Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com and at Disquiet.com, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate.
This assignment was made in the evening, California time, on Thursday, October 30, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, November 3, 2014, as the deadline.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 148: Peripheral Listening The Assignment: Make music inspired by and suitable for listening to while reading William Gibson’s novel The Peripheral.
For this week’s project we’re making music that would make suitable listening material when reading William Gibson’s new novel, The Peripheral. These are the steps:
Step 1: You will make two minutes of loopable background music. The music will be inspired by a phrase from William Gibson’s novel The Peripheral. Think about music that is suitable to reading.
Step 2: Select one of these three phrases, or locate another phrase from the book:
Chapter 6 (“Patchers”): “The square filled with a low moaning, the island’s hallmark soundscape.”
Chapter 32 (“Tipstaff”): “Then a ringing silence, in which could be heard an apparent rain of small objects, striking walls and flagstones.”
Chapter 56 (“The Light in Her Voice Mail”): “The ambient sound was glum as the light, as calculated to unsettle.”
Step 3: Compose a piece of music two minutes in length that is informed by the phrase you have selected.
Step 4: Upload the finished track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud. Be sure to mention the source phrase from the novel in the text field accompanying your piece.
Step 5: Listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Length: Your finished work should be 2 minutes long.
Upload: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, only upload one track for this assignment, and include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0148-peripherallistening” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track, please be sure to include this information:
More on this 148th Disquiet Junto project — “Make music inspired by and suitable for listening to while reading William Gibson’s novel The Peripheral” — at:
Disquiet Junto Project 0148: Peripheral Listening
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
https://disquiet.com/forums/