Quick note about some things I’ve published recently in print, which means there isn’t much to link to. … (1) I have a piece in the new issue of Make magazine (vol. 02) about these keen “piggyback” audio plugs that double your mixer’s inputs (10 bucks at RadioShack). Make is a great new quarterly magazine about do-it-yourself technology. More info at makezine.com. … (2) The new issue of e|i magazine, where I’m a contributing editor, is out (issue four, spring 2005). I’ve got a fairly good-sized interview with gregarious live-improv electronic-musician Thomas Dimuzio, which includes comments from some of his collaborators: Wobbly (aka Jon Leidecker), Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow) and Mark Hosler (of Negativland, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year). I interviewed Hosler in Dimuzio’s studio while they were recording Hosler’s first ever solo album, Thigmotactic. I also have a small heap of CD reviews in the issue: Aeroc‘s Viscous Solids (Ghostly International), Daedelus‘ Of Snowdonia (Plug Research), Egg‘s Don’t Postpone Joy (Mutek), Fibla‘s Lent (Spark), Freeform‘s Wildcat (Skam), Andrey Kiritchenko‘s Bees & Honey (Zeromoon), Laminar‘s Nozzle (Asphodel), Fabrice LG‘s My 4 Stars (Kanzleramt), Lunchbox‘s Anyways (The Agriculture), Milosh‘s You Make Me Feel (Plug Research), Mindmap‘s Plochy (AFE), Mouse on Mars‘ Radical Connector (Thrill Jockey), Rapoon‘s Dream Circle (X-ZF), Martin Siewert‘s No Need to Be Lonesome (Mosz), V. / Ultra Milkmaids‘ Drone + Unease (Zeromoon) and three various-artists compilations, BBQ Beets 2 (The Agriculture), Difficult Easy Listening (Nonplace) and Station (Ai). In brief, the key picks of that litter are the BBQ Beets 2 compilation of dub-seasoned downtempo, with tracks by David Last, DJ Olive and others; two delectable hodgepodges of fragments, the Freeform and the Daedelus; and the Aeroc, a moody soundscape as scary as any horror score. The least impressive of the batch is Mouse on Mars’ Radical Connector, which trades the group’s once glistening electronica for generic industrial pop. More info at ei-mag.com. All those pieces will eventually find their way onto Disquiet.com, the Dimuzio in an extended version, once the issue of the print magazine has been out long enough to have become fish wrap.
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
• 0472 / Jam Time (1 of 3) / The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio that others will complete.
• 0471 / Phase Transition / The Assignment: The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it.
• 0470 / Calendar View / The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments.
• 0469 / [Missing in Caption] / The Assignment: Make music that pushes the constraints of descriptive television captions.
• 0468 / Mirror Rorrim / The Assignment: Create a new persona for yourself, and record a duet together.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 472 consecutive weeks to date.