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.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, October 12, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, October 8, 2020.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0458: Phrase Shift The Assignment: Make music in a sequence of parts with shared elements.
Step 1: You’re going to create a piece of music that goes through a series of unique but related phrases. Beginning with the second phrase, each phrase will repeat one element from the previous phrase. It’s best to read through the following steps before beginning work on the project.
Step 2: Compose and record a brief initial phrase, of between roughly four and ten seconds in length, that has three separate and distinct simultaneous components. These might be three tones, or a tone and two beats, or a tone and a beat and a texture, or three field recordings, and so on, whatever three components you choose. (Silence can count as a potential component, certainly.)
Step 3: Compose and record another brief phrase, again of between roughly four and ten seconds in length, that has three separate simultaneous components. One of these components should be retained from the previous phrase. The other two components should be entirely different from the previous phrase.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 as many times as you like, preferably for a combined length of at least one minute. Longer is fine.
Step 5: When you have recorded as many phrases as you determined in Step 4, collect them all into one long single track. That is the completed composition. Some overlap between phrases is fine.
Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0458” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0458” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0458-phrase-shift/
Step 5: Annotate your tracks with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Additional Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, October 12, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, October 8, 2020.
Length: The length is up to you.
Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0458” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, 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 always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 458th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Phrase Shift (The Assignment: Make music in a sequence of parts with shared element), at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0458-phrase-shift/
There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is by Thomas Hawk and used via Flickr thanks to a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes: