Nearly 25 years ago over the course of three days, in April 1973, reportedly some 60 musicians on “no less than ten synthesizers” and various other instruments filled six acres of the San Bernardino National Forest in California with music. Other Minds guru Charles Amirkhanian was there at the time, interviewing the involved composers and recording snatches of the music, heard in this archival document echoing and overlapping amid the trees (MP3). There are jazz performances, radio improvisations and much philosophizing about the nature of music — and about music amid nature. Participants included Richard Bunger, Barry Gott, Jacques Bekaert, Nicolas Slonimsky and Dane Rudhyar . More info at archive.org and otherminds.org.
The new album Unit of Resistance by Raz Mesinai’s Badawi is welcome not only because it is Mesinai’s first new collection since he started branching into film (Sorry, Haters; Romántico; the forthcoming Burning the Future: Coal in America), but also because the album’s guest line-up is the clearest delineator of the how so-called, once-upon “illbient” begat today’s so-called “dubstep.” In addition to Mesinai himself (also known to record his heavily dub-influenced music as Badawi), there’s a mix by DJ Spooky, a key illbient figure. More recent dub-drenched electronic contributors include Kode 9 and DJ/rupture. Up for free download, courtesy of releasing label ROIR, are two very different Resistance tracks. “Market Place” is from Badawi Quintet; it’s a raging piece of acoustic trance, all roiling drums and searing woodwind (Current Activities
Upcoming
• Autumn, 2019: I'll have a new piece in The Wire.
• December 13, 2019: This day marks the 23rd anniversary of Disquiet.com.
• January 7, 2020: This day marks the 8th anniversary of the Disquiet Junto.
• March 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.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.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).