Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend
The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts.

This project is the third of three that are being done in collaboration with the 2023 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 6 through 10. The topic this year is « √ » — as the organization explains: “the radical, or square root symbol and the power of its symbolism are central to the festival and these will be translated into music in multifarious ways.” All three projects will engage with the work of Éliane Radigue, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2023 festival.

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

Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects may be played and displayed throughout the festival. Anyone who’s interested in having their work included in the event should set their download option to “on.”

Step 1: You’re going to record a piece of music with between four and seven self-contained parts that get combined in various ways as the piece progresses. These parts should be minimalist. Drones would work well. Record a selection of such parts.

Step 2: Mix the parts recorded during Step 1 into a single work. When doing so, explore how different combinations achieve different ends, and how you handle transitions. (Also: consider lightly transforming the material by utilizing granular synthesis.)

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, June 26, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 22, 2023.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

Time To Bern1 (disquiet0599)

minimalism on my (main) instrument lately. a few recordings directly into TE's TX-6

8 oscillators(disquiet0599)

Tiniest Cloud (disquiet0599)

There are seven drones here (assorted softsynths, including Arturia Pigments). Two of them are ‘doubled’ and linked to give them a ‘dancing in and out’ effect. One simple percussion line comes in towards the middle to guide it to its ending.

All done in Ableton Live.

For Disquiet #0599: https://disquiet.com/2023/06/22/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimalist-blend/

a shiny curtain [disquiet0599]

Between Blinks (disquiet0599)

The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts.

The idea for this piece was to have, on the one hand, some looping/repeating audio, and on the other hand looping/repeating audio effect automation. And then to create a piece on the fly by routing the audio into the effects channels, using a ‘matrix mixer’.
And then the hope was to have all of these patterns - patterns of played notes and patterns of changing effects - interact in interesting and unexpected, emerging, minimal-music like, ways.
Which, listening back, maybe happens… in some places… a little? But generally: not so much. 

That said, I’m not unhappy with the thing that came out of this little experiment. The piece has an interesting atmospheric feel to it, I think, not in the least due to the fact that I had the window open when recording (playing the bass part live while at the same time doing the routing of the audio). The wind and street noises - cars, seagulls - coming in and being fed into the effects chains, work rather well.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

Minimal Blend - disquiet0599

This track follows the inspiration of the Disquiet Junto Project 0599 (details see below): Five self-contained musical movements were created, each of them performed by a different set of instruments. There is a choir part, a strings part, a piano part, an experimental sounds part and a part played by Hohner Organetta and a harmonium.
The track consists of various combinations of these movements (and their granular representatives), arranged with the aim to offer a interesting listening experience.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

Les rencontres entre éléments (Disquiet0599)

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend (part 3 of a Disquiet Junto Éliane Radique themed project done in collaboration with the 2023 Musikfestival Bern)

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0599 discussion thread:
My original intent was to create something very experimental but this evolved into more of an ambient soundscape. I tried to keep it within the minimal description but might have strayed a little beyond that in some sections. I used seven parts that I morphed and modulated using various effects (see below) in Ableton Live. An additional track using Audio Things Noises was used to create a foundation. 

The following plugins/effects were used: Slate+Ash Choreographs and Landforms, Sugar Bytes Aparillo, Amazing Noises Grain Scanner (M4L), Bleass Granulizer, Audio Damage Other Desert Cities, Strymon Big Sky and Eventide Blackhole. 

River canyon photograph by Pine Watt via Unsplash.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/
About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1
Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

Entrenched and Incised Meanders [disquiet0599]

Because the prompt mentioned granular synthesis, I decided to do the whole piece in iDensity, which is a fun tool that also works stand alone on iPad. It accepts six samples so I went with six parts. First try was based on six drones recorded in the brilliant Dronecaster. The result was pretty dark, so I tried something else. The second try was based in different field recordings I made today: birds, church bells, a crowd and music at an art show. This version was fun but a little too diverse, sonically, to count as minimal. The third and final try is based on six short recordings of Clarinet, three held notes with a swoop, one Staccato, just blowing through and just the mechanics. The track was created by mixing the six parts live.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Disquiet0599 - Clarinets At The Art Show

5 drone parts (plaits in fm mode thru wave folder + low pass filter + granular) recorded separately, rearranged in ableton (read - drawing volume envelopes) + some processing

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More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/ 1

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

disquiet0599 - drone blend

Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend
The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts.

I started with four self-contained ambient drone tracks, all created with granular synthesis. Then I wanted to mix them with different granular tools, but they lost their character and I didn't like the result. Then I wanted to mix them so that each of the four tracks overlapped once with every other track (about 50%), both front and back. I thought this would be clever because it would be the opposite of the Musifestival Berns theme of "√" overlapping 4x4 tracks (^2!), but you only seem to need 12 to overlap all the tracks together … Anyway: the crossfades are simple in-out mixes, and as a result of my efforts, you'll hear each of the four tracks (mostly) just as they crossfade with another. The result is 30 minutes long, sorry for that, but I liked this version so much more than all the others. - Is it 'minimal'? I doubt it, but I had fun.


For scientific reasons I also uploaded the self-contained ambient drone tracks:

https://soundcloud.com/winterer/sour
https://soundcloud.com/winterer/salty
https://soundcloud.com/winterer/sweet 
https://soundcloud.com/winterer/bitter

All covers by Midjourney ("a cover for an ambient album named sour / salty / sweet / bitter"…), final cover is a blend of them. I was not able to prevent Midjourney from using halucinated writings.


More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

Emerging Flavours [disquiet0599]

A minimalist assignment, using four parts that combine.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

leadhills [disquiet0599]

[disquiet0599] Wild

Minimal Breakfasts (disquiet0599)

Disquiet Junto Project 0599 was to record a piece of music with between four and seven self-contained parts that get combined in various ways as the piece progresses

This project is the final of three that are being done in collaboration with the 2023 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 6 through 10. The topic this year is « √ » — as the organization explains: “the radical, or square root symbol and the power of its symbolism are central to the festival and these will be translated into music in multifarious ways.” All three projects will engage with the work of Éliane Radigue, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2023 festival.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend at https://disquiet.com/2023/06/22/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimalist-blend/

Minimal(ist) Blend [Disquiet0599]

My contribution to Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend.

All sound sources are from Mutable Instruments Plaits put through Grayscale Supercell, various filters and Valhalla DSP reverbs.

More on this 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0599-minimal-ist-blend/

disquiet0599

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.

Disquiet0599 - Clarinets At The Art Show

xhg

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