The Disquiet Junto is a group in which musicians respond to weekly, fast-turnaround projects to compose, record, and share new music — and provide feedback to and receive feedback from fellow participants. The idea is to use the constraints inherent in these assignments as a springboard for creativity. The first Junto project began on the first Thursday of January 2012, and the series has continued weekly since then. It was founded by and is moderated by Marc Weidenbaum.  Find out more at https://disquiet.com/2013/04/25/disquiet-junto-faq/

My Disquiet Junto

Disquiet Junto Project 0696: Chain of Layers
The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers.

This project is the first of three that are being done in by the Disquiet Junto in collaboration with the 2025 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 3 through 7. The festival topic this year is « Kette » — which translates, as the organization explains, to “Chain”: “Chains connect but they also bind. They create relationships but also restrictions. As a gift they look nice, feared when used in vice, and yet they can span bridges across fire and ice.” All three Junto projects will engage with the work of Svetlana Maraš, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2025 festival.

We are working again at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the seventh year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.

Step 1: Record 10 to 15 layers of continuous sound.

Step 2: Create a piece of music in which you only change the relative presence of those individual layers from Step 1 over time. Some light effects and panning are certainly fine, but the majority of the impact should be how the prominence of the individual layers changes.

Deadline: Monday, May 5, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

Details: disquiet.com/0696

Disquiet Junto Project 0696: Chain of Layers

I recorded throwing ice cubes into the best crystal glass I own. a long stem glass which is the last of a set of six. It makes a beautiful ringing sound no matter how you hit it. All the sounds are made from the ice and the glass, including the ringing, and my voice.

I used a 32 bit float field recorder that I bought recently to test turning up very small sounds, like the glass ringing. Works well. The sounds are treated with Ableton to vary them (played back on a midi keyboard, then mixed and moved around), and for my voice I used, also for the very first time, a Korg Kaoss Pad 3 that I just acquired.

See photo of the glass.

Disquiet0627 ICE NINE

Took an old piece - is is music? Well, I came to “music” from a reverse angle. I was a spoken word radio producer in the 80’s, then got attracted to audio art, moved to Europe, tried installations, and found myself in the experimental music world. So this piece is from about ten years ago, and has been rejigged by me. I did it simply, using Ableton but not enhancing with synth.  Next time.

Disquiet0629DaysAreShort

Response to Junto 0650 - a chance to try out Granulator III in Ableton 12, and my Korg Monolog, which of course has sirens - and to sing crazy

Disquiet0650SheppardsSirens

Singing fridge and fan - and couldn't resist singing along.

More on the 661st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Consumer Drone Product — The Assignment: Record a piece of drone music using sounds from your home — at https://disquiet.com/0661/

Fridge vs Fan (Disquiet0661)

[What I Found on Pluto](https://on.soundcloud.com/2vcNNmGgdCa2ujddA)
I made this track by selecting my favorite little recordings from many years - all recorded by me - many of them are my voice, some are animals, tiny snippets harvested from past field recordings, many accidental - then I did a survey of effects in Ableton that I wanted to explore and treated everything, learning about various parameters until I got the atmosphere I wanted - a great practice opportunity. The photo is one I took of a balloon flight, altering the colors.

What I Found on Pluto (disquiet0671)

Phew! Thankfully this track didn't pass muster with the SoundCloud algorithm ... and so won't be recommended to potentially interested listeners ... Always a signal that something is probably worth a listen! 😁

See the accompanying video at https://youtu.be/wjrGJtwQnP0

This project is the first of three that are being done by the Disquiet Junto in collaboration with the 2025 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 3 through 7. The festival topic this year is « Kette » — which translates, as the organization explains, to “Chain”: “Chains connect but they also bind. They create relationships but also restrictions. As a gift they look nice, feared when used in vice, and yet they can span bridges across fire and ice.” All three Junto projects will engage with the work of Svetlana Maraš, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2025 festival.

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

visuals

halF layereD [disquiet0696]

Disquiet Junto 0696's assignment was to record 10 to 15 layers of continuous sound and create a piece of music only by altering their relative presence over time.

I immediately thought of the story of how the iconic 1975 10cc song "I'm Not In Love" was created. The backing vocals are lush and rich and unearthly. (If you don't know the song, just listen to the first 30 seconds or so to get the gist). The story is that the band recorded themselves each singing a long, sustained note until they had 48 notes on individual 12' tape loops. For the final recording, the tape loops were played simultaneously and mixed into harmonies live on the console, essentially turning the mixer into a musical instrument. 

With this technique as inspiration, I recorded 7 tracks of ebow guitar, each playing a different note in the A harmonic minor scale. Ebow can make dynamics difficult but I managed some good textures I think. I hand-mixed each of the tracks to come in and out in sequence, creating a rising step pattern.

Then I bounced the seven guitar tracks to a single track. This track was duplicated and pitch shifted to create 4 tracks spanning 4 octaves. This essentially multiplied my original 7 tracks by 4 to give me 28 guitars. I applied volume automation to create a primitive Shepard scale out of the result.

Aside from a couple of acousmatic accents and a low-fi kick drum, every sound is from the guitar.

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

What Became of Grandfather? (disquiet0696)

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

disquiet0696

sound art for disquiet0696.

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

hendecad cascade (disquiet0696)

This is my submission for this week's Disquiet Junto assignment.

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

250503 [disquiet0696]

14 electronic layers improvised and handed off. Response to Disquiet Junto: The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers.

Step 1: Record 10 to 15 layers of continuous sound.

Step 2: Create a piece of music in which you only change the relative presence of those individual layers from Step 1 over time. Some light effects and panning are certainly fine, but the majority of the impact should be how the prominence of the individual layers changes.

More on the 696th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Layers — The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers — at https://disquiet.com/0696/

Disquiet0696 electro layer cake

Sound artist and poet - American, living in the North of France. Member of Muzzix Collective.

Disquiet0696 electro layer cake

Marjorie Van Halteren