Disquiet Junto Project 0492: Kintsugi Rework

The Assignment: Employ the Japanese technique of mending broken ceramics as a metaphor for remixing.

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, June 7, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 3, 2021.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0492: Kintsugi Rework

The Assignment: Employ the Japanese technique of mending broken ceramics as a metaphor for remixing.

Step 1: This week’s project explores the ceramic method called “kintsugi.” If the term is unfamiliar, read up on it a bit. Here’s a description from an article in the Washington Post: “That means ‘golden joinery’ in Japanese, and it refers to the art of fixing broken ceramics with a lacquer resin made to look like solid gold. Chances are, a vessel fixed by kintsugi will look more gorgeous, and more precious, than before it was fractured.”

Step 2: Consider how kintsugi can be employed, through metaphor, as a means to rework/remix an existing piece of music.

Step 3: Take an existing track, perhaps one of your own, and by some means “break” it.

Step 4: Take the “broken” piece of music from step 3 and make it whole by employing a musical adoption of kintsugi.

Source for above quote, from art critic Blake Gopnik: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202723.html](https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/02/AR2009030202723.html)

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0492” (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 “disquiet0492” (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-0492-kintsugi-rework/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0492-kintsugi-rework/)

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, June 7, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 3, 2021.

Length: The length of your finished track is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0492” 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 492nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Kintsugi Rework (The Assignment: Employ the Japanese technique of mending broken ceramics as a metaphor for remixing) — at: https://disquiet.com/0492/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0492-kintsugi-rework/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0492-kintsugi-rework/)

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [twitter.com/disquiet](https://twitter.com/disquiet) for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by Kate, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

[https://flic.kr/p/jEFjbJ](https://flic.kr/p/jEFjbJ)

[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

A Swell Drone Day Swell

Happenings from May 29, 2021

Drone Day takes place each May, at the initiation of Marie Claire LeBlanc Flanagan, who came up with the idea in the first place (more at [droneday.org](https://droneday.org/)). This year, Drone Day took place on the 29th of the month, this past Saturday. Material from that widely distributed event is now popping up on SoundCloud and other services. One favorite of mine is this video by Zachary Wilson, who combines deep, shining swells with rough textures.

This is the latest video I’ve added to [my ongoing YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgCxRbmR1MJxihgJkCPEnehAPvjoF71-) of fine live performance of ambient music. Video originally posted at [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15BAPWZkLEY).

Tape x Pedal

From Amulets

This video, all abrasive industrial doom, is a tape loop experiment from Amulets, an artist for whom the tape loop is central to his work. Heard here, the loop is a prerecorded sound, a drone, that is being treated through a guitar pedal, which lends it the sense of deep delay. In addition, Amulets (aka Randall Taylor) is performing drones from the pedal itself. Note that the extended loop is playfully rotating around the guitar pedal’s pair of foot switches.

Video originally posted to [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LifYhvS-csA). More from Amulets at [amuletsmusic.com](http://www.amuletsmusic.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0491: Footsteps Sequencer

The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured upon a walk through your home.

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, May 31, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 27, 2021.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0491: Footsteps Sequencer

The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured upon a walk through your home.

Step 1: Draw a diagram of your home’s interior as if viewed from above.

Step 2: Map a path through your home.

Step 3: Compose a piece of music that bases its structure on the map. Consider following the footsteps, giving each room its own key or sonic quality, and perhaps even using sounds from the rooms in the recording of the track.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0491” (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 “disquiet0491” (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-0491-footsteps-sequencer/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0491-footsteps-sequencer/)

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, May 31, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 27, 2021.

Length: The length of your finished track is up to you. Are you pacing while on the phone, or making a quick run to the bathroom?

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0491” 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 491st weekly Disquiet Junto project — Footsteps Sequencer (The Assignment: Compose a piece of music structured upon a walk through your home) — at: https://disquiet.com/0491/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0491-footsteps-sequencer/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0491-footsteps-sequencer/)

There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [twitter.com/disquiet](https://twitter.com/disquiet) for Slack inclusion.

The image associated with this project is by pyrogenic, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:

[https://flic.kr/p/pinEP](https://flic.kr/p/pinEP)

[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/)

Icelandic Meow Echolocation

A short video by Laura Alice Watt

A housemate of mine once came home with a puppy. The little dog was so black that when its eyes were closed, which was much of the time (since it slept so much), it looked more like a silhouette than it did a live animal. However, when it was awake, the puppy was very awake. At some point, early on as a member of our multi-species household, the dog was placed in the backyard and left to explore. How it did so was fascinating to observe. On its first entry into the yard, which was quite large, the small dog started at the fence and ran, full speed, around in a circle. With each circumference, the puppy drew closer and closer in until it finally reached the center of the yard, and when it arrived there it collapsed out of utter exhaustion from the exertion.

In this video, some kittens are seen and, more to the point, heard doing their own version of exploration, in this case of an old interior space. These are the ruins of a former herring factory in Djúpavík, Iceland, perhaps best known as a spot where the band Sigur Rós has performed. Like Sigur Rós, the cats appreciate the rich echoes of the metal container. Their meows linger in the air for lengthy periods of time, measurable in multiple seconds, far longer than they’re no doubt used to. A meow generally has a quizzical quality to it. It sounds inherently interrogative: Where are you? When am I going to be fed? Here it seems to provide an echolocative utility, sounding out the three-dimensional topography of this strange structure. It isn’t only the cats who benefit from the exploration. Their meowing give us humans a sense of the space, as well: its contours, its unique qualities, its sonic potential

The video is by my friend Laura Alice Watt, who posted it at [flickr.com](https://www.flickr.com/photos/lawatt/51166255664/in/dateposted/).