Disquiet

• Jan 7 = Instragr/am/bient Track 07: @benjamindauer responds in slow swells to @markrushtoncom's Rothkoesque @instagram: http://t.co/BoEju71d #
• Music from ice. Already 7 tracks in first Disquiet Junto communal sound project: http://t.co/anQFre9l #
• Jan 6 = Instagr/am/bient Track 06 = @falsereactions renders Dead Wood's municipal @instagram image http://t.co/O8cooMYZ #
• Belated: Jan 5 = Instagr/am/bient Track 05 = Nibblets renders Vourtsis' glistening @instagram: http://t.co/K5mjcp44 #
• Already three fine entries in the first communal http://t.co/xdF6qCg1 @soundcloud project: http://t.co/anQFre9l #oumupo #
• Socal cafe etiquette http://t.co/Jg61iLsg #
• Definitely not too late. RT @OpenHeartSound don't think it's too late to get in on 1st soundcloud junto http://t.co/anQFre9l #
• Two great tastes. Listen simultaneously. RT @morganpackard What to listen to while I work… Basic Channel or Burt Bacharach? #
• Morning sounds in Pasadena: occasional bird calls, cars skirting stop signs on moist pavement. #
• Pretty sweet exhibit of vinyl record players at SFO: Revolutions per Minute. http://t.co/huWhNbeQ #

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Among the most popular posts on this site in 2011, out of a total of 386, were one posted just at the start of the year, and another just at the end. In early February, there was (1) documentation of the death during the Egyptian uprising of sound artist Ahmed Basiony, with related field recordings by John Kannenberg. And at the end, there was (2) the late-December collection Instagr/am/bient: 25 Sonic Postcards.

Also popular: (3) a manifesto of sorts about the management of netlabels (“If You’re Thinking of Starting a Netlabel …”), (4) an interview with the coder/musician (Istanbul, Turkey’s Batuhan Bozkurt) behind the wonderful Otomata app (“When Cells Collide”), and (5) thoughts on the absence of a microphone in the Kindle Fire and what it means for the role of sound in Android development (“The Kindle Fire Is Deaf”).

And five more of the most popular posts were drawn from the site’s Downstream department of freely and legally downloadable music: (6) a consideration, inspired by New York City–based Tom Moody, of “The Sound of One GIF Animating,” (7) excerpts from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross‘ music for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, (8) evidence of Tallahassee, Florida–based Jared Smyth‘s updating of Marcus Fisher‘s cassette-tape loop, (9) Chicago-based Joshua Treble‘s “new new wave” (or perhaps post post punk) amalgamation of guitar and electronics, and (10) Atlanta, Georgia–based Richard Devine playing the role of the “Alan Lomax of Lost Technology.”

Even though it only launched in the last few days of the month, (1) the Disquiet.com various-artists album Instagr/am/bient: 25 Sonic Postcards was the top post of December 2011 (during which there were 25 posts). Five entries from the site’s Downstream department of freely and legally downloadable music made the top 10: (2) excerpts from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross‘ score for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, (3) Nottingham, England–based Guy Birkin‘s distillation of the end-of-year holiday aura, (4) Chicago-based Jeff Kolar‘s music from (not for) operating systems, (5) Cologne, Germany–based All N4tural‘s “colliding banter” music drawn from glitches in human speech, and (6) Berlin, German–based Timo Kahlen‘s exercise in political noise. Also making the top 10, (7) a post summarizing this website’s recent redesign (“Welcome to Disquiet.com 3.0″) and (8) “15 Reflections on the 15th Anniversary of Disquiet.com,” which occurred on December 13. Also, (9, 10) not one but two entries from the weekly automated summaries of tweets made at twitter.com/disquiet.

And the most popular searches of the month were: natural, instagram, Saito Koji, sfmoma, aaron, brusio, cocteau, restive, autechre, Instagrambient, alan morse davies, Arcka, Christmas, delaurenti, feedback, instagr/am/bient, kettel, lique, maudlin.

• Crazy white noise filled the living room in the near dark at 6:10am as I was typing. The Tivo machine was, briefly, a sonic blast furnace. #
• I've learned much from the Instagr/am/bient project. One key thing: @soundcloud sets would benefit from "shuffle play" mode. #
• http://t.co/xdF6qCg1 interviews department redesigned. Highlights full list of 72 since 1992: http://t.co/kju7BTqN (More TK from archive.) #
• Our new compilation of original music, Instagr/am/bient, has almost 2,000 listens on @soundcloud, in under 24 hours: http://t.co/vgxaQCya #
• The first http://t.co/xdF6qCg1 remix production, Our Lives in the Bush of Disquiet, has had almost 35,000 downloads since its 2006 release. #
• The facts of the contemporary home stereo. #soundcloud http://t.co/fTpDCRaJ #
• Somewhat overwhelmed by amount of Instagr/am/bient correspondence. This is good. #
• Thanks for warm Instagr/am/bient response. 1200 plays in first half day, not counting http://t.co/VsCIgQRo downloads: http://t.co/I0nPVLla #
• Instagr/am/bient is 25 musicians making sonic postcards inspired by each other's @instagram photos: http://t.co/YMvlToqk #
• Major thanks to @boondesign for the visual heavy lifting. The 10MB PDF he put together for Instagr/am/bient is gorgeous http://t.co/Vk05bFry #
• Thanks to @mapmap @benjamindauer @ooray @wcraghead and everyone else who made Instagr/am/bient possible. #
• Promised myself I wouldn't do a Disquiet multi-musician project until Lisbon one's done but this congealed fast/nicely: http://t.co/YMvlToqk #
• Despite possible mistaken impressions, I'm new to Instagram. If you do it, I'm @dsqt over there. Here, of course, I get to keep my vowels. #
• It's time to share something a whole lotta people have been working on http://t.co/Ht61OHy2 #
• Instagr/am/bient 5×5. http://t.co/I4wbymgS #
• Coming soon. #netlabel #ambient #instagram http://t.co/MBLlO87x #
• Momentary break from Twitter-silence. Graphic genies at @boondesign & I are nearing completion on Instagr/am/bent. Release to appear soon. #
• Tools. http://t.co/vdAjapvX #

• Going Twitter-dark Dec 22 at 5:30pm Pacific, through morning of Jan 3. May break silence for Instagr/am/bient project notice. #
• The 15th Instagr/am/bient track (of 25) arrived; 10 to go, 2 to be trimmed. The parallels of visual and sonic filters soon to be shared. #
• Thanks to Jaime Crespo (http://t.co/PtwPMjk0) for drawing my Twitter-background boombox. It’s the 21st monthly Sketches of Sound piece. #
• Thanks to @bartalos for drawing the bicycle horns that were my Twitter background for past month! It was the 20th monthly Sketches of Sound. #
• The trailer to Prometheus employs the screams (among other things) from the 1979 Alien trailer: http://t.co/MUtF8ogd per @io9 #
• Are there iOS or OS X apps making creative use of Home Sharing? Or is it solely an iTunes-to-iTunes (or in iOS, “Music”) thing? #
• Morning listen: Cliff Martinez’s score to Espion(s). #
• RT @xeni: Has anyone else who had MRI ever considered that the opening stanzas sound like intro to “Blue Monday”? And the chirping is cute. #
• Another 4 Instagr/am/bient track in my inbox this morning. We’re up to 13 completed (1 pending edit) and 12 due. More than halfway there. #
• Have now received 10 of the 25 Instagr/am/bient tracks. Two need a little trimming, 15 more to come by Christmas Eve. #
• Always nice when the band that’s due to play the cafe where you’re getting some writing done turns out to be a string quartet. #
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