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/

11 samples created from looping short sections taken from a pre-existing piece entitled 'Narrative' [ https://soundcloud.com/xiiixxi/narrative ]. The volume of each continuously sounding loop is auto-faded in and out using a pair of linked oscillators in addition to being shaped to bring each to the front once at least once throughout the duration of the piece.

Disquiet Junto | Chain of Layers - 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/

portales de andros [disquiet0696]

Edited, mixed & mastered on 01 May 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA. 

Layered guitar synth

This piece evolved through three distinct passes with the last having three of its own:

1 - Almost every day, I record something. On April 13, I recorded about 20 minutes of guitar synth with a voice sound using a cheap SX guitar as the controller. I recorded with DAW effects but for this piece, I used the raw recording without effects. The synth has some built-in though.

2 - On May 1, I spread this recording across 15 tracks, stretching some to fit the same duration and adding leftover bits throughout. I panned them across the sound field. Though I created a wall of sound and did a rough mix, I felt this arrangement wasn't working for me.

3 - Inspired by fabric patterns and metal chains, I drew a subtractive volume automation on one track, moving down and diagonally, bouncing off the side and back until reaching the 15th track. I then drew another pattern at the beginning of the last track, moving up diagonally. As the piece took shape, I added a third pattern in untouched spots where it felt right. These patterns began precise but became organic—like a handmade garment rather than a machine-made one. The final run evoked an old painting shirt, and that's when I knew it was complete.

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, Aug 2019, Massapequa, NY, USA - at the time, an in-progress painting I called “Injury Or Suffocation.” 

©2019, 2025 Jim Lemanowicz

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This original version of “Stepmother In Chains” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0696: Chain of Layers. The Assignment: Make music change by altering its layers.

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

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

Stepmother In Chains (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)

A chain of layered sequences with a mix of electronic and recorded sounds.

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/

Chain of Events (disquiet0696)

Different layers of sounds created from synths, strings, birds, choirs, slowly transforming, evolving into a sunset drone by varying the mix between the layers.

A drone to immerse yourself into the sunset. 

This track was inspired by this week's Disquiet Junto project:

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/

Sunset Duvet (Disquiet0696)

Disquiet Junto Project 0696: Chain of Layers

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/

Chain of Layers (disquiet0696)

Createtd for the Disquiet Junto Project No 696: Chain of Layers

I used a C and 14 overtones in the harmonic series for my layes, and automated them to create chords, textures and rhythms. A touch of reverb on the 2bus to make it a little more enjoyable. 


The Organ Grinder Has Lost His Marbles [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)

The track I prepared probably does not correspond perfectly to the rules of the challenge....anyway.
Nothing experimental, it is a classic tonal track, totally instrumental, without samples and particular sound design.
Simple Euclidean sequencer in B flat/F key that drives percussive instruments (wood, metal).
I found an old piece (only the final master) in which each independent cell of the sequencer generates a new pattern and each pattern represents a different channel/layer (12 in total).
The variations of the layers are therefore given by the score.
This creates a game of interlocking pieces, in which the alternation/modification of the channels is given by the fragment/channel played.
The various patterns/channels are parallel (Pan and L/R).
For the continuity of the sound I created drones with  organ and double bass (long bow).

Canone XII (disquiet0696)

Chain of Layers [Disquiet0696]

All here, in reality, are works in progress and are therefore apt to change at any time. All those except XIII Sisters and RAW which, as many of you may have done, I literally gave away in return for their placement in a library. Something I won't be doing again any time soon. If you have a use for something you hear here please just ask.

 .ooO -------------------------------------- Ooo.

ChatGTP said of AI Music...
'Creative AI tools can be seen as sophisticated plagiarism software, as they do not produce genuinely original content but rather emulate and modify existing works by artists subtly enough to circumvent copyright laws'

Sometimes it takes a dispassionate, independent view to actually see the truth of it ...

 .ooO -------------------------------------- Ooo.

There are links to XiiixxiQ below. Your mileage may vary as to whether it decides to work on your system or not. It only runs on a Mac because I really don't have time to do all the necessary work to make it compatible with anything other than my 2015 MacBook Pro :-(. It is still being developed (for my own use) and improved, and I may yet get round to doing another release if I can find the time to tidy it all up.

Disquiet Junto | Chain of Layers - disquiet0696

x i i i x x i

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