Undercurrent

An electronic composition, sounds created using Pure Data.

Dream and Reality (naviarhaiku591)

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)

Edited, mixed & mastered on 08 May 2025 by Jim Lemanowicz at Blissville Electro-Magnetic Laboratories of Massapequa, USA. 

Synth & effects

Having worked with musicians who aren't always mindful of leaving space in their playing, I dedicate this piece to them. I drew upon that experience while creating this work.

Photography/Art - Jim Lemanowicz, 01 Sep 2002, Huntington Station, NY, USA. 

Shared here under Creative Commons "Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike"

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This original version of “Stealing Third Base” was submitted as part of Disquiet Junto Project 0697: First Third. The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

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

More on the 697th weekly Disquiet Junto project, First Third — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0697/

Stealing Third Base (disquiet0697)

Part 1 of 3 of the annual Disquiet Junto Trios project

A low B note drones throughout, with a slow evolution of added notes of the B Major 6 chord. No beat or melody, and certainly nothing of interest for AI bots. Created on Solar 42.

More on the 697th weekly Disquiet Junto project, First Third — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — at https://disquiet.com/0697/

B Drone - disquiet0697

More on the 700th weekly Disquiet Junto project, View Frame — The Assignment: Share the view and some sounds inspired by the view — at https://disquiet.com/0700/

SONG 98 - Disquiet0700 - View Frame

I filled my gap with Alain Badiou ... for a change ... Excerpts from the brilliant European Graduate School video of Badiou lecturing in English on the Subject of Change: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBxf_hncrN8

More on the 701st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Gap Ear — The Assignment: Break apart a piece of music and fill the resulting spaces — at https://disquiet.com/0701/

more halF unusuaL

halF voiD [disquiet0701]

I use Logic, especially with Arturia’s V collection as my go to software synth and recording experience. My first step was to create a pleasant, if rather banal, arrangement with an arpeggiator preset on the CS-80 emulation, accompanied by an ambient wash thanks to Arturia’s “voices” engine. Then I messed with the buses, sending inputs to inputs, outputs to outputs and creating such a horrible feedback loop that I almost blew out my headphones. The resultant cacophony was not really listenable, even if imagine as belonging to the genre of noise music. It was mess of distorted glitches, high pitched wailing and intermittent period of silence when my processor simply decided that it had enough.  To tame the mess, I imported the file into a new Logic session, massaged it vigorously with granular and time stretching effects, with a bit of panning and considerable volume control. The result, I think, can now be listened to without incurring ear damage. 

disquiet0702

This was my contribution for Disquiet Junto Project 0702: Chain of Applications. The Assignment: Make music by misusing a piece of music software. This project is the second 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.

Here’s a copy of my post on the Disquiet Junto 0702 discussion thread on Lines:

I rarely use the metronome in Ableton Live, even when recording on top of a rhythm. Maybe it’s the lack of experience with it but I find the sound too distracting. For this project, decided to not use the metronome as a rhythm aid but as a sound source to be sampled and manipulated into an experimental composition.

First, recorded the sound with a Panasonic microcassette recorder. I then recorded it back into Ableton Live. The output connection on the recorder was picking up some static and noise but used the recording anyway, From there I used Audio Damage Circa to loop and mangle the audio. Used Imagiro Autochrome, SoundGhost Jumble and ValhallaRoom for effects. The result reminds me of a chorus of frogs, insects and other creatures in some wetland at night.

More on the 702nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Applications — The Assignment: Make music by misusing a piece of music software — at https://disquiet.com/0702/

Metronomia Chorus [disquiet0702]



Disquiet Junto Project 0702: Chain of Applications

Dato che la musica rappresenta più spesso uno stato psichico/psichiatrico che un'interesse o passione, il viaggio esecutivo/formativo di gran parte dei musicisti (o aspiranti tali) si dipana attraverso varie fasi di interesse/sviluppo/ per vari oggetti/situazioni sonore, rendendole, periodicamente e ciclicamente, trappole categoriali imperanti.
E queste categorie musicali cambiano spesso per tempo e modelli, sempre alla ricerca di quel qualcosa dimenticato, tralasciato, negletto per mancanza di preciso interesse o superficialità.
Se per Schaffer c'è stato prima Parigi (1948) e poi Colonia (1950), comunque  le mie personali (come di molto altri) scelte/ossessioni si sono immediatamente rivolte alla Germania (in senso molto lato ed altricolato).
Dallo SMET degli anni 80 fino a questi ultimi tempi, il mio interesse per la musica elettronica (accademica e non) è risultato pressochè univoco, pur con diverse metodologie ed aree di applicazione. Però con un sostanziale cambiamento: l'abbandono graduale del sintetizzatore per un ritorno agli strumenti acustici classici e all'uso del campione/sound object (per dirla alla francese).
Quindi privilegiando una tecnica che si basa essenzialmente sul trattamento del suono ( in senso molto lato), non tanto sulla creazione dello stesso.
Il campione, puro o trattato, alla fine rimanda, almeno per la parte istituzionale/accademica idealmente a Parigi e al GRM e ai loro monumenti verbali. 
Tralasciando però la parte autocelebrativa e autoreferenziale della scuola francese, si aprono contemporaneamente nuovi canali di applicazione/ossessione: aprire all'infinito il campo semantico del suono e della composizione . 
Quindi accostare suoni e relativi ambienti chiusi/codificati, a volte anche con ironia o provocazioni barocche. E aprire contemporaneamente lo spazio sonoro, con le tecniche multicanali (Atmos, Ambisonics et...).

Riguardo al software: parlando di campioni e sound objects, ormai lo strumento per eccellenza è diventato il campionatore, possibilmente multitimbrico (4-8)/multicanale, in modo da costruire immediatamente un ambiente musicale ben definito. Questo campionatore deve avere anche la possibilità di scelta della velocità, del tempo e della quantità di suono da trattare.
Se anche multicanale (out), posso ulteriormente trattare i singoli suoni prodotti.
Quasi sempre il campionatore è abbinitato ad un looper (mini, micro, da 6-10 secondi in avanti). Quindi tape music, però senza forbici e colla. Anche qua per l'abuso della frase musicale.

Se voglio usare la tecnica multicanale per la riproduzione sonora, consiglio la  IEM Plug-in Suite (Graz) e SPARTA Spatial Audio Real-Time Applications (Aalto)

Come direbbe David Sylvian "The ghosts of my life blow wilder than before".

In ogni caso, sempre e comunque, alla musica viene risparmiata "l'onta" del significato (G. Manganelli, '80).

Paris Köln (disquiet0702)

A track produced for the 600th Naviar Records Haiku Challenge; 7 days in which to write and record a piece in response to the haiku posted. The haiku, 'thinking of us, the sound of wind, among the pines' made me think of the 'us' as several voices carried in the wind through the forest, so I used solely voice samples for the track.

Us the Wind Among the Pines (naviarhaiku600)

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.

Undercurrent

x i i i x x i