downstream – Page 168

Disquiet Junto Project 0429: Solitary Ensembles

The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio that others will complete.

March 19, 2020March 19, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

We’ve done projects along the lines of this one in the past, and it’s always worked out well, with surprising and wonderful results, new connections made, new partnerships forged, unexpected pairings created.

Current circumstances around the world bring new meaning to the project. The idea this week is that you will record the first third of what will eventually become a trio. Next week people will add to tracks from this week, and the week after people will, in effect, complete the trios. Some of this week’s projects will, inevitably, be used more than once, leading to interrelated branches of creativity — and more importantly, connecting musicians around the world.

It’s a foundational concept of the Disquiet Junto, since January 2012, that the participants all gain energy and inspiration from the knowledge that somewhere around the world, other people are cogitating on and acting on the same four-day project as they are. Projects such as this particular one build on that idea by bringing together various subsets of the far-flung Junto community into short-lived, ad-hoc, self-guided groupings — what we’re currently calling Solitary Ensembles.

The difference this time, of course, is there exists a larger set of factors we all have in common at the moment, and we have them in common not just with the 1,500 or so other subscribers to the Junto mailing list, but with the world’s populace. We aren’t just facing this creative challenge together. We are facing a new challenge in the form of the global pandemic and its ramifications — physical, emotional, economic. Which is to say: thanks, as always, for your generosity with your time and creativity, and all the more so during these strange times in which we find ourselves.

Oh, and one procedural note: It’s a rule in the Junto that musicians should only contribute one track per project. That remains the case this week. However, next week, in order for as many of this week’s tracks as possible being re-worked, that number will be increased. At the moment, I’m not certain by how much. I’ll sort that out and mention it next week.

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, March 23, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 19, 2020.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0429) for the duration of the project.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0429: Solitary Ensembles**

The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio that others will complete.

Step 1: This week’s Junto project is the first in a sequence intended to invite, encourage, and reward collaboration. You will be recording something with the understanding that it will remain unfinished for the time being.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice. Conceive it as something that leaves room for something else — other instruments, other people — to join in.

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly two to three minutes in length, as described in Step 2. When done, if possible, pan the audio so that your piece is solely in the left side of the stereo spectrum.

Step 4: Also, and this is important, be sure, when done, to make your track downloadable, because it will be used by someone else in the next Disquiet Junto project.

**Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:**

Step 1: Include “disquiet0429” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0429” (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 track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0429-solitary-ensembles/

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.

**Additional Details:**

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 23, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 19, 2020.

Length: The length is up to you. Shorter is often better. Two to three minutes is probably about right for this project.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0429” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and 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: Given the nature of this particular project sequence, it is 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 429th weekly Disquiet Junto project — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio that others will complete — at:

https://disquiet.com/0429/

Make the Best of What’s Still Around

A live tape-loop performance by Amulets

March 18, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Tread lightly. Today’s self-aware hi-jinks are tomorrow’s tragedies. Still, as musicians, like most everyone else in the world, do their best to settle into far more residential life than they may be accustomed to, they make the best of what’s still around. In the case of Amulets, that involves using a toilet paper roll as a means to extend the length of a tape loop, as heard in this video posted today.

Amulets is the Portland, Oregon, musician Randall Taylor, who does marvelous things with, among other second-hand tools, old audio tape cassettes — same tape he’s had for years. Here the rotting texture of the loop, exaggerated by a delay pedal, takes sequences from his portable synth and renders from them subsistence ambient, just loud enough to make an impression, but not so much as to squander available resources.

This is the latest video I’ve added to [my YouTube playlist of recommended live performances of ambient music](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgCxRbmR1MJxihgJkCPEnehAPvjoF71-). Video originally posted at [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96PJF24QdLI). More from Amulets at [amuletsmusic.com](http://www.amuletsmusic.com/).

Set Your Scanner for Saturday

After Live: Robin Rimbaud will be playing from his London studio (9am Pacific Time).

March 17, 2020March 17, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The [Downstream](https://disquiet.com/category/downstream/) department entries on Disquiet.com are, with the exception of Thursdays, always about streamable — and often freely downloadable — music available right now. On Thursdays the Downstream highlights the latest Disquiet Junto project, tracks from which usually begin appearing within 12 hours. Today’s post, however, is about something happening a little further off, in about — checks watch — three and a half days, as of this typing. That’s Saturday, March 21, when Robin Rimbaud, aka Scanner, will perform the inaugural live stream from his London home base. “First broadcast from the Scanner studio, especially given the rather challenging and frequently lonely situation for so many,” he wrote as an advance notice on [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYPcH6g4fsU). “I felt a little Saturday afternoon live performance might distract you from the dark news for a moment.” That’s Saturday afternoon in England, where Scanner, as well as his studio, is based. Here in California, it’ll be 9am. Adjust your clocks accordingly, or if you have a YouTube account, click on the “reminder” button on the concert’s [YouTube URL](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYPcH6g4fsU).

As mentioned here in [yesterday’s special edition After Live post](https://disquiet.com/2020/03/16/after-live-grzegorz-bojanek-from-poland/), there are countless more performances like this being broadcast, recorded, and archived around the world, all accessible within your browser. Seek them out, support the musicians who produce them, and share the ones you recommend.

More from Rimbaud at [scannerdot.com](http://scannerdot.com/) and [scanner.bandcamp.com](https://scanner.bandcamp.com/), where he recently launched a subscriber fan community, providing access to previously unreleased material, among other perks.

After Live: Grzegorz Bojanek from Poland

A free hour-long video performance

March 16, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Early on in this hour-long performance video, the Poland-based musician Grzegorz Bojanek holds up a piece of paper to the camera. On the paper is written a terse note in Polish and English imploring people to stay at home. There is no self-interest. He’d most certainly rather not be at home himself. But while he is, like many of us, stuck at home, he wants to help out.

His live video — along with those from numerous musicians around the world seeking to connect during a time virtually devoid of live in-person concert performances — seeks to entertain and, perhaps, even to console. And certainly to commiserate. For an hour he sits on the couch and plays. The work moves from dense ambient to a gently pulsing figment and back again. The music is welcome, but even more so is the presence that Bojanek projects. He is modelling behavior, not just by staying home, not just by keeping busy, not just by sharing, but by remaining visibly focused, even calm. We couldn’t ask more of ourselves.

There are countless more performances like this being broadcast, recorded, and archived around the world, all accessible within your browser. Seek them out, support the musicians who produce them, and share the ones you recommend.

Track originally posted to [Bojanek’s YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1kwgER–Zc). More from Bojanek at [bojanek.bandcamp.com](https://bojanek.bandcamp.com/).

Extracting Subsets

From Norway-based Duelling Ants

March 13, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

There is static on the line. The signal is going in and out. Bits are looping frantically, and the combined activity yields a kind of sonic mist, if at times a spiky one. The overall signal source, the original thread of audio, is almost lost as the interference takes on a syncopated quality. This is all on purpose, of course. This is the musician who goes by the name Duelling Ants taking sound from a small portable synthesizer and sending it through an ingenious looper, one that extracts subsets of the signal and lets Duelling Ants operate upon them simultaneously for varying purposes. One line moves forward while another cycles a bit round and round while another plays a different subset in reverse. (I know to listen for this because I’m familiar with the looping software.) The result is a spirited kaleidoscope of parts, where the whole is entirely besides the point.

More from Duelling Ants, aka Norway-based Marius Jacobsen, at [duellingants.bandcamp.com](https://duellingants.bandcamp.com/), [marsmelons.com](http://www.marsmelons.com/artistlist/duelling-ants/), and [instagram.com/duellingants](https://www.instagram.com/duellingants/).