The day last week I played hooky. The photo that doubles as an IFTTT test.
An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.What Sound Looks Like
An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt
Month: March 2017
Disquietude Podcast Episode 0001
A new podcast from Disquiet.com, with music by Brian Hendricksen, Carl Mikael Björk, Erika Nesse, Marcus Fischer, Sarah Davachi, and Mark Rushton
This is the first episode of the Disquietude podcast of ambient electronic music. All six tracks of music are featured with the permission of the individual artists. The first episode started online first at SoundCloud, Mixcloud, and YouTube and then made it into iTunes and Stitcher. There’s also an RSS link, should you need it.
Below is the structure of the episode with time codes for the tracks:
00:00 theme and intro
02:05 Brian Hendricksen’s “2.10.2017″
04:32 Carl Mikael Björk’s “Live Looping Improv w/ Piano and Erica Synths Varishape & Wavetable”
18:08 Erika Nesse’s “Circle”
21:30 Marcus Fischer’s “170211 – Dual Deck Piano Loop (RRR)”
28:56 Sarah Davachi’s “Ghosts and All”
37:21 Mark Rushton’s “Severe Thunderstorm Warning Sirens”
43:50 notes
53:34 end
What follows is a rough transcript of the spoken material in the podcast, as well as links to the artists whose work is included: Continue reading “Disquietude Podcast Episode 0001”
Getting Closer
The first episode of the Disquietude podcast is nearly complete.
Disquiet Junto Project 0272: Exoplanetary Intervals
The Assignment: Use music to express the relationships between planets.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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. A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required. There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:
This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 20, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, March 16, 2017.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0272: Exoplanetary Intervals The Assignment: Use music to express the relationships between planets.
Recently, scientists announced the discovery of a nearby star system, TRAPPIST-1. Orbiting its ultra-cool dwarf star are seven planets, three in the habitable zone. Remarkably, six of the planets form the longest known chain where each orbits at a resonant frequency of it’s neighbor. From the slowest, the planets orbit at: 1x, 4/3x 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x. If you think of those as vibrating strings, they form a chord or scale: the slowest planet is the root, then fourth, octave, octave and fifth, two octaves and major third, three octaves. Major thanks to Junto participant Mark Lentczner for having taken the lead in proposing and developing this project.
Step 1: You’re going to record a composition employing these ratios, as a scale or chord — or a polyrhythm for that matter — as a means to express a sense of these newly discovered planets. Keep this in mind.
Step 2: Consider those intervals, play with them a bit, and think about how they can be employed to represent independent yet interdependent bodies in motion.
Step 3: Review the information on the relative orbits of the TRAPPIST-1 planets here:
http://www.ozonehouse.com/mark/dj/trappist.html
Step 4: Create an original musical composition that explores the exoplanets’ relationships based on Steps 1, 2, and 3.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0272” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:
http://llllllll.co/t/exoplanetary-interv-disquiet-junto-project-0272/
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 20, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, March 16, 2017.
Length: The length of the finished piece is up to you. Three to five minutes feels about right.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0272” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
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 online, please be sure to include this information, as well as the identity of the source track that yours accompanies:
More on this 272nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Exoplanetary Intervals: Use music to express the relationships between planets” — at:
Major thanks to Junto participant Mark Lentczner for having taken the lead in proposing and developing this project.
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/exoplanetary-interv-disquiet-junto-project-0272/
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is from NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt, T. Pyle (IPAC):
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/6266-ssc2017-01a-TRAPPIST-1-Planet-Lineup
Disquiet Junto Project 0271: Prison Sky
Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil's detention.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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. A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required. There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:
This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 13, 2017. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 9, 2017.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0271: Prison Sky Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil’s detention.
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with Bassel Khartabil. This coming Wednesday, March 15, 2017, will mark the fifth anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel’s March 15, 2012, detention in Syria. It’s been more than a year since anyone has heard from him. Three times in the past the Disquiet Junto has done projects to raise consciousness about his predicament. We did the first one in January 2014, creating a soundscape to go with Bassel’s CGI reproduction of the ancient city of Palmyra:
disquiet.com/2014/01/23/disquiet0108-freebassel/
We did a second one, “Placid Cell,” in March 2015, marking the third anniversary of his incarceration:
disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/
And in November 2015 we created audiobook chapters from a book, Cost of Freedom: A Collective Inquiry, written in Bassel’s honor:
disquiet.com/2015/11/12/disquiet0202-costoffreedom/
Read more at http://freebassel.org/.
Step 2: On January 31, 2014, Bassel wrote to his friend Jon Phillips from the Damascus Central Jail in response to Phillips’ suggestion that people might make a record album inspired by his ongoing incarceration. Bassel replied in part:
The Noura mentioned in the letter is Bassel’s wife. See the full letter and information about actions to mark the fifth anniversary at:
http://freebassel.org/campaign/events/freebasselday/2017/03/09/freebassel5years/
Step 3: Take that section of a “square sky” to heart, about being able “to see the blue sky for six hours each day.”
Step 4: Create a short piece of music in response to that image, that scenario, that mix of hope amid hopelessness.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0271” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:
http://llllllll.co/t/prison-sky-disquiet-junto-project-0271/6877
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 13, 2017. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 9, 2017.
Length: The length of the finished piece is up to you. Three to five minutes feels about right.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0271” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: Please set your track for download and with a license that allows for attributed reworking (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution). That’s in accordance with the “share alike”aspect of the first stage of this project.
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information, as well as the identity of the source track that yours accompanies:
More on this 271st weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Prison Sky: Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil’s detention”— at:
https://disquiet.com/0271/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/prison-sky-disquiet-junto-project-0271/6877
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is a detail that Bassel Khartabil wrote to Jon Phillips on January 31, 2014, from the Damascus Central Jail. More on Bassell’s detention at freebassel.org. Major thanks to Christopher Adams, Niki Korth, Jon Phillips, and Barry Threw. See the full letter and information about actions to mark the fifth anniversary at:
http://freebassel.org/campaign/events/freebasselday/2017/03/09/freebassel5years/