An eight-minute slice of glacial melodicism sandwiched between two half-hour vacuum-packed decanters of space music, Souns‘ Scenarios for the Real Self is as expansive as it is ethereal. The relatively concise interlude, “Natreal” (MP3), is almost unbearably light ambience. On either side sit “Frozen Ocean” (MP3) and “Evolution of a Flower” (MP3). They’re something of a return to form for Kikaku, the releasing netlabel, resembling the earlier organic, formless work by its founder, Pocka, aka Brad Mitchell, who of late has been hosting more riff-driven, if still electronic, work. Scenarios for the Real Self, originally self-released by Souns, is the label’s 85th release. The online liner notes include some astral musicology about the structure of a flower and the C major scale. And before writing this off as a handful of laptop presets set on loop, check out the list of equipment it was recorded on: an old Atari computer, late 1980s equipment like an AKAI sampler and a Yamaha guitar effects unit, and the estimable Yamaha MD8 multi-track recorder. One track, “Frozen Ocean,” was “edited slightly in ACID Pro,” the digital music suite. The album’s title was apparently borrowed from alternate-spirituality figure Robert S. Ellwood. More info at kikapu.com.
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.