Quick Links: The website wordcount.org tracks the popularity of English word usage. As of today, “ambient” ranks at 22,001, “disquiet” comes in at 21053, and “electronica” doesn’t make the top 86,800, the number of words in wordcount’s database. There’s also a list of query entries, but they’re too obscene to detail here. … Schematic Records musician Richard Devine set his equipment on fire during a showcase at the recent Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, Calif. (link). (Thanks to the Warp Records email newsletter.) … Check out the Noise Shirt, “which has a microphone that measures the surrounding environments noise level and displays it as a vertical 5 step equalizer bar with the LEDs.” (Thanks to Engadget.) … Christian Doppler lost out to Charles Darwin when Los Angeles-based songwriter Timothy Sellers was selecting notable figures in science for his album 26 Scientists: Volume 1, Anning to Malthus, according to an article last Tuesday in the New York Times (“When You Wish Upon an Atom: The Songs of Science“). Sellers’ backing band, collectively known as Artichoke, includes a theremin player, the band’s only science professional (he’s an engineer). … Following on the remix projects of the Atlantic and Verve record labels, Motown has announced Motown Remixed, which features DJ Z-Trip, Jazzy Jeff, Mocean Worker and others remixing boomer classics. Several streams are available: two full tracks, Z-Trip doing the Jackson 5‘s “I Want You Back” (WMA, Real) and Marvin Gaye‘s “Let’s Get It On” revisited by Paul Simpson and Miles Dalto (WMA, Real), plus a video documentary featuring some of the contributors (WMA, Quicktime, Real). More details at motownremixed.com, including additional streams and interviews. … New Releases: Among the CDs released this coming week are Meat Beat Manifesto‘s At the Center (Thirsty Ear), featuring Jack Dangers, Dave King (drums), Peter Gordon (flute) and Craig Taborn (various keyboards, including grand piano and Hammond B3), and Four Tet‘s Everything Ecstatic (Domino). More new releases at brainwashed.com/releases. … Quote of the Week: “[W]hat we’ve done has always somewhat depended on whatever technology was around at the time.” That’s Brian Eno speaking to the St. Petersburg Times (the one in Russia) about his work with Robert Fripp (“Another Day with Eno“). The article focuses on his collaboration with Algerian-born, Paris-based singer Rachid Taha, and mentions that Eno’s been working with Paul Simon.
Current Activities
Upcoming
• February 5, 2020: The first session of the 15-week course I teach at the Academy of Art about the role of sound in the media landscape.
• April 15, 2020: A chapter on the Disquiet Junto ("The Disquiet Junto as an Online Community of Practice," by Ethan Hein) appears in the forthcoming book The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning (Oxford University Press), edited by Stephanie Horsley, Janice Waldron, and Kari Veblen. (Details at oup.com.)
• December 13, 2020: This day marks the 24th anniversary of Disquiet.com.
• January 7, 2021: This day marks the 9th anniversary of the start of the Disquiet Junto music community.Dates TBA
• There are entries on the Disquiet Junto in the forthcoming book The Music Production Cookbook: Ready-made Recipes for the Classroom (Oxford University Press), edited by Adam Patrick Bell. Ethan Hein wrote one, and I did, too.
• At least two live group concerts by Disquiet Junto members in the San Francisco Bay Area are in the works for 2020.
• I have liner notes for a musician's solo album and an essay in a book about an art event due out. I'll announce as the release dates come into focus.Ongoing
• The Disquiet Junto series of weekly communal music projects explore constraints as a springboard for creativity and productivity. There is a new project each Thursday afternoon (California time), and it is due the following Monday at 11:59pm: disquiet.com/junto.
• My book on Aphex Twin's landmark 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, was published as part of the 33 1/3 series, an imprint of Bloomsbury. It has been translated into Japanese (2019) and Spanish (2018).
disquiet junto
Background
Since January 2012, the Disquiet Junto has been an ongoing weekly collaborative music-making community that employs creative constraints as a springboard for creativity. Subscribe to the announcement list (each Thursday), listen to tracks by participants from around the world, read the FAQ, and join in.Recent Projects
• 0465 / You Thank / The Assignment: Make a piece of music for someone or something for which you feel thankful.
• 0464 / Blanket Song / The Assignment: Play over a song, and then remove the original.
• 0463 / Making the Gradient / The Assignment: Make a piece of music inspired by the concept of a gradient.
• 0462 / Vade in Pace / The Assignment: Write a short piece of music that gets slower and slower as it proceeds.
• 0461 / Goldilocks Zone / The Assignment: Navigate a sonic space between the hospitable and the inhospitable.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 465 consecutive weeks to date.