At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I tag on what books I may have finished reading. Knowing I’ll revisit my social media posts, I’ve found, serves as a positive and mellowing influence on my online activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.
▰ Didn’t recall that Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) dedicated The Secret Agent to H.G. Wells (1866–1946), whom Conrad describes as “historian of the ages to come”
▰ Just got back very late Tuesday night from an overseas trip, over two weeks, and my brain is melting from jet lag. As I prepared the weekly Disquiet Junto project on Wednesday, I mentioned in the announcement note (via juntoletter.disquiet.com), which would go out automatically a few hours later, that there was “a 95% chance a typo of some magnitude will be in this week’s project’s instructions” — and there turned out to be not one but two errors, both significant. Fortunately, after 750-plus weekly projects, I can take the snafus in stride. (Also fortunately I was awake at 2:30am to address the issues.) Especially for a project like 0756, In a Flash, which may result in some of the participants’ music potentially being heard at a pair of Musikfestival Bern events (organized by musician Werner Hasler) this coming September.
▰ Back from traveling around the UK: five nights in London, five in Glasgow, four in Edinburgh. I’ll post some photos and notes as I emerge from jet lag. The first hotel had … a podcast room. I did not avail myself of it.
▰ Got up close and personal with this massive neighbor down by China Beach (that’s in San Francisco, where I live).
▰ I needed a replacement carry-on suitcase for my trip, and this one came with free embossing of the luggage tag, up to four characters, so I figured sure, why not?
With names like “Asphalt Lament” and the title track, “TokyØhum,” you know DJ Krush is back to his trademark urban atmospherics. He has described the album’s theme as “the pulse of the city.” The graffiti style cover’s vibe is along the lines of what if Lebbeus Woods drew a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action sequence. The music is rarely as abstract as Krush’s classic Kakusei, but what it lacks in willful dissonance it balances with soundtrack-ready mood-setting. I’m playing it on repeat.
The Assignment: Contribute sounds to a Flash Gordon–themed 2026 Musikfestival Bern event.
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
Please note: There was an error in the instructions when initially posted at 12:10am Pacific. The instructions were corrected by 2:55am Pacific. The BPM should be 153 (not 168, as originally stated). Also, the link to the mentioned materials was missing. Those corrections now appear below.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.
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. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.
Disquiet Junto Project 0756: In a Flash The Assignment: Contribute sounds to a Flash Gordon–themed 2026 Musikfestival Bern event.
This year at Musikfestival Bern, Werner Hasler (an electronic musician and trumpeter) will organize two days in which the dozen episodes of the 1940s serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe will be presented with new scores by a variety of composers and performers. We’ll be composing new versions of the film’s title music. The key thing is your rendition must be at 153 BPM, in order to match the pace of the video. Also, be sure to match the length of the original, one minute and sixteen seconds (1:16). Provided as source material for your efforts are (1) an audio recording of the Flash Gordon title music, (2) a MIDI file containing Werner‘s reduction of the full score, and (3) a PDF with sheet music notation of the oboe voice (representing the main melody). You can take all those materials as starting points for your interpretation. Hasler will make the final determination as to which if any completed tracks work well for his Musikfestival Bern undertaking. Participants whose music is utilized will be credited at the festival, and we’ll share their names through the regular Disquiet Junto information channels (llllllll.co, disquiet.com).
For your additional information, these musicians will be performing at the event: Liz Kosack, synths; Grégoire Dargent, Revox and Oud; Jo Nagorsnik, trombone, electronics; Jim Black, drum, electronics; Werner Hasler, sampling, live sampling, spatialisation.
More on Musikfestival Bern at https://musikfestivalbern.ch. Many thanks to the festival’s Tobias Reber for the invitation to again collaborate, and to Werner Hasler. This is the eighth consecutive year of Bern x Junto collaborations. This project is the first of four planned this year.
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0756” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.
Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.
License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).
Please Include When Posting Your Track:
More on the 756th weekly Disquiet Junto project, In a Flash — The Assignment: Contribute sounds to a Flash Gordon–themed 2026 Musikfestival Bern event — disquiet.com/0756. More on Musikfestival Bern at https://musikfestivalbern.ch. Many thanks to the festival’s Tobias Reber for the invitation to again collaborate, and to Werner Hasler, who developed this Flash Gordon event. This is the eighth consecutive year of Bern x Junto collaborations.
While wandering around Scotland this past week, I read a chunk of Ken MacLeod’s novel Beyond the Reach of Earth, which contains this reminder about the limits of sound as a representation of place.
