The musician **gaapiiiii**, aka **G P**, of Kobe, Japan, has posted a compact, six-minute track with no explanatory text aside from the broad-strokes “experimental electronic” tag and the piece’s more opaque title: “reflexive. antisymmetric.” It is, nonetheless — or perhaps in part thanks to the tabula-rasa delivery system — especially recommended. Structurally, it is a series of evenly paced, pad-like gestural sounds. It is as if the audio includes not only the intended music but also the live performance aspects: the documentation of tactile activity on the part of the musician. The seeming causality between the subdued push-button material and the tonal material grounds the track, lending it a sense of purpose despite its sub-downtempo pace and exquisitely limited palette. Halfway through, it veers in another direction, as the music is reduced to a mere whisper of static before touch-tone phone sounds appear. Even on its own, those phone sounds in this context would be a nice touch, since they embody the place where tactile and tone meet. But better yet, the track uses them as the starting point for short explorations of their sonic content, extending the tones, glitching them lightly, letting them echo. It’s a pleasure that no one on the other end ever answers.
Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/gaapiiiii](https://soundcloud.com/gaapiiiii/reflexive-antisymmetric).
Plus: a 30-part sound documentary on BBC, the history of Celluloid Records, and more
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
¶ ***Deaf Gaming:*** Interesting anecdote from a recent [gamasutra.com](http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/188282/Kenji_Eno_A_voice_of_dissent_a_champion_for_creative_integrity.php) piece on the late video game creator **Kenji Eno**, written by **Brandon Sheffield**. The “Eno” in this is, of course, Kenji (not Brian), and the Saturn is the Sega game console from the mid-1990s:
>”For his next game, Sega wanted to make it an exclusive — whatever it was. Eno had recently met with some sight-impaired folks who liked to play action games, and he asked himself, “What if you made a game that the blind and the sighted could play equally?” So he created the game Real Sound, which is an audio-only retail game, and made Sega promise that if he made the game exclusive to them, they would donate 1,000 Saturns to blind people, and he would supply 1,000 copies of the game. Again, this was an unusual idea for 1996, but he felt the stagnancy of the industry, and went to great lengths to shake it up.”
***Surround Sound:*** The Tank is a 60’ x 30′ vessel —Â a “rusted steel water tank” in the words of its caretaker, **Bruce Odland**, who has made use of its inherent 40-second reverb since 1976. He’s set up a [kickstarter.com](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513552603/save-the-tank) campaign to ensure its future use:
The campaign ends March 31, 2013. More on the project at [kickstarter.com](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/513552603/save-the-tank). (Thanks for the tip go to Joshua Izenberg, whose [film](slomothemovie.com) Slomo just won the Documentary Short prize among the Short Film Jury Awards at the 2013 SXSW festival. Jeremiah Moore, the sound designer on Slomo, is apparently also involved in this Tank project.)
¶ ***Electretymologies:*** There’s a hair’s-breadth matter of word choice in today’s [“playlist”](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/arts/music/new-albums-veronica-falls-alice-smith-youth-lagoon.html) by **Jon Pareles** in the [*New York Times*](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/arts/music/new-albums-veronica-falls-alice-smith-youth-lagoon.html). In a single column he reviews six records. For **Suuns**’ *Images du Futur* he mentions “the repeating synthesizer tones of early *electro*.” For **How to Destroy Angels**’ *Welcome Oblivion* he mentions both “dank *electronic* sounds” and how “the *electronics* mostly give way to the acoustic.” And for **Draco Rosa**’s *Vida* he mentions “dipping into new wave, Caribbean styles, *electronica* and, at the end, hard-rock blasts.” The emphasis is mine. Those are four distinct terms, all variations on a core root prefix, all used in close proximity: electro, electronic, electronics, and electronica.
¶ ***Twang Bar Theory:*** This is pretty great. Over at [youtube.com](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWfxQ4QFM4M), **Adrian Belew** (**King Crimson**, **Talking Heads**, **Nine Inch Nails**) as part of the Chicago Humanities Festival back in 2011, discussing the “history and future of guitar noise”:
The event opened with a [guitar solo](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yM5qTMXJkT0), to set the tone, as it were, for the event, and there’s a [third section](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Cr_cB8-NVU) as well.
¶ ***Docusound Platform:*** Promotional video for the site [docusound.org](http://docusound.org/), “a platform for producing and distributing audio documentaries”:
¶ ***Sonifying Auckland:*** Sound designer **Tim Prebble**, along with filmmaker **Denise Batchelor**, is a 2013 artist in residence of the Auckland regional parks system. Details at [scoop.co.nz](http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/CU1303/S00332/artists-in-residence-to-capture-park-in-film-and-sound.htm). Here is description from the announcement: “He’ll record local native birdcalls, slow the recordings to allow notation and then ”˜play with this as the DNA of music’, embellishing and orchestrating it. On completion, his music will be played at a local venue and a CD, tentatively called *The Bird Song Preludes*, will be available after his residency.” More from Prebble at [musicofsound.co.nz](http://www.musicofsound.co.nz/blog/).
¶ ***Celluloid Heroes:*** The first of two parts of a documentary about Celluloid Records, over at [youtube.com](http://youtu.be/HwmmDe53nSU), featuring among others **Bill Laswell**, **DXT** (formerly **Grand Mixer DST**), and label founder **Jean Karakos**:
¶ ***Re-scanning:*** Great interview at [thequietus.com](http://thequietus.com/articles/11618-scanner-robin-rimbaud-interview) with **Scanner**, aka **Robin Rimbaud**, about his range of activities. He goes project by project, talking about his early work with the technology from which he took his name (“The scanner was connected directly into a tape deck the whole time. This was ’91, ’92, this was anticipating an idea of the internet, there was no access to this kind of networked world that we’re so comfortable with today. These voices and accessing them suddenly took you into a very private place that you could never otherwise be in.”), collaborating with filmmaker **Derek Jarman** and artist **Mike Kelley**, and “re-soundtrack[ing]” the final two minutes of **Michelangelo Antonioni**’s *L’eclisse*, and much more.
¶ ***In Brief:*** There’s a 30-part audio documentary titled *Noise: A Human History* being presented starting tomorrow, March 18, on BBC 4 by **David Hendy** of the School of Media, Film and Music at the University of Sussex: [bbc.co.uk](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01rglcy) (*via [bl.uk](http://www.bl.uk/noise/)*). ¶ The [palmsounds.net](http://www.palmsounds.net/2013/03/london-mobile-music-makers-meet-up-last.html) provides a brief overview of a talk **Rob Thomas** (of Reality Jockey) gave in London about mobile music. ¶ *In the Field: The Art of Field Recording* is a new book containing interviews with artists whose work employs field recordings. Among those are **Andrea Polli**, **Christina Kubisch**, **Francisco López**, **Hildegard Westerkamp**, **Jez Riley French**, and **Lasse-Marc Riek**. *(Thanks for the tip, [John Kannenberg](http://www.johnkannenberg.com/).)* ¶ “Why Do People Use ”˜Nope’ Even Though ”˜No’ Is Shorter?” (at [slate.com](http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2013/03/08/why_do_people_use_nope_even_though_no_is_shorter.html), via Quora). The short version is that “no” may have half as many letters but the hard stop at the end of “nope” arguably makes it more succinct. The author, **Marc Ettlinger**, has other theories as well, including an informative bit on “sound symbolism.” ¶ **Robert Henke**, aka **Monolake**, is coming to the San Francisco Bay Area as a visiting instructor at CCRMA, the computer music department at Stanford University. In a warm-welcome gesture, the department made [the page announcing his course](https://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/223M/) look just like a page from Henke’s own [monolake.de](http://monolake.de/) website. ¶ That White House [petition](https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/make-unlocking-cell-phones-legal/1g9KhZG7) to make unlocking cellphones legal, [mentioned here recently](https://disquiet.com/2013/02/17/stems-phone-tinkering-mri-beatboxing-ambient-journalism/), has gained [**President Obama**’s support](http://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013/03/04/white-house-backs-petition-to-legalize-cell-phone-unlocking/). ¶ The [62nd Disquiet Junto](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet0062-lifeofsine) project had 44 participants, each making [music from three sine waves](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet0062-lifeofsine). ¶ Here’s a recording of **Steve Reich**’s “Radio Rewrite,” his [new adaptation](https://disquiet.com/2013/03/05/autechre-reich-radiohead-eno-kitchen-stems/) of **Radiohead**’s “Jigsaw Falling Into Place” and “Everything in Its Right Place”: [youtube.com](http://youtu.be/7k0dW_6Xz58). (Note, it’s audio only. Found via the indispensable *[rgable.typepad.com](http://rgable.typepad.com/aworks/2013/03/radio-rewrite-2012-steve-reich-originality.html)*.)
It might seem that the manner in which ambient music seeps into the background, the way it often rouses little in the way of an emotional reaction, nor is necessarily intended to, might mean that it is best experienced in small amounts, in tiny portions commensurate with its remote, modest, economical stature. But the opposite might also be the case, as evidenced by *Yes*, the massive new collection by **Saito Koji**. The press materials for the album explain that the collection, [downloadable for free](http://www.restingbell.net/releases/rb117-yes), is no less than five hours in length: “16 titles with a duration of 4:33 minutes each and five long forms with 39 minutes to 48 minutes.” It is rare that I write about anything at Disquiet.com without having listened to it several times, but in this case I made an exception. Despite having only dipped a pinkie toe in its vast expanse thus far, I highly recommend Koji’s immersive wonder.
What follows are but two examples of how the album’s overall sensibility of grey-flanel white noise takes on a different affect with each succsssive track. The “Yes 7” track has the vibrations of an oscillator designed to communicate with insect life ([MP3](http://www.archive.org/download/rb117/07-Yes_7.mp3)). The “Yes 11″ track sounds like a guitar being slowly strummed during an intensely tone-attentive pre-concert sound check ([MP3](http://www.archive.org/download/rb117/11-Yes_11.mp3)). These two are among the 16 on *Yes* that have John Cage”“ian length of 4’33”.
More on the release at the netlabel that produced it, [restingbell.net](http://www.restingbell.net/releases/rb117-yes), where the full set is available for free download.
The great [resonancefm.com](http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/8942?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+resonancefm+(Resonance+FM+-+Everything)) podcast has posted “Rarely Heard Music by **Dieter Roth**,” the avant-garde art figure, as part of its ongoing Wavelength series. It features rambling, chaotic mixes of everyday noise like shuffled paper and dog barks and more familiar musical elements, like guitar strumming ([MP3](http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/podpress_trac/web/8942/0/wavelength05Aug11.mp3)). There’s also some biographical material, excerpted from the book *Dieter Roth, Books and Multiples* (Hansjörg Mayer), including the first-hand experience of a collaborator about Roth’s early, instinctual use of a multitrack personal recorder.
Track originally posted for free download at [resonancefm.com](http://podcasts.resonancefm.com/archives/8942?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+resonancefm+(Resonance+FM+-+Everything)).
It might seem that the manner in which ambient music seeps into the background, the way it often rouses little in the way of an emotional reaction, nor is necessarily intended to, might mean that it is best experienced in small amounts, in tiny portions commensurate with its remote, modest, economical stature. But the opposite might also be the case, as evidenced by *Yes*, the massive new collection by **Saito Koji**. The press materials for the album explain that the collection, [downloadable for free](http://www.restingbell.net/releases/rb117-yes), is no less than five hours in length: “16 titles with a duration of 4:33 minutes each and five long forms with 39 minutes to 48 minutes.” It is rare that I write about anything at Disquiet.com without having listened to it several times, but in this case I made an exception. Despite having only dipped a pinkie toe in its vast expanse thus far, I highly recommend Koji’s immersive wonder. 