I wrote this last summer when I learned about my father's dementia. I finally recorded the vocal tracks in January this year after I came back from Japan and saw my father for the first time since 2019. 

My father was diagnosed with dementia in July of 2022. My brother was the one who shared the news saying he and his wife had taken our father to a specialist. This had me thinking about memories and consciousness. How do we share memories if we can’t remember? Did we even have the same memories to begin with? Even if we experienced things together? 

I started with the lyrics before anything for this piece. I wrote about the running jokes I had with my father and my brother growing up. Catching crawfish in ponds in Tokyo near our apartment in Kokubunji, my father’s Sunday special natto omelet breakfast, the times we'd go to the beach in Chiba, how we'd play in the water all day and our sunburned skin would hurt in the bath. How my father would go buy kakigori after we'd slipped under the futon, how I insisted I'd get the same flavor as him even though matcha was too bitter for me and I really just wanted the neon red strawberry.

ザリガニ釣り
するめを付けて
家に大切に
連れ帰って

納豆オムレツ
キャッチボール
犬の散歩

毎年行った
岩地の海
波と１日遊んで
こんがり焼けて

並んだお布団に
入ってから
買ってきた　かき氷　
お父さんと一緒がいいと
言ったね
　
でも抹茶は苦かった　　　
本当はイチゴが欲しかった

後でみんなして笑ったよね

お父さんも同じ思い出なの？
無くさないで

Catching crawfish
with dried squid
Taking them home 
like some treasure.

Natto omelet
playing catch
walking the dogs.

Every summer we went
to the sea at Iwachi
Playing with waves all day
our skin acrisp.

Our futons lined up, tuckered away
You went and got us kakigori
I said I wanted the same flavor as Dad.

But matcha was too bitter
I wanted strawberry instead.
We all laughed at the end.

Dad, do you remember?
I hope you don't forget.

More on this 579th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Memory Serves (The Assignment: Rerecord a piece of music), at: Disquiet Junto Project 0579: Memory Serves – Disquiet

More on the Disquiet Junto at: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements here: Disquiet Junto by Marc Weidenbaum (Disquiet.com)

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0579-memory-serves/

Remembrance with vocal (disquiet0579)

Electronic composition, sounds created in Pure Data.

More on this 578th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rabbit Spirit Ally (The Assignment: Make music for Lunar New Year), at: https://disquiet.com/0578/ 1

Associated public-domain cover image by Johann Daniel Meyer (1748).

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-0578-rabbit-spirit-ally/

Hoppity (disquiet0578)

This was my contribution for the Disquiet Junto Project 0578: Rabbit Spirit Ally.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0578 discussion thread:
Rather than go with the rabbit, I selected my birth animal, the horse. I started to work on a piece that morphed into a loose western-style theme a few months ago, but stopped and put it on the back burner since I wasn’t sure how to proceed. Figured this assignment was a good opportunity to finally complete it. The slightly off tempo percussion, reminds me of soundtracks from old westerns depicting horses walking along dusty trails. I’ll probably create a video with this music at some point.

This was done in Ableton Live mainly using Slate+Ash Choreographs along with some simple notes from a SX2 lap steel guitar. Palomino photo by Colt Parent on Unsplash. Hope everyone has a healthy, happy and fruitful Lunar New Year. 

More on this 578th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rabbit Spirit Ally (The Assignment: Make music for Lunar New Year), at: https://disquiet.com/0578/ 1
Associated public-domain cover image by Johann Daniel Meyer (1748).
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-0578-rabbit-spirit-ally/

Palomino [disquiet0578]

Patch on my palette system that 'jumps' between two different states, affecting properties like voice pitch/brightness/timbre, granular density/pitch. Loosely inspired by rabbits skittish/jumpy behaviour - and thumping.

--

More on this 578th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rabbit Spirit Ally (The Assignment: Make music for Lunar New Year), at: https://disquiet.com/0578/ 1

Associated public-domain cover image by Johann Daniel Meyer (1748).

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-0578-rabbit-spirit-ally/

disquiet0578 - bunny bimodal

More on this 578th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rabbit Spirit Ally (The Assignment: Make music for Lunar New Year), at: https://disquiet.com/0578/ 1

Associated public-domain cover image by Johann Daniel Meyer (1748).

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-0578-rabbit-spirit-ally/

Rabbit Spirit Ally

The Euclidean Chromaticon | Rabbit Spirit Ally - disquiet0578

A song for the year of the rabbit.

More on this 578th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Rabbit Spirit Ally (The Assignment: Make music for Lunar New Year), at: https://disquiet.com/0578/

Associated public-domain cover image by Johann Daniel Meyer (1748).

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-0578-rabbit-spirit-ally/

year of the rabbit [disquiet0578]

You are in a shop run by a rabbit who cycles through 2-3 bits of dialogue.

Weeks of Songs

Rabbit's Shop [disquiet0578]

for the disquiet junto //

old work, revisited and refreshed

==

More on this 579th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Memory Serves (The Assignment: Rerecord a piece of music), at: Disquiet Junto Project 0579: Memory Serves – Disquiet

More on the Disquiet Junto at: Disquiet Junto F.A.Q. – Disquiet

Subscribe to project announcements here: Disquiet Junto by Marc Weidenbaum (Disquiet.com)

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0579-memory-serves/

A Slow Progression Of The Sky Flooded With Light

[disquiet0579] A Slow Progression Of The Sky Flooded With Light

A simple chord sequence courtesy of Tonnetz Sequent, which is split between a chord that has its filter rhythmically opened and a muxlicer arpeggiating through the oscillators. I played with the volume and reverb settings as it ran through for a few minutes. Should be plenty of space for more parts to go over this.

More on this 591st weekly Disquiet Junto project, The Loneliest Number (The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio), at: https://disquiet.com/0591/

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-0591-the-loneliest-number/

The Loneliest Number(disquiet0591)

on to it

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.

The Euclidean Chromaticon | Rabbit Spirit Ally - disquiet0578

x i i i x x i