More on this 167th Disquiet Junto project — “Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/

More on Bassel Khartabil at:

http://freebassel.org/

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/

Disquiet Junto Project 0167: Placid Cell

More on this 494th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Insect Menagerie (The Assignment: Record a 20-second clip of the sounds of an insect that you yourself have invented) — at: https://disquiet.com/0494/

Thanks to Tobias Reber and Musikfestival Bern for collaboration on this project. More on the festival at:

https://www.musikfestivalbern.ch/
https://www.instagram.com/musikfestival_bern
https://www.facebook.com/musikfestivalbern

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

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0494-insect-menagerie/

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

The image associated with this project is by dr_relling, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

https://flic.kr/p/6RPmAq

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

Insect Menagerie - disquiet0494

This is the inside of my bathroom, recorded on a Tascam DR-07 mkII. I edited the audio in ProTools 11. You can hear some cat sounds if you listen up!


More on this 167th Disquiet Junto project — “Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing” — at:

disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/

More on Bassel Khartabil at:

freebassel.org/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

disquiet.com/junto

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

disquiet.com/forums/

Placid Cell - [disquiet0167-freebassel]

created March 2015
@ dead_shrine

paulstretch/Ableton

------------------------
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More on this 167th Disquiet Junto project — “Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/

More on Bassel Khartabil at:

http://freebassel.org/

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/


for_bassel(2015)[disquiet0167-freebassel]

The first 2 seconds you hear my bathroom's door closing.
The next 10 seconds you hear the silence in my bathroom.
Then a heartbeat evolves, made of a reflection of the closing door.
The chords, the lead melody and the bass sound are all made using the same microsound, a very short loop near the end of the silent part.
A shaker-like sound is made out of some noise, maybe my breath because I was in the room during the recording.
I used Bitwig's sampler, a lot of filters, some delays and Verberate for the plate-hall.
It took me about 2 hours to get the whole track done.
So I hope you enjoy it.

More on this 167th Disquiet Junto project — “Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing” — at:
disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/
More on Bassel Khartabil at:
http://freebassel.org/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
disquiet.com/junto
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
disquiet.com/forums/

Bathroom Lullaby [disquiet0167-freebassel]

**Production Notes**

The most quiet room in our flat is a tiny walk-in wardrobe. I was just recording the sound of the door closing, when my daugher, which played Skyrim in the living room, cursed in frustration. 

I isolated that bit and mangled it with Ambient V_03 for a steady pulse. This treatment went into Reaktors Molekular-Effect-Plugin, which turns noises into sine waves. That’s where I got all the tonal bits from. 

Compressed, added a a bit of RC 48 Reverb... and that‘s not all....

... I really hope they free Bassel Kathabir. 

* * *

**Disquiet Junto Project 0167: Placid Cell**


Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing.

￼This project is the second time that the Junto gathered its resources to pay tribute to the wrongfully imprisoned Creative Commons advocate and coder Bassel. Sunday, March 15, marks the third anniversary of Bassel’s incarceration in Syria.

In Bassel’s honor, this week we’ll make music by taking the loneliness of a small, closed room and making something beautiful and soothing from it.

Step 1: Go into the quietest room in your home and record the room’s tone. Also record the sound of the door being closed.

Step 2: Locate in that track a suitably quiet 10 consecutive seconds. Also locate the moment when the door is closed.

Step 3: Locate in those 10 seconds a handful of signature sonic events, moments, however small or subtle, that stand out from the general silence.

Step 4: Create an original composition that begins with the door being closed, proceeds through the 10 unadulterated seconds of room tone, and after which samples of those sonic events from Step 3 are transformed into something soothing. This being a project about isolation, you cannot add any external sound elements.

Step 5: Upload the combination of your accompaniment and the foundational track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

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

Length: The length of your finished work should be roughly between two and five minutes.

(...) 

More on this 167th Disquiet Junto project — “Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing” — at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/

More on Bassel Khartabil at:
http://freebassel.org/

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/

- end -

Thoughts [disquiet0167-freebassel]

Ten seconds of original sound then transition into isolation. Footsteps, doors closing, quiet water, dark breaths, time.


disquiet0167-freebassel

More on this 167th Disquiet Junto project — “Marking the 3rd anniversary of Bassel Khartabil’s incarceration, turn the silence of a room into something soothing” — at:

http://disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/

Free Bassel

Translated: "There's a cat on the gamelan."

In a complete departure for me, I decided that this challenge - many different random number checks, careful timings, and so on - were much better suited to automation than trying to run them myself, so instead of an improvisational approach, I decided that I'd program this instead.

I decided that I'd use ChucK for this - it's well-suited for dynamically adding and removing layers and programatically arranging and synthesizing music.

I started out by stealing bits from the modal-o-matic example; this is a program that randomly plays different configurations of the ModalBar unit generator. The only really salvageable part (for my piece, anyway) was the code that did the different strikes and positions on the virtual bar. Playing around with this, I decided to use a single note (middle C) with different strikes, positions, and presets on every note as an ostinato, and then create dynamic "shreds" that would compute the note timings and durations according to the original plan.

After a few hours of programming, mostly figuring out the timing, I was about to record the final version, when I realized that because this was ChucK, I could actually run six independent copies of the piece at the same time; a couple of takes (every take is different!) and I had the final six-layer version. 

Edit: I realized on listening once I was awake that the multiple layers of pulse were obscuring the panning; split the pulsed and no-pulse versions apart and ran six of the no-pulse and one of the pulsed for the final version.

Edit edit: Soundcloud's conversion is sadly covering up the panning in the pulse track. I suggest running it yourself with headphones to get the intended effect.

https://github.com/joemcmahon/ada-kucing-gamelan.ck

More on this 235th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Create a piece of music based on a structure determined by the roll of a single die” — at:

http://disquiet.com/0235/

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/

Ada Kucing Pada Gamelan [disquiet0235]

"Ran´s Alphonse Beyond" (Junto Project 0255)

Collaboration improvisational track with Andrew Hulett,
banjo
monome
custom software
buchla 200e
patchbay

Hazy Afternoon Banjo (disquiet0255)

This track was created for the Naviar Haiku group.
193week haiku
naviarlab.tumblr.com/

Korg MicroKorg XL+  ,  kalimba + guitar reverb pedal

2017-09-15

Fireflies over the river (Naviarhaiku 193)

TO PARTICIPATE

- Make music in response to the assigned haiku.
- If you're a Soundcloud user, upload the track on Soundcloud and message me privately with the track's URL; alternatively you can send me your composition directly via Dropbox
- Include the assignment number in the title of your track - “Title of your track (naviarhaiku214)”

Please use a Creative Commons license for your track and set it as downloadable if you wish to be included in the podcasts and compilations.

F0046 [Naviarhaiku 214 - How heavy on my eyes, the winter sun.]

Night - over
sleeping children,
sound of the waves.

Now considered as one of the most influencial modern Japanese writers, the novelist of the Meiji period Natsume Soseki was a late bloomer: his literary career officially began in 1903, with a series of haiku and renga published on various literary magazines. Between 1900 and 1903 he studied at the UCL in London, but this experience proved to be quite dramatic for the young Soseki as he’ll describe his period in the United Kingdom with these words:

“The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves.“

Despite this, when Soseki returned to Japan he exploded into prolific writing activity.

Seven days to make music in response to the assigned haiku: to particiipate visit http://www.naviarrecords.com/about/naviar-haiku

F0048 [Naviarhaiku 215 - Night - over sleeping children, sound of the waves.]

**Production Notes**

In Ellsworth Kelly’s early works you find plenty of seemingly simple, yet beautiful collages. First Kelly painted some lines in broad brush strokes, then he cut up the paper and started to rearrange the pieces. I went for a similar approach.

- First, there’s some gnarly ”gesso” background to bring in some movement (some tonal noises made with Aalto)
- There are 5 asynchronous loops, cut in 5 pieces each (made with Blisko Cello, Aalto, and Chromaphone)
- First the loops are played as a whole, then rearranged within each sample, and for the last time, everything is rearranged by chance.

* * * 

**Disquiet Junto Project 0478: Collage of Collages**

The Assignment: Make a collage that will become part of a larger collage.

Step 1: Create a “musical collage,” however you might define it, likely using the equivalent of cut and paste. When doing so, consider the sense in which your collage might itself become part of a subsequent collage.

Step 2: If you’d like your piece excerpted for a broadcast on the Austrian community radio show Kopfkino (translated: “cinema in the head,” and also available as a podcast) by Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka, make sure your track is set for download when you post it.

Background: Margarethe has offered to produce an online segment in collaboration with the Disquiet Junto. The theme of the Kopfkino episode will be “collage.” The episode will itself be a collage of tracks produced in this week’s Junto project.

More on Kopfkino at: https://cba.fro.at/series/kopfkino

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0478” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0478” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0478-collage-of-collages/

Step 5: Annotate your tracks with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

(…)

More on this 478th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Collage of Collages (The Assignment: Make a collage that will become part of a larger collage.) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0478/

The project is a collaboration with the radio show Kopfkino, initiated by Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka. More on Kopfkino at:

https://cba.fro.at/series/kopfkino

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0478-collage-of-collages/

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

Ellsworth Kelly [disquiet0478]

The Serpent and the Egg (disquiet0478)

i took this weeks project as an impetus to just cut and paste something together, didn't let the "musical" side put me off, just revelled in the excuse to splice and juxtapose the contents of my recorder - some sounds recorded intentionally for this project, most just what was there; fragments snatched over the past three months or so.

///

... some pink noise, an aubergine being chargrilled, nextdoor's bins, a ventilation system, a brief hydrophone recording, a waterfall, a self-service check-out, various birds, some metal stairs, traffic, rain, ice, snow, various paperbags, a train station tannoy, a malfunctioning videocall, a dehumidifier, gulls, small pieces of plastic, wind, demolition work...

///

it's my age and inclination, i think, but i am deeply enamoured with collage and assemblage aesthetics; the way the world necessarily leaks in to even the most perverse and hermetic project; the way you can sort of synthesise the sheer abundance of the world; a nest of implications and connections; the way things become strange when they're oblided to be in overlap or proximity.

///

i used no effects on the final piece beyond a little panning at times, a little EQ-ing; some of the files and chopped into the thing had been processed, but for the most part - as the relentless bumps of mic-handling shoud indicate, the component sounds are essentially unprocessed.

///

More on this 478th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Collage of Collages (The Assignment: Make a collage that will become part of a larger collage.) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0478/

The project is a collaboration with the radio show Kopfkino, initiated by Margarethe Maierhofer-Lischka. More on Kopfkino at:

https://cba.fro.at/series/kopfkino

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0478-collage-of-collages/

time and room enough here [disquiet0478]

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.

Free Bassel

dirigent

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