Recent interview with me at freemusicarchive.org on Creative Commons, Disquiet Junto, and more • Projects: Instagr/am/bient + LX(RMX): Lisbon Remixed • Key Topics: #sound-art, #classical, #generative • How to Submit for Review • Elsewhere: Twitter (Disquiet + Junto), SoundCloud (Disquiet + Junto).

Listening to art. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Modular Flurry (MP3)

A Serge piece by Handhewn

[ May 18, 2013 / Department: downstream / Leave a comment ]

The notes fling like they’re ringing out on a digital hang drum. The phrases seem to pause long enough to suggest a momentary ease, before launching again into serial flurry. The track modulates occassionally, the full tonal setting shifting entirely between different foundations, between relative extremes of shrill and muted, sharp and dull. The track is credited to Handhewn. The brief note associated with the track, “Mayhem + Creature,” relates to the Serge modular system employed.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/handhewn. More from Handhewn at twitter.com/handhewn.

[ Tags: , / Leave a comment ]

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

[ May 18, 2013 / Department: field notes / Leave a comment ]
  • Today’s work powered by CTRL ; (in Google Docs) and OPT CMD H (in OS X). ->
  • Makes me so happy. RT @colab_toronto: the latest @djunto project has made me more excited about making music than I've been in a long time. ->
  • I keep my eye on @indabamusic remix contests. The website's favicon always makes me think Twitter's favicon exploded: http://t.co/ksChNh3c8S ->
  • So, with Android 4.3 due for likely announcement next week, when are folks guessing it’ll be released? ->
  • Latest version of Android app Draft (@mttvll) is great. This and Keep are the apps I write in on my tablet and phone: http://t.co/H3FrUusjxJ ->
  • Fog horns are out in force. If these were the sounds of actual animals, the beasts would be majestic. ->
  • Fog horns pulled an all-nighter. ->
  • Stock up. RT @wifsten: Audio supplies you didn’t know you needed http://t.co/APVzz79BWS ->
    • Read more »
[ Tag: / Leave a comment ]

Human White Noise Machine (MP3)

Sample track from forthcoming People of the North album

[ May 17, 2013 / Department: downstream / Leave a comment ]

The psychedelics are confirmed at about two minutes in, when echoed vocals warble and waft and turn back on themselves, like some ancient recording-session outtake from a forgotten Led Zeppelin album. Until then it is all tumult and sporadic drumming, and after as well. What it is is “Drama Class” from People of the North, off the Sub Contra album, due out June 11 from Thrill Jockey. The band is an offshoot of Oneida, featuring that group’s Kid Millions (drums) and Bobby Matador (“keyboard, synth, vocals”) and various guests, all apparently also from Oneida. The track in question has the slow head-bobbing drone-ness of doom metal, even as the percussion brings to mind something European and free improvisatory. It’s maximalism, writ small, like a human-powered white-noise machine.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/thrilljockey. More on the album at thrilljockey.com. More from the crew at enemyhogs.com, the rare band website is beautiful enough to make you bypass your RSS reader once in awhile.

[ / Leave a comment ]

Disquiet Junto Project 0072: Domestic Score

The Assignment: Make a domestic score from sounds recorded in your own home.

[ May 16, 2013 / Department: downstream / Leave a comment ]

20130516-doorbell

Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.

This assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, May 16, 2013, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, May 20, as the deadline.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0072: Domestic Score

This week’s project is based on field recordings of wherever it is that you live. The goal is to produce a relaxing score to your domestic life by employing noises that intrude on that life.

Step 1: Make a recording of your doorbell, or whatever noise it is that someone would make when announcing their arrival at your residence. If you don’t have a functioning doorbell, then, for example, record the sound of a knock on your door.

Step 2: Record between one and three additional sounds that intrude on your life: your phone’s ring, perhaps, or the alarm on your microwave oven.

Step 3: You will now have between one and four sounds recorded. Using those sounds as source material, compose a new, original piece of music that could easily be described as gentle or meditative. You can transform them as much as you choose, but each should in some way still be evident and recognizable in the mix. You cannot add any other sounds to the project.

Deadline: Monday, May 20, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your track should have a duration of between two and six minutes.

Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.

Title/Tag: Include the term “disquiet0072-domesticscore” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:

More on this 72nd Disquiet Junto project, which involves making a domestic score from sounds recorded in your own home, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/05/16/disquiet0072-domesticscore/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Image found via wikimedia.org.

[ Tags: , , / Leave a comment ]

16°30’37″N, 88°22’1″W (MP3)

Belize field recording by Tony Myatt

[ May 15, 2013 / Department: field notes / Leave a comment ]

20130515-placenia

The 95th Touch Radio entry is by Tony Myatt, and it is another in the series’ enticingly detailed field recordings. This one was made in Placenia Bay, in Belize. The entries in the Touch series tend to fall into one of two camps: pure field recording and sound in which field recordings serve as source material (though there are, increasingly, also documents of humans that we call live concert recordings). Myatt’s presents itself as a subset of the pure field recording approach, in that it appears not to be a single event but a sequence of sonic shapshots collected into one MP3.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Writes Myatt at the opening of his journal of the recording event:

After a long day of finicky experimentation in the sun, I returned to the bay to wash salt water from the equipment and to hose down. From 16°30’37″N, 88°22’1″W I looked out on a tranquil evening scene and decided to attempt one last recording.

I had recorded throughout the day in shallow coral seas off the coast of Belize. I’d attempted to capture a spatial impression of the clouds of clicks and pops produced by crustacea and who-knows-what; a sound present at almost every ocean location on Earth.

Track originally posted for free download at touchradio.org.uk.

[ Tags: , / Leave a comment ]