downstream – Page 144

Transistor Ga Ga

An augmented field recording by Robert Cole Rizzi

September 22, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Often, the most beautiful sounds are all around us. We just have to learn to pay attention to them. Sometimes, however, to access these sounds, we must listen in ways our ears alone can’t accomplish. Case in point, this recording of a transformer station from Robert Cole Rizzi. Rizzi’s three-minute track is an atmospheric tour de force. It combines the inherent buzzing of the transformer with the sound of the structure itself vibrating, plus sonic evidence of the presence of electromagnetic radiation. Writes Rizzi, “You can hear a low rumble I believe is the current running through the wires and fog condensing into drops hitting the thinner zigzag beams of the mast as they fall.”

To access this depth of sonic experience, Rizzi employs the Geofon, or what I described as “the landlubber’s hydrophone in [a post](https://disquiet.com/2020/01/14/geofon-lom/) earlier this year. The electromagnetic information comes courtesy of another device, called the Priezor. Both are from the company LOM.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/rizzi](https://soundcloud.com/rizzi/transformer-station-september-21st-2020). More from Robert Cole Rizzi, who is based in Kolding, Denmark, at [twitter.com/RobertColeRizzi](https://twitter.com/RobertColeRizzi).

Real World, Real Time

Hannes Pasqualini processes sound on location.

September 21, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The Italian musician, designer, and illustrator Hannes Pasqualini debuts a new project in which he reworks real-world audio in real time. The series, of which this video is the first, is titled Sounds on Location. The above clip, about four minutes long, shows him setting up on a bench. White noise and passing traffic fill the stereo spectrum. Then, about 30 seconds in, the video fades to black and then back again, the sounds now running through Pasqualini’s iPad. The processed result emerges from the source audio: more rhythmic, more foregrounded, spare noise given improvised purpose through compositional intent.

Pasqualini outlines his approach as follows:

>Step 1: go to a place that inspires me, record sounds
>
>Step 2: create some loops from these sounds
>
>Step 3: create a little track on location, mostly with the sounds I have recorded in step 1

Video originally posted at [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4aYTsUKnow). More from Pasqualini (who collaborates with me on the recent comics I’ve been posting) at [papernoise.net](https://www.papernoise.net/).

Current Listens: Questlove(s RBG) + Meditative Loops

Heavy rotation, lightly annotated

September 20, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

This is my weekly(ish) answer to the question “What have you been listening to lately?” It’s lightly annotated because I don’t like re-posting material without providing some context. In the interest of conversation, let me know what you’re listening to in the comments below. Just please don’t promote your own work (or that of your label/client). This isn’t the right venue. (Just use email.)

▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰

NEW: Recent(ish) arrivals and pre-releases

▰ Friday night, after Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Questlove of the Roots spun [three hours of Radiohead](https://youtu.be/BZpUUXhWf8w), chopped and screwed, as he put it, thick with reverb and delay, echoed to dubby extremes. He talked in between songs, and during them, about fending off stress-eating, and about his own political awakening during the Obama campaign, and how when he plays early Radiohead he has to remind himself that the band once employed what he calls “mortal instruments.” The screen displays details from his DJ software, confirming the mournfully slow BPM. (Thanks for the tip, Alex Hawthorn.)

▰ Jeannine Schulz keeps up the relentless pace of slow-music releases with [*Unfolding Circles*](https://jeannineschulz.bandcamp.com/album/unfolding-circles), five tracks of melty loops made from guitar parts and, of course, the textural quality of the degraded tape itself. (Based in Hamburg, Germany.)

<a href="https://jeannineschulz.bandcamp.com/album/unfolding-circles">Unfolding Circles by Jeannine Schulz</a>

▰ Three lengthy tracks of music for meditation comprise the [*Zazen*](https://insomniachotel.bandcamp.com/album/zazen) set by Insomniac Hotel. Dense, murky drones with melodic and percussive undercurrents. (Based in New Jersey.)

<a href="https://insomniachotel.bandcamp.com/album/zazen">zazen by insomniac hotel</a>

The Mechanisms

A score cue by Michel Banabila

September 18, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="https://banabila.bandcamp.com/track/cassette-loops">Cassette Loops by Michel Banabila</a>

This loop is three minutes and thirty three seconds during which time moves forward and backward. There is a clickety-clack to it that tells you the mechanisms are functioning, but also that they are old ones. There is no expectation on the listener’s part that those clicks and clacks are literal, that they are fully in sync with range of sounds we hear, that they are the sounds of what is transforming what we hear. They may be in part, but more than likely the technological processing of which the music is fully redolent is beyond that which mere gears can accomplish. The clicks and clacks are signals of the transformation that is underway throughout. The results of which include piano that composer Gavin Bryars would nod approvingly toward: underwater like a shipwreck, like a memory. The ground-level fog of a drone has a breathless quality, held in a manner no mere mortal could achieve without something plugged in or otherwise powered. The little crevices here and there are like the broken pottery equivalent of grace notes, fractures that lend texture, warmth, humanity. It’s a beautiful piece. Based on the track’s title, “Cassette Loops,” those bits of mechanical curiosity are, perhaps, the sounds of the loops playing back, little plastic wheels turning round, seams causing a slight tug and then the tape’s release, motor running on the most mundane of batteries: the fragile enterprise writ small, and magnified through our loudspeakers and headphones.

The music is from an NTR documentary, [*Kein Geloel*](https://www.ntr.nl/Andere-Tijden-Sport/230/detail/Kein-Geloel-Fussbal-Spielen-Ernst-Happel-in-zijn-eigen-woorden/VPWON_1311789), by Thomas Vroege and David Kleijwegt, about sports figure Ernst Happel. Track originally posted at [banabila.bandcamp.com](https://banabila.bandcamp.com/track/cassette-loops). More from Banabila at [banabila.com](https://www.banabila.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0455: Inner Invertebrate

The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

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 Monday, September 21, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0455: Inner Invertebrate

The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?

There is just one step:

Step 1: Compose a piece of sound/music that summons up what a moment, or an instance, or a day in the life of a jellyfish is like to the jellyfish.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0455” (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 “disquiet0455” (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-0455-inner-invertebrate/

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 Monday, September 21, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Length: The length is up to you. Consult your inner invertebrate.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0455” 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 455th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Inner Invertebrate (The Assignment: What does a moment (or a day) in the life of a jellyfish sound like to a jellyfish?), at:

https://disquiet.com/0455/