What a nice melodic background. I was looking forward to listening to your track. And now - pure pleasure!

love the textural sound of the water "synth" and the simple melody, very cool

Fantastic job extracting those tones and sounds from your original recordings.  Inspiring!  I thought it was a synth.

A set of tracks from the 29th weekly project from the Disquiet Junto group. 

The Assignment: Make music from running water, inspired by William Gibson's novel Count Zero.

More information on the group at: 

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info

More on the specific project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

Disquiet Junto Project 0029: Count Zero

All the samples are from http://inbflat.net/ and I just put them together in a way that sounds good to me. It's pretty hard to make something that sounds bad from that website though :)

B Flat

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

I had just the field recording for this.  It was recorded in early 2011 at a garden center / drug store near my house.  The sprinkler was on a timer and was watering trees and shrubs late in the evening, and I heard it while exiting the store so I ran home and got my portable digital audio recorder and got about 8 minutes along with bird and parking lot sounds while sitting in my car.

For this piece, I carved out a little over 2 minutes of the field recording then added some of the rhythm source I used in Disquiet0020 Nodebeat, a looped bit of the train sound I used in Disquiet0002 Duet, along with some background color used in Disquiet0001 Ice.

Had to mix it all so the non-sprinkler rhythms wouldn't overpower the source, as advised.  I think the Nodebeat rhythm is very complimentary even if it and the sprinkler regularly go out of phase but I like it when things go out of phase.

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info 

Prickly Sprinkler (disquiet0029-countzero)

This is four recordings of rain hitting inverted singing bowls of varying sizes. These were then cut into samples of 15, 13, 11 and 9 seconds and then looped 8 times. After the 4th repetition of each sample, I faded in the hold function on the "Ambient" VST which freezes any sound.  There was also some ping pong delay, overdrive and EQ'ing involved with each sample.

Disquiet Junto Project 0029: Count Zero 

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/ ;

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

Disquiet Junto

Forecast [disquiet0029-countzero]

Disquiet Junto Project 0029: Count Zero

  This week's project is inspired by an aside that occurs at the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's classic cyberpunk novel Count Zero, originally published in 1986. The chapter is titled "The Squirrel Wood." It opens as follows:   "The plane had gone to ground near the sound of running water. Turner could hear it, turning in the g-web in his fever or sleep, water down stone, one of the oldest songs."  

This idea of water running down stone, of a gentle but insistent natural stream, being one of the "oldest songs" is explored further in the chapter in various subtle ways. The Disquiet Junto project this week is to explore that idea: that there is music in the natural environment. We'll makes songs from running water.  

Instructions:

  Step 1: Locate and make a field recording of source material that involves running water. It can be a stream, as in the Gibson book, but it needn't be natural. The sink, a toilet, a hose in the backyard — any such source material would be fine.  

Step 2: Extract a segment of the recording. That segment will serve as the basis for your composition, as its foundation. It will provide both rhythmic and melodic material. You can either use one long piece of the recording, or you can create the foundation of the track by combining and looping one or more brief segments of your original field recording.

  Step 3: Add elements and treatments to the foundation recording of running water. Do so with the intention of highlighting the water's internal sense of rhythm and melody. Do not embellish so much that the foundation recording becomes unrecognizable.   

Information:

This was a fairly rushed project as I am on business in Baltimore and New York at the moment. God bless wifi on Amtrak's Acela Express … greetings from Delaware at speed!

The recordings were made with an iPhone and the 4 track app of a dripping faucet/tap in my hotel (I had to make it drip, the plumbing was fine) and the overrun of the shower as it hit the resonant faucet beneath.

From these I was able to take a number of rhythmic, semi-resonant loops that I brought into Ableton Live for processing. If you've listened to many of my Junto projects, you'll know that I try to steer clear of pieces that only contain rhythmic constituents, so I also created a couple of granular patches from the sound waves of the water. This all seemed to give the track a post-rock/ambient feel.

These harmonic tracks were run through various instances of Guitar Rig to give some depth to the sounds. All the while, the rhythmic water sounds were pushed around the stereo field a little and given some glitchy movement.

Conceptually I saw this as pulling melody from rhythm with the latter being almost a cage within which the harmonic character is restrained.  

Credits:

Photo: Faucet in Baltimore @echosonic

  The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero.  

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at: 

http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info

A Good Morning in Baltimore [disquiet0029-countzero]

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero. More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/. More details on the Disquiet Junto at http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/info.

Process:
- take a 30-second excerpt from a field recording I made of the Contoocook River in Peterborough, NH
- time-stretch it 7x in Paul's Extreme Stretch
- in Csound:
-- derive the spectral centroid[1] of each stereo track
-- use the centroid to control the pitch of a pair of sinewave oscillators
-- pass the oscillator tones through some reverb
-- combine the tones with the streatched water sound, crossfading so that the tones increase in amplitude as the water sound decreases
- convert to MP3 in Audacity

Image: "Animated loop of simulated hydrogen line spectra centroid jitter." found at http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/powerfrq.html, no copyright declared.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_centroid

Subsurface Tension [disquiet0029-countzero]

Project: 

This week's project is inspired by an aside that occurs at the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's classic cyberpunk novel Count Zero, originally published in 1986.

Process:

I returned to the Prospect Park, Brooklyn, waterfall (pictured, with Sterling) that I used for the prior junto challenge of remixing Lee Rosevere (http://soundcloud.com/thereflectors/waterfall-love) and made a new recording with the garageband app on my iPhone. That recording was eq'ed and compressed and runs uncut under the track. After Sony's Acid beatmapped most of the track's "measures" at ~99bpm with its mysterious one-button algorithmic analysis, I extracted 8 bars with a very subtle knocking sound, the result of a unicyclist (I kid you not) riding over loose slats on a wooden bridge running over the falls. This was looped continuously through the piece as a quiet insistent beat around which the melody was built (mostly evident in headphones, tho). All sounds were extracted from the recording using Paulstretch, Audacity and Acid. My hope is that the track is not "overworked" beyond the constraints of the assignment, and still evokes water over a stone. But if nothing else, it communicates the sense of calm and reflection I find in this somewhat secret place in the heart of the park, off the Nethermead near the Boathouse and Audubon bird sanctuary. There's no real pathway or signs to the spot from the main route, save for trodden-down underbrush that beckons the more adventurous and hyper-aware about to cross the bridge. A slice of #secretnewyork, I guess.

The instructions were as follows:

Step 1: Locate and make a field recording of source material that involves running water.

Step 2: Extract a segment of the recording. That segment will serve as the basis for your composition, as its foundation. It will provide both rhythmic and melodic material.

Step 3: Add elements and treatments to the foundation recording of running water. Do so with the intention of highlighting the water's internal sense of rhythm and melody. Do not embellish so much that the foundation recording becomes unrecognizable.

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

The inspiration for this track came from the opening of chapter 17 of William Gibson's 1986 novel Count Zero. The chapter is titled "The Squirrel Wood." It opens as follows:

"The plane had gone to ground near the sound of running water. Turner could hear it, turning in the g-web in his fever or sleep, water down stone, one of the oldest songs."

This idea of water running down stone, of a gentle but insistent natural stream, being one of the "oldest songs" is explored further in the chapter in various subtle ways. The Disquiet Junto project this week is to explore that idea: that there is music in the natural environment. We'll make songs from running water. 

More on the 29th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/07/19/disquiet0029-countzero/

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

dronewater falls [disquiet0029-countzero]

Original track here https://soundcloud.com/user-524526704/disquiet-junto-0367-trio

More on this 368th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Engage Duo / The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio, adding to a pre-existing track.) at:

https://disquiet.com/0368/

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-0368-engage-duo/

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

Image associated with this project is adapted (edited, color altered, text added) from a photo by Anna J and is used via Flickr thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/gcojn

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

Engage Duo (disquiet0368)

I used https://soundcloud.com/jesuisgentil/spoons-disquiet0367 as the track on which to base the new composition on. It features two soft synths playing arpeggios with automation to give them movement. I used a random number generator to find the spoons track. Really happy with it.

Revolving Spoons // Disquiet0368

Northwoods + droney drone ~~** Disquiet0368

i used this lovely acoustic piece https://soundcloud.com/carlin-mclellan-751824513/texas-disquiet0367

played along with a mountain dulcimer, duplicated and pitched down, bit of preverb, reverb. recorded on my phone.
.
..
Disquiet Junto Project 0368: Engage Duo
The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio, adding to a pre-existing track.

Step 1: This week’s Disquiet Junto project is the second in a sequence that explores and encourages asynchronous collaboration. This week you will be adding music to a pre-existing track, which you will source from the previous week’s Junto project (disquiet.com/0367). Note that you aren’t creating a duet — you’re creating the second third of what will eventually be a trio. Keep this in mind.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice, as a complement to the pre-existing track. First, however, you must select the piece of music to which you will be adding your own music. There are more than 40 tracks to choose from, almost all of them in this playlist:

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0367

And at least one more is available as part of a video in this discussion thread from last week:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0367-trio-initiate/

To select a track, you can listen through all that and choose one, or you can use a random number generator. (Note: it’s perfectly fine if more than one person uses the same original track as the basis for their piece.)

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly the length of the piece of music you selected in Step 2. Your track should complement the piece from Step 2, and leave room for an eventual third piece of music. When composing and recording your part, do not alter the original piece of music at all, except to pan the original fully to the left. In your finished audio track, your part should be panned fully to the right. To be clear: the track you upload won’t be your piece of music alone; it will be a combination of the track from Step 2 and yours.

Carlin McLellan's mate Mark + sevenism - Texas Nexus (disquiet0368)

The second week of a three-week Disquiet Junto collaboration project. I used the random number generator at random.org to select OHELEM's electric sitar drone track from last week. I added synthesized choir voices to continue the hypnotic meditative feel.

Trio the Second

Trio The Second - Disquiet0368

This track is part of the Disquiet Junto Project #0368. The objective of this step of the project is to choose another participant's musical submission from last week and record an additional accompaniment, with the idea that there will be one more addition next week. The new part is intended to be panned hard right.

More information on this project can be found here:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0368-engage-duo/19077

Tunnelwater's original track can be found here:
https://soundcloud.com/user-524526704/disquiet-junto-0367-trio

Wind in the Lavender (Disquiet0368)

Existing track was already perfect but I could hear a piano slowly fading in, so that's what I added. 
I just made a simple repeated piano part using a VST piano - The Maverick (Native Instruments). I cut the highs and lows and put it in mono to try to leave space for everything. 
Added a VHS effect (AfroDJMac)to everything to make it feel nice and floating...

More on this 369th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Final Solo / The Assignment: Record the final third of a trio, adding to a pre-existing track, based itself on a prior pre-existing track) at:

https://disquiet.com/0369/

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-0369-final-solo/

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

Image associated with this project is adapted (edited, color altered, text added) from a photo by Anna J and is used via Flickr thanks to a Creative Commons license:

https://flic.kr/p/gcojn

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/

disquiet0369 Spooning underwater w/ TOTAL ENERGY & GENTIL

Sounds captured during several walks around lockdown Manhattan during the COVID-19 crisis in March 2020. Birds, sirens, ebbs and flows, does the city sound like a sea in parts? and a stray accordionist with Lara's Theme somewhere across the park. An oil tank truck struggles to reengage after stopping near the hospital, fossil fuel memories surging into the present.

This piece premiered as part of "Radio Free Plague Ship" Audio Zine (https://secretvenue.org/events/plagueship) on April 17, 2020.

NYC soundwalk COVID-19

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.

dronewater falls [disquiet0029-countzero]

Westy Reflector

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