After I sent out Wednesday’s issue (just for paid subscribers), it occurred to me that a lot of readers come to Disquiet.com and to This Week in Sound from my book about Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Bloomsbury 33 ⅓, 2014). Due to that connection, I figured I’d reprint here one item of the three from Wednesday (the other two were about Brian Eno and Anton Lukoszevieze), as this relates to Aphex Twin’s just announced release, and the first track available from it:
DARK STAR: Aphex Twin has a new track out today, the first from a forthcoming EP due on June 28. “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” is less frantic, less redolent of EDM excess, than has been much of his output since he returned from something akin to professional stasis back in 2014 with the album Syro. It’s been five years, though, since he last released anything (that was 2018’s Collapse). The imagery accompanying this release appears to be a 3D mishmash of musical instrument interfaces. I have had my impression of Buchla synthesizers in the mix confirmed by an informed friend. Here they look like Buchla was absorbed by the Borg from Star Trek. That cube structure aligns with some of the visuals from Aphex’s set last week at the festival Sónar in Barcelona (full video on YouTube). This new track, very much to its credit, doesn’t end where it starts. What begins as a welcomingly sedate, fairly straightforward Aphex song — mellow melody hovering above a slightly broken beat — blossoms into something far more rhythmically complex and melodically florid. And then it veers again, slowing rapidly to close with extended phrases of what sound like sampled or synthesized voices: 21st-century Gregorian chants for chill-out rooms.
The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts.
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, 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 and interest.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, June 26, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.
Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts.
This project is the third of three that are being done in collaboration with the 2023 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 6 through 10. The topic this year is « √ » — as the organization explains: “the radical, or square root symbol and the power of its symbolism are central to the festival and these will be translated into music in multifarious ways.” All three projects will engage with the work of Éliane Radigue, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2023 festival.
We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the fifth year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.
Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects may be played and displayed throughout the festival. Anyone who’s interested in having their work included in the event should set their download option to “on.”
Step 1: You’re going to record a piece of music with between four and seven self-contained parts that get combined in various ways as the piece progresses. These parts should be minimalist. Drones would work well. Record a selection of such parts.
Step 2: Mix the parts recorded during Step 1 into a single work. When doing so, explore how different combinations achieve different ends, and how you handle transitions. (Also: consider lightly transforming the material by utilizing granular synthesis.)
Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0599” (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 “disquiet0599” (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 track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
Step 5: Annotate your track 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.
Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [email protected] for Slack inclusion.
Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, June 26, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
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 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/
This went out today as a thank you to paid This Week in Sound subscribers: an annotated playlist of recommended music. I wrote about (1) resurfaced Brian Eno sound art recordings, (2) a live cello piece by British-Lithuanian musician Anton Lukoszevieze, and (3) a new track from Aphex Twin.
These sound-studies highlights of the week originally appeared in the June 20, 2023, issue of the Disquiet.com weekly email newsletter, This Week in Sound. This Week in Sound is the best way I’ve found to process material I come across. Your support provides resources and encouragement. Most issues are free. A weekly annotated ambient-music mixtape is for paid subscribers. Thanks.
▰ CORAL EFFECT: Acoustic ecology generally means listening to the environment as a means of learning more about it, especially in terms of assessing its health. But acoustic ecology can be a means of taking action, as well. Sometimes those sonic signs of a healthy ecosystem are, in fact, signs that animals and other species within the ecosystem can themselves recognize. Hence the effort to replenish coral reefs by playing, underwater, the sounds of what they were like when they were more robust: “Setting up underwater speakers to broadcast their recordings of the old, healthy reef from 2013 in hopes of luring back the coral larvae.” NPR’s Nurith Aizenman spoke with Aran Mooney, marine biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts. (Thanks, Rich Pettus!)
▰ SLOW LANE: “It has been predicted that artificial intelligence will revolutionize computer programming, enable widespread cheating among college students and possibly even destroy the human race. For now, AI chatbots are still learning the art of taking orders for burgers and fries.” Here’s a story about how White Castle — among other fast food chains — is trying out voice AI as a means to speed up the drive-thru. “Some customers say they are sick of cranky fast-food workers who can’t hear their orders through defective speaker boxes, and look forward to the robot revolution.” Per at least some employees, the feeling is mutual: “Just having that relief of not having to communicate with the customer would be awesome,” says one. It’s still a work in progress — or, in the words of one customer, “a pain in the butt.” (Read gift article for free at the Wall Street Journal.)
▰ HIT PUNJABI: “One of South Asia’s most influential hip-hop figures, [Sidhu] Moosewala was shot dead by gunmen on May 29, 2022. A whole year after his death, artificial intelligence is being used to generate a number of Punjabi tracks in his voice. Rest of World found at least 38 such tracks across SoundCloud and YouTube, some of which had over tens of thousands of views.” The key thing is, these are being made by fans. Few tensions in modern life are as fraught as the one between artists making deep emotional connections with listeners and then those listeners responding in ways both enabled by technology and made available for easy access as enabled by technology. (Via Om Malik’s website)
▰ LENS FLARE: The Verge’s Antonio G. Di Benedetto has thoughts, and feelings, about the sound of a camera capturing a shot: “Nikon’s flagship Z9 and newer Z8 cameras forego traditional shutters entirely, so instead of hearing and feeling a mechanical action, you either hear nothing at all or are played the sound of a fake shutter. Just this week, Nikon released firmware 4.0 for the Z9, which added a slew of new features, including extra shutter sounds: a beep, a DSLR-like chonk, a classic film-era clack, and a rangefinder snap. I love the idea of being able to pick my own shutter sound, and bringing back some classics is a fun way to embrace the lineage of photography while taking advantage of the latest technology. But I’m left slightly disappointed if this is all we’re going to get. I think camera companies can (and should) do a whole lot more.”
▰ QUICK NOTES: ▰ Tape Heads: There’s a video game called Cassette Beats in which the player goes “on a monster-collecting adventure, recording creatures onto tapes to use in battle.” ▰ Hit the Links: Jo Craig breaks down the best sound elements in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, including this one: “The sound of Link’s movements will vary depending on what weapons he carries, and many of these materials rattling together are pleasing and have great attention to detail.” ▰ Mr. Roboto: Meta (aka Facebook) has launched its own AI-powered music generator, which is open-source. ▰ Angry Birds: The Shriek of the Week two weeks ago was the sedge warbler, which deserves “a prize for angriest sounding bird of Britain.” ▰ Wrath of Khonshu: Researchers have found bone instruments that date back over a dozen millennia — not centuries, millennia (via Warren Ellis’ newsletter). No offense to the Shriek of the Week, but they’re made of bird bones. ▰ Spot On: “After fans reported sound mixing issues in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Sony Pictures has sent an updated versionof the film to movie theaters.” ▰ Button Up: There’s a great Instagram video (from the “vintagevideobasement” account) collecting the sounds of various physical media in “eject” mode.” (Thanks, Paul Rose!) ▰ Ear Bud: I’m due later this summer to attend my first arena show in a very long time (I mostly go to concerts in small rooms with fold-up chairs, most of which are empty), and as an earplug aficionado, I was intrigued by the idea that AirPods could (key word: “could”) down the road provide a solution, thanks to Adaptive Audio. ▰ Ear Bud II: Here’s a healthy reminder that the ear isn’t just about hearing: there’s a tiny new in-ear monitor that “uses blood flow measurements to determine why an individual may be suffering from dizziness, fainting spells, and/or brain fog.”
I receive a lot of voicemail messages from people I don’t know even though I’ve had this phone number for over 20 years. Today I got several in quick succession that had especially interesting sonic qualities, notably what seemed to be music playing in the background of the (garbled) individual doing the speaking. This is the full audio of one of those messages.
