- RIP, bossa nova composer Billy Blanco (b. 1924). #
- I'm now on Google+, but my cereal tastes the same. #
- RT @vuzhmusic Saw this headline, thought it was a @disquiet post: Tender Noise-Sensing & Mapping the Ambient Noise in SF http://t.co/KlnI5Ak #
- When unsubscribing from Madonna's email newsletter, you're asked why. One option is "Not interested in material." No girl, just material. #
- People selling shovels made the real fortunes during the Gold Rush. The infrastructure-heavy Web 2.0 feels like a Virtual Shovel Gold Rush. #
- Accidentally used the Long message option in TweetDeck. Had no intention to, and won't again. 140 characters is more than enough to … #
- When "Budweiser Opening Act PResents" (perhaps the cap R is purposeful?) gets in touch via MySpace it may finally be time to end the account #
- Afternoon sounds: the simultaneous whirs of a distant motorcycle, an airplane, and the desktop computer fan. #
- The peculiar gray area in comment moderation: between "not appearing like you're trying to have the last word”¦ (cont) http://deck.ly/~97NPz #
- Many images of goats being prepped for dinner have been added to my short story on the execution of Mexican Emperor Maximilian goo.gl/P8E9X #
- One possible benefit of data-visualization craze: by making numbers "pretty" it may reduce the numbers=facts/words=opinion prejudice. #
- We're discussing what might make @soundcloud even better and whether it is cloud-based "Pay to Play": http://goo.gl/JOJiW #
- Tasty evening beats: cowboy electronica from @pauladaunt http://bit.ly/qmlqoV #
- Sorting books. So many by DeLillo, Auster, (Joanna) Scott, Ellroy, (Mark) Strand. Volumes of poetry just because Auster edited them. #
- I own two books on Rube Goldberg (one by Marzio, the other by Keller), both of them awkwardly horizontal. #
- RT @gurdonark I've become a huge believer in the 5-minute animated short, accompanied only by music. #
- Even as a huge admirer of Dennis Potter, I've had enough TV musicals. I'd like more silent television. #
- Mass PR emails don't kill people. Being asked repeatedly why you didn't reply to a mass emailing can lead to health disorders. #
- Upgraded to WordPress 3.2. #
- Banana chips sound like poker chips. #
- RT @geetadayal Tip for bands: Sending your album to me as a zip file encoded at bitrate 128 is not a good way to get your record reviewed #
- Wishing someone would make an animated GIF of the cover of Africa HiTech's album 93 Million Miles. #
- In a few moments, the hard drives will be silenced for the night. It's the sonic equivalent of drinking cold sparkling water. #
- Previous comment was an interesting addition to our ongoing music/photography discussion: http://goo.gl/GsDzf #
- "There are hundreds of variables being considered at any moment, much like a great solo from an improvising jazz musician" goo.gl/GsDzf #
- I'd ask if there's a spam filter in WordPress to delete "So-and-so already did that" comments, but I assume someone has already asked. #
- The creator of Otomata says: RT @earslap Send me your favorite Otomata pieces and I'll include them in the upcoming iOS version #
- Kind of Blew #
- The Kind of Bloop thing isn't "music vs photography." It's "original music composition vs portrait photography that's commercial packaging." #
- Kind of a bummer: Android's default browser doesn't animate animated GIFs? #
- The first indignity of death is when people learn your true full name. Goodbye, Edwin Parker (Cy) Twombly, Jr. #
- RIP, visual artist and onetime Army cryptographer Cy Twombly (b. 1928). #
- The foghorns today have that "Zeus left his cellphone on vibrate" vibe. #
- Mono.Kultur's ECM iPad mag-app is nice, especially being free, but 334MB seems excessive: http://t.co/vJNDEpy (App rec via @benjamindauer) #
- July 5 is when we celebrate random percussion in the US, as revelers slowly wake and fire off their remaining works. #
- From inside my home in San Francisco the fireworks outside sound like a New Orleans thunderstorm without the rain. #
- Another regular event I hope to check out next time I am in Los Angeles: http://mm-cc.org/ #
- Every July 4, the Dave Alvin song kicks on in my head and doesn't stop until bed. It's now playing (internally) as of a minute ago. #
- I'll say this for Bandcamp, it's nifty that if you jump from a track on an album page to the track's page, it picks up where it left off. #
- "When in the course of events it's necessary for people to dissolve bands that connected them and recombine them as samples" #altdeclaration #
- "Whenever any Government becomes destructive, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, remix it or mash it up" #altdeclaration #
- "all men are created equal … endowed by Tyler, the Creator, with certain unalienable Rights" #altdeclaration #
- Speaking of independence, short fictions I wrote about short-lived emperor of Mexico, Maximilian: http://t.co/fWhSfKQ & http://t.co/EOxqCq8 #
- Days leading up to July 4 are more enjoyable from sound standpoint, occasional bursts of distant hard white noise. Well, when it's distant. #
- The lovely @NodeBeat generative music app for #ios by @sethsandler & @soulwire is free through July 4: http://goo.gl/3qioK #
- Typing "Beastie" into @SoundCloud and hitting play isn't a bad way to spend an afternoon. #
- 500+:435:38 = number of groups on @soundcloud whose names include, respectively, the words "house," "experimental" and "drone" #
- You will not hate yourself, or me, for going to http://bit.ly/lAGIbQ & clicking on the 5th track. Glitchy poppy scintillating. #
- [email protected] Glad to chip in. "Curate" is a useful word that's being rendered useless due to rampant misuse. #
- Who's working out needed changes to copyright law in advance of the Singularity? #
- Blade Stroller #budgetnoir #
- Pick Up Stix on South Street #budgetnoir #
- The Inbox Always Beeps Twice #budgetnoir #
- The Short Nap #budgetnoir #
- The Maltese Tweet #budgetnoir #
- Chinese Takeout #budgetnoir #
- Hey, Bandcamp's embed player isn't breaking my site's HTML anymore. Maybe it wasn't my site's fault all along? #
- If you dig old signs, follow @susangrayblue — she is driving from Nashville to San Francisco and yfrogging great shots. #
- "though I’m loath to view myself as an activist, I might accept the idea of being a catalyst" –David Byrne http://goo.gl/iZPHA #wordchoice #
- Know astrophysics? Help @defjaf identify men in old photo shot at Mark I telescope at Jodrell Bank: http://goo.gl/9uulF #
- Technically it's not raining on Soundcloud. It's pouring. So much music. #
- I heard the weatherman say / Be well, be happy and gay / but on @soundcloud it is raining http://t.co/Xy8yZo0 #
- It's sunny outside without one cloud in the sky, but on @soundcloud it's raining http://t.co/5XmtyCo (thanks to @wcraghead) #
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about
Marc Weidenbaum founded the website Disquiet.com in 1996 at the intersection of sound, art, and technology, and since 2012 has moderated the Disquiet Junto, an active online community of weekly music/sonic projects. He has written for Nature, Boing Boing, The Wire, Pitchfork, and NewMusicBox, among other periodicals. He is the author of the 33 1⁄3 book on Aphex Twin’s classic album Selected Ambient Works Volume II. Read more about his sonic consultancy, teaching, sound art, and work in film, comics, and other media
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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).
Most Recent Posts
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
• 0473 / Placebo Effect (2 or 3) / The Assignment: The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio that others will complete.
• 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.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 473 consecutive weeks to date.Tags
8-bit app audio-games brands of sounds Buddha Machine chiptune classical comics copyleft field-recording film free free download gadget generative i-hop IFTTTgram installation ios ipad iphone ipod ipod touch junto live-performance live performance modular netlabel noise recommended stream remix saw2for33third science-fiction score site-maintenance software sound-art sounds-of-brands studio journal this week in sound turntablism TV video video-games voiceMost Recent Comments
- paolo i. on Ambient Gets More Trombones: “very nice and thank you for sharing. this (and yesterday’s video) is probably the current segment of an uninterrupted line… ”
- Dietmar Sittek on 10 Favorite Ambient/Electronic Albums of 2020: “My favorite album of the year and equally the favorite ambient album is by Ferr “As above so below”. Proved,… ”
- jet jaguar on Chris Herbert’s Sketches: “Thanks for sharing, Marc, I’d missed this one and really like Chris Herbert’s stuff. So far I’m enjoying the wider… ”
- Kent Sparling on RIP, Harold Budd (1936 -2020): “a hero, a genius thank you Harold for all your gifts to us. ”
- Yves Meynard on Cross-Device Ambient: “Lovely piece, thank you for giving us a chance to discover it! ”