My 33 1/3 book, on Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II, was the 5th bestselling book in the series in 2014. It's available at Amazon (including Kindle) and via your local bookstore. • F.A.Q.Key Tags: #saw2for33third, #sound-art, #classical, #juntoElsewhere: Twitter, SoundCloud, Instagram

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

Three Loops

An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt

Happy to support someone who’s made blank tape loops for sale. These are 4.25, 5.8, and 8 seconds in length.

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An Improvised Atmosphere

From Sydney-based Pat Carroll

Beautiful five-minute ambient jam by Pat Carroll, student at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Wisps of sound fly this way and that, warped in an improvised atmosphere. Sounds turn back on themselves, tones and noises vying for lack of prominence.

This is the latest video I’ve added to my ongoing YouTube playlist of fine live performance of ambient music. Video originally posted to YouTube. More from Carroll at instagram.com/patcarrollmusic.

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Sound Ledger¹ (WHO, Mics, MIDI)

Audio culture by the numbers

9: The number of seconds one can safely be exposed to 120 dB of sound, according to WHO (World Health Organization)

6: The number of noise-reduction microphones in the Anker Liberty Air 2 Pro earbuds, meaning just one more mic than there are words in the new product’s name

440 – 880: The range, in hertz, reportedly depicted in the new logo design for MIDI

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¹Footnotes: WHO: unb.com.bd. Microphones: cnet.com. MIDI: cdm.link.

Originally published in the January 25, 2021, edition of the This Week in Sound email newsletter (tinyletter.com/disquiet).

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Current Favorites: Autoharp, Patterns, Ginsberg

Heavy rotation, lightly annotated

A weekly(ish) answer to the question “What have you been listening to lately?” It’s lightly annotated because I don’t like re-posting material without providing some context. I hope to write more about some of these in the future, but didn’t want to delay sharing them. (This weekly feature was previously titled Current Listens. The name’s been updated for clarity’s sake.)

▰ Kin Sventa playing saxophone and autoharp with live processing (beats, synthesis). When the beat kicks in around 2:00, it gets even better. On loop now. Way bolder than the track of his in my latest podcast, and that is way alright.

▰ Repetitions and echoes define the collection of muted elegies that is Aura by Nashville-based Belly Full of Stars (aka Kim Rueger). Each track is titled “Pattern,” a term true not just to the genteel simplicity on hand, but to the deep sense of permanence the quiet tracks embody.

▰ The shimmering, swelling drone that is “Blue Moon” feels welcomingly rougher, considerably more strident, than a lot of recent music by Jeannine Schulz, and all the more compelling for it.

▰ A host of acts, including Gavin Friday (working with Howie B), Yo La Tengo, and Bill Frisell, set the late Allen Ginsberg’s poetry to new music (“All proceeds from the sale of this album will be donated to HeadCount.org promoting voter registration and participation in democracy”). A major highlight is the opening “Elegy for Neal Cassady” by Scanner.

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Sound Ledger¹ (Mumbai, Speakers, Helicopters)

Audio culture by the numbers

100.7: The decibel level during festival season in 2020, Mumbai’s quietest in two decades

9.5: Estimated total sales (in billions of dollars) of speakers this year in China, the biggest market in the world

88,000: Roughly the number of helicopter flights between 2017 and 2019 in and around Washington, D.C.

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¹Footnotes: Mumbai: indiatimes.com. Speakers: statista.com. Helicopters: washingtonpost.com.

Originally published in the January 11, 2021, edition of the This Week in Sound email newsletter (tinyletter.com/disquiet).

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