixbus (Mastering)

META
More on this 260th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Tone Fade: An exercise in when a sound ends — at:
http://disquiet.com/0260/

(This project is for Sterling.)

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0260-tone-fade/5809

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Photo associated with this project is by Michel Banabila, used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
flic.kr/p/5GB7bn

sterling fades [disquiet0260-tonefade]

Spending this week in Venice, FL, at The Herron House (http://www.modernsarasota.com/single-post/2016/09/27/Victor-Lundy). Built by architect Victor A. Lundy, FAIA (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victor_A._Lundy), in 1957 for the Herron family, the house was restored to its original grandeur by its current owners in 2008. It's a masterstroke of mid-century American imagination, and a timeless time capsule that will always feel like the future.

Most of the house is open-plan (the bedrooms and offices have doors), and there are two spectacular rooms within the envelope of the roof line that have floor-to-ceiling screens as their 4th walls separating them from the outside. The result is a house that breathes with its occupants (lizards included), creating an inside-out and outside-in soundscape that leaves you in a true suspension of time and space.

This piece was recorded inside the house during night and day rainstorms (Rooms A and C, respectively), as well as a clear morning (Room B). Most of the time, the house provides a serene silence, which I wanted to capture for the C-section, but the iPad mic is not conducive to recording nuanced calmness, so this piece captures none of the house’s tranquility. Rest assured, however, this has been a relaxing week, replete with luck to have graced its environs.

The project instructions said “don’t add any other effects or sonic material,” so here’s three rooms, with zero(0) processing, in loose arrangement as a song. Each room’s stereo tracks are two tracks recorded close in time, panned left and right.

iPad GarageBand audio recorder --> iCloud --> GarageBand 10.2.0 for OS X Sierra.

Room A: 
https://flic.kr/p/URaJhs
Rear sun room. This room is one of the two with screen-walls, and also has a massive screen skylight that allows rain inside. The tick-tocking sound (a short sample of which is looped as the Room A tone) is the rain hitting the metal arm and vinyl padding of a vintage outdoor rocking chair sitting under the screen skylight.

Room B:
https://flic.kr/p/Ub7Aye
Front sun room, secondary entertainment and dining area. Like Room A, this room also has a floor-to-ceiling screen wall, which in this room's case faces the driveway and gives vegetation obscured views of the street (see the picture attached to the track). This room has a glass skylight, however, so remains protected during bad weather (aside from whatever might pass through the screen in windier conditions). The recording was taken on a calm morning while drinking coffee at the table in the room, and the local birds were out in full force in the palm trees and plants that shield the house. 

Room C:
https://flic.kr/p/UhBb2p
Kitchen informal dining area. Floor-to-celing glass-enclosed on 3 sides. Looks out on the pool and outdoor seating area. The downspouts from the roof are tucked away on either side of the exterior of this room. As a result, during rainstorms, sitting at the table results in a stereo clattering of water rushing down from the roof to the underground drain. The glass is true to 1957 vintage and single paned, so there isn't much in the way of sound absorption. The effect lends the sensation of standing behind a waterfall in a dry cave.

Check out my Flickr for some detailed interior and exterior shots of the house. A few shots are on my Instagram, too.

https://flic.kr/s/aHskXXyasN
http://instagram.com/westyreflector
_________________________________

More on this 283rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Rooms Within Rooms: Make an instrumental song built from the sounds of different rooms” — at:
https://disquiet.com/0283/

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0283-rooms-within-rooms/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to http://twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

'57 Echoes [Disquiet0283-RoomsWithinRooms]

Apologize for nothing, Bassel.

All sounds either Bassel or guitar. 

Underlying bed is reversed "Amazing Grace" mixed with three tracks of Bassel's phrase ~13x stretched: One track is him harmonized and pitched down to F#; One is him disambiguated as noise; One is him just straight up sloooowed doowwwn. 

Floated over the affair with an eBow.

This track marks my 69th Disquiet Junto contribution.
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/sets/disquietwesty

My studio suffered an irreparable crash last week while attempting the first of these two most recent #freebassel projects. Kind creative forces graced me, however, with a few workarounds and a long-overdue seat kick into a more current-era workflow. I hold onto the thought that all my tech disruption (forced unwinding and time-zero reconfiguration of twenty+ years of habits) would make Bassel, well, just laugh. I hope that laughing's all he's doing now.

This is the fourth track I've recorded in honor of Bassel. The first couple made it into their respective Junto weeks:
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/intransitive-disapperance?in=thereflectors/sets/disquietwesty
https://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/freebassel-disquiet0202?in=thereflectors/sets/disquietwesty

One project stalled in the concept phase, but instead of letting it languish, I fleshed it out into something 100% different than intended (with lyrics!), and it became a Dylan-esque acerbic romp through a world refusing to change:
https://thereflectors.bandcamp.com/track/lonesome-faraway-sounds

This track here, though, was the first one of these for Bassel I recorded knowing he will never hear it. Killed the urgency and upped the poignancy, I guess. Wish I was less numb about all this.

In the end, pessimism breaks people quicker, and with more permanence, than fear. The greatest weapon used against free-thought warriors such as Bassel is not to make them scared - it's to make them feel alone in their fight.

Your being here, though, listening, proves he's not alone.

Peace.

RIG
Guitar: Peekamoose Custom Workhorse M2

Pedalboard: SmallSound/BigSound Sparkle Motion -> SS/BS Mini F*ck -> tc electronic Flashback Delay -> EHX Superego (Send/Receive: EQD Arpanoid -> EHX POG2 -> Diamond Tremolo) -> EHX Freeze -> EQD Grand Orbiter -> EQD Afterneath -> Strymon blueSky Reverb -> Pigtronix Infinity Looper

Amp: Fender SuperChamp X2 (set to vintage Princeton Reverb voice)

Hardware:
MOTU 828mk2 -> MacBook Pro
Windows PC (DIY)

Software:
Paulstretch (standalone, Windows 10)
Dropbox
Harrison Mixbus 4 (DAW and mastering)

PROJECT: 
Disquiet Junto Project 0294: Offline Status

Pay tribute to the late Bassel Khartabil by turning his spoken words into music.

More on this 294th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Offline Status: Pay tribute to the late Bassel Khartabil by turning his spoken words into music. — at:
https://disquiet.com/0294/

Thanks to Niki Korth, Jon Phillips, and Barry Threw for encouraging this project. More on Bassel here:
http://freebassel.org

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0294-offline-status/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

sun child [disquiet0294-offlinestatus]

version: 20180307.3a

video:
https://youtu.be/9M2kgtzeT6M

well I'm climbing up this Canyon drive 
high enough to see across time 
to the days where you and I 
had nothing to leave behind 
up here, on this Canyon drive

a thousand feet up in the sky 
on a one-lane two-way graded switchback ride 
we opened up and saw ourselves from outside 
and knew we wanted no other life 
up here, on this Canyon drive

down in the Valley a relentless pursuit of dreams 
in every shadow a sorrow and a scheme 
a world designed to keep us from coming alive 
far away from all the light that shines 
up here, on this Canyon drive

what price wouldn't you pay 
to let nothing get in your soul's way 
to quiet dark echoes of unlived lives 
at least up here there's hope you'll find 
peace on this Canyon drive

Stripped State

This Canyon Drive

version: 20180308.8a

1/2 way up the hill
is a long way down
to extend your horizon
to wave away clouds

Into the great unknown
Into endless blue
1/2 way up the hill
was the best we could do

where calm clear sky
is the everyday
no wonder the sun
yearns to steal away

into the great unknown
into endless blue
1/2 way up the hill
was the best we could do

echoes of times
when we were strong
swirled into good bye
after so longs

what keeps you alive 
is not the same 
as what makes you live
or what flies away

Stripped State: Laurel Canyon Recordings

Into Endless Blue

Riding the D with Casey and Bob [20180310]

Mattie was the kinda girl 
who saw the end of the world
every time she opened her eyes 
Roger was the kinda guy 
never turned down a ride
figured "the end of days is just down the line."

the price you pay 
counting on judgment day for love 
is to waste the light away
wide awake
wishing on the dark
(in Wonderland)

they found an acre and a half
halfway up Wonderland 
in September 1973 
they spent a few years
thinking the end was near
and cut down none of their trees

their earth gave way on a red flag day 
right around 1982
they held on fast 
against a backdraft
into the black they flew

they always thought of each other
as first time lovers
in an endless secret rendezvous 
but sometimes living a life of desire
leaves you dreaming of fire
in a state of always almost coming true

Wonderland

we were young
you were younger
never were to be in love
i should've known better
every price has a one

you wanted the world to burn
vanish into a point of no return 
'cos hardest to learn 
you never could say 

love your self any way

afraid of truth 
living in shadows
is no way to move through life
in the end a haunted future
you set yourself alight

saturation turns to gray
where there are only beautiful days

you found only 
darkness in sunshine
you saw only one
way out 

love your self any way

Love Your Self Any Way [20180426.1]

the smarter you are today
the more you live in shadow
never giving up all you know
'cos it's 

quiet nowhere
la la la la la la la la la
it's quiet nowhere

to long for someday soon
is to long for days gone by
they're both parallel paper streets
through a 

quiet nowhere

the sound of things falling is the same sound
as things rising into the air
time spent afraid of what you might hear 
well, that's a quiet nowhere	

that feel when the world lets you down
that feel when old friends freeze you out 
when you're seen as wrong when everyone's not right

it's quiet nowhere

Quiet Nowhere [20180426.1]

all you've got is a feeling 
and what i've got won't show
b/c our visions of love
only intersected long ago

gonna go where every light leads
if it only takes me round the block
i don't care
at least i'm searching
at least i'm driving
where you're still aching
to get somewhere

first time i knew luck was 
the first time we laughed at the same truth
but there's only so many lies
you can sell yourself and still pull through 

"burning a bridge" burns one ahead, 
not one already crossed.
those things you leave behind
are, anyways, already lost 

lenses
filters
living as if reality
mirrors
windows
living as if we really see

Every Light Leads (20180426.1)

coyotes roam the Hollywood hills on a cool April midnight

Midnight Coyotes (20180402.1)

"A bee, a bird, and a chicken are hanging out in the Hollywood hills..." sounds like the start of a joke, but it's just a field recording. Bees pollinate a perpetual-blooming Echium Candicans ("pride of Madeira") flowering shrub in our Laurel Canyon Garden, while a mockingbird, a scrub jay, a few other birds, and a chicken across the street join in the chorus. Live iPhone recording via a Shure MOTIV MV88.

Echium Candicans
pride of Madeira
subshrub invasive ornament
Spanish nectar
going-steady bees
soda jerk two-straw shake
canyon hillside date
10 minutes drive
from a retrofit-rail-car diner
off Sunset

Canyon Bees, Birds, and a Chicken (20180509.1)

walking away from the waterfall at the head of Eaton Canyon on a sunny, quiet, wednesday

Eaton Canyon Waterfall Walk (20180516.1)

20180601.1

You came a long long way 
just to find nothing
on the other end of a promise
from the other side of the sun

the road was mapped but never real
still the dream of a long gone man
now foxtails push up through cracked cement
and long abandoned plans

Paper streets always burn.
Paper streets always burn.
On a bridge to nowhere,
you never know where to turn.
Paper streets always burn.

Doesn't matter where you're from
when you see the world from the sky
Broadway to Magazine to Sunset Boulevard
They all draw the same line

You have to put your faith in strangers 
or else this is a lonely life 
but sometimes people are wicked and cruel
we're not wired to be nice

I lost a fortune to a dream 
but at least it was my dream 
some people lose their fortune to a faith
in the world as it seems

Paper Streets

20180607.1

i believe in my dream
I believe in my dream
in my song, i believe you'll see
all the lives we are to lead

searching for answers
is a waste of precious time
destiny doesn't ring the bell,
doesn't tell you you've arrived

songbird on an electric line
only knows he's incomplete
caught up in a lookout for love
all his faith on endless repeat

may never know magic 
of a returned call
but he never sounds tragic
never sounds small

Canyon Songbird Dream #7

this one's for the ones who stop to think 
this one's for the ones who always knew
this one's for the ones who see the absurdity

this was a place we lived in peace
a place we lived in silence
a place we lived together in light

the last time
is cloud nine
and you won't know
you're dead

but the saddest time
is the first time
you see
the last time
up ahead

how many days can you see through things
how frayed is a soul made of string
how many ways can a memory bring you down

what happened all the power burned out
what happened all that's certain's in doubt 
what happened all the love turned it back on us

there's no one around who doesn't think they know
nowhere you're left to be, no place left to go

The Last Time Up Ahead [20180608.1]

Rainstorm / 20170717
Bridgehampton, NY
Close friends' house, Cottage bedroom
improv on a 44-key upright Grieg piano, un-tuned, sticky keys
iPhone w/ a Shure MV88 lightning condenser sitting on a windowsill

The Space In Rain [20180717a]

PROJECT:

This week's junto project was about "functional music." We were charged with creating four individual sounds that serve as alerts for digital communications. They will be in these categories:

1) email arrival, 2) incoming phone call, 3) new IM received, 4) calendar event alert

The goal is that the four alerts will work together as a suite — that is, that they will complement each other, yet be distinct and recognizable from each other. For the purposes of the Disquiet Junto, we were to present these four alert sounds as one single track, repeating each sound a few times.

PROCESS:

I had written an even more orchestrated piece this weekend. All of a sudden, though, it became a fictional 80s sitcom theme and didn't really fit the assignment. So I reworked tiny bits of it into what you hear here. If you're curious, the link to the other track is here: http://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/call-pop.

Ringtone: 
Fwiw, I've used a splice of Peter Gabriel's <i>In Your Eyes</i> as my ringtone since I've had an mp3 capable smart-phone, so treating a longer, orchestrated track as a single "tone" felt like fair game. The guitar is in a 6th string drop-d tuning and just moves IV-I around a single phrase that moves up an octave in 5ths, (which was the ending phrase of my original track). I suppose this 5ths phrase is the "ringing" here, but I still like the concept of an orchestrated ringtone, fwiw. I tried to build the urgency ("pick up the call, would you!") by adding maracas and clapping (which are the email and text alerts, respectively). Figured also a percussion build might help locate the phone in a deep bag. The title, btw, was also kind of a backwards-induced Father's Day reference (yesterday, 17 June 2012, having been the day we celebrate "pop" - i.e., "dad" - here in the U.S.).

Email alert: 
I get a lot of emails over the course of a day and did not want something too obtrusive. I shook a pair of maracas and thought "I wouldn't mind hearing that peaceful shushing 18,000 times a day."

Event alert:
The final rhythm guitar strum of the ringtone.

Text / IM / SMS alert:
Felt this deserved the most urgency of all the alerts ("hear me now, dammit!"), so it's the repeated hand clap phrase from the ringtone. My text alert now on my iphone is the stock "telegraph" sound, so I tried to evoke this telegraph with a 3-clap phrase.

I'll admit all of the alerts here are not very "alert-y," but living in the bigbig city, I tend to not want to carry too many sirens in my pocket as I hear them enough trying to sleep.

As always, the junto is serious fun and lets me see myself in a totally new context.

Peace, 
Westy

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info

call pop [disquiet0024-alertsuite]

she walks into union square&#13;
sends the pigeons flying&#13;
didn’t think i’d find her there&#13;
didn’t think of trying&#13;
&#13;
she sits on a bench above the subway&#13;
as the trains rumble by&#13;
i see her shake&#13;
&#13;
inside the hiss of a subway’s brakes&#13;
it means everything and nothing just the same&#13;
&#13;
a city &#13;
to strangers&#13;
one city &#13;
two strangers&#13;
one city&#13;
too strange&#13;
&#13;
dreams between drags on a cigarette&#13;
while i watch&#13;
under the lights of an august city&#13;
that will never stop&#13;
&#13;
red street, the light of a taxi’s brakes&#13;
it means everything and nothing just the same&#13;
&#13;
a city &#13;
to strangers&#13;
one city &#13;
two strangers&#13;
one city&#13;
too strange

Westy Reflector

Pinned to spotlight

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