Two Buddha Machines, both from the first generation, playing different loops through the modular synthesizer. Each of the pair of loops is running through a different preset on the ER-301 module (that’s the large module with the dual screens in the lower left). The green Buddha Machine’s output is affected by a ladder filter, and the blue one by a grain delay. Aspects of both presets are being, in turn, modulated by slow-ish and flat-ish waves emanating from the Batumi and tempered by the SPO (note the four, short orange cables toward the upper left). Hence the sense that the filter is changing on one, as is the speed, subtly, of the other. The output of the green Buddha Machine (via the processing) is going straight into the mixer. The output of the blue one (also after having been processed) is having its spectrum sliced up (via the FDXf), with two bands (and those two bands alone) going separately to the mixer, their volumes adjusted further before being output. If you keep your eye on the equalizer-looking vertical bands in the ER-301’s larger screen, you’ll see the volume of the two Buddha Machine inputs on the left going up and down, and the LFOs from the Batumi (via the SPO) doing the same on the far right. Keeping an eye on those four signals will help the ear correlate shifts within the audio.
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).
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
• 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.
• 0468 / Mirror Rorrim / The Assignment: Create a new persona for yourself, and record a duet together.Full Index
And there is a complete list of past projects, 472 consecutive weeks to date.
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