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
• December 13, 2021: This day marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of Disquiet.com.
• December 28, 2021: This day marks the 10th anniversary of the Instagr/am/bient compilation.
• January 6, 2021: This day marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Disquiet Junto music community.Recent
• July 28, 2021: This day marked the 500th consecutive weekly project in the Disquiet Junto music community.
• There are entries on the Disquiet Junto in the 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.
• A chapter on the Disquiet Junto ("The Disquiet Junto as an Online Community of Practice," by Ethan Hein) appears in the 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.)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
• 0507 / In DD’s Key of C / The Assignment: Make music with 10 acoustic instrument samples all in a shared key.
• 0506 / Wipe Out / The Assignment: Take something whole and erase half of it.
• 0505 / Line Out / The Assignment: Share a track, get feedback, and give feedback.
• 0504 / Transform Formula / The Assignment: Take a sound, change it, and contrast that with the original.
• 0503 / Sing Song / The Assignment: Record a song using only your voice transformed beyond recognition.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 507 consecutive weeks to date.