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Disquiet Junto Project 0413: Objective Thankfulness

The Assignment: Highlight one piece of musical equipment for which you are particularly grateful.

November 28, 2019November 30, 2019 / 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, December 2, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 28, 2019.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0413) 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 0413: Objective Thankfulness**

The Assignment: Highlight one piece of musical equipment for which you are particularly grateful.

Step 1: Think about all the tools you use to make music, hardware and soft.

Step 2: Focus on one tool for which you have, of late, been particularly thankful.

Step 3: Record a piece of music highlighting that tool’s employment. When doing so, imagine that the creator(s) of the tool might have the opportunity to hear it.

Step 4: When posting the completed track online, be sure to describe what the tool is, and why you chose to highlight it.

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

Step 1: Include “disquiet0413” (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 “disquiet0413” (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-0413-objective-thankfulness/

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, December 2, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 28, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0413” 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: Consider setting 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 413th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Objective Thankfulness / The Assignment: Highlight one piece of musical equipment for which you are particularly grateful:

https://disquiet.com/0413/

Disquiet Junto Project 0412: One Chord Wonder

The Assignment: Play an extended chord where the instrumentation of each note changes as the piece proceeds.

November 21, 2019November 22, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, November 25, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 21, 2019.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0412) 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 0412: One Chord Wonder**

The Assignment: Play an extended chord where the instrumentation of each note changes as the piece proceeds.

Step 1: Choose a chord, any chord.

Step 2: Make a list of the notes that the chord is comprised of.

Step 3: Record a piece of music in which each of the notes in the chord are played by different instruments (more broadly: different sound sources).

Step 4: As the piece proceeds, change each of the instruments/sources, while never altering the notes that make up the chord.

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

Step 1: Include “disquiet0412” (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 “disquiet0412” (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-0412-one-chord-wonder/

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, November 25, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 21, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0412” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

**For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:**

More on this 412th weekly Disquiet Junto project — One Chord Wonder / The Assignment: Play an extended chord where the instrumentation of each note changes as the piece proceeds:

https://disquiet.com/0412/

Soundtrack for the Digital Quiet

A new album by Le Berger

November 15, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://leberger.bandcamp.com/album/for-an-audience-of-not-a-single-cow">For an audience of not a single cow by Le Berger</a>

Yesterday I wrote about bringing on the [digital quiet](https://disquiet.com/2019/11/14/digital-quiet/) by turning off social media for the remainder of the year. I’d already begun to listen to a new album, *For an audience of not a single cow*, from the prolific Montréal-based musician Le Berger, and it’s quite likely that music was on my mind when the phrase “digital quiet” came to me. Because if one invokes digital quiet, it isn’t to remain in solitude. It’s just to make one’s space a little smaller, one’s life a little simpler, for a period of time. There’s an end built into the plan; you’re not retreating to the woods with a typewriter and a book of rabbit recipes. And if retreating temporarily as the year comes to a close is what you’re up to, then the six tracks on *For an audience of not a single cow* are exactly the music to fill such a private space. It’s comprised of slow-moving melodies, each note echoed so that there is no intensity to the instrument, and the decay goes on, seemingly, forever. Angelo Badalamenti, Brian Eno, and Steve Roach will come to mind as the cloud formations emanate from your speakers. It’s a soundtrack for the digital quiet.

Album originally posted at [leberger.bandcamp.com](https://leberger.bandcamp.com/album/for-an-audience-of-not-a-single-cow). It was mastered by Ian Hawgood.

Disquiet Junto Project 0411: Wrapped Up

The Assignment: Record a piece of music as a gift for someone special to you.

November 14, 2019November 21, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, November 18, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 14, 2019.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0411) 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 0411: Wrapped Up**

The Assignment: Record a piece of music as a gift for someone special to you.

Step 1: Think of someone you’d like to give a gift of music.

Step 2: Record a piece of music for the person you thought of in Step 1. You don’t need to identify the person when posting the music.

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

Step 1: Include “disquiet0411” (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 “disquiet0411” (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-0411-wrapped-up/

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, November 18, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 14, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0411” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

**For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:**

More on this 411th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Wrapped Up / The Assignment: Record a piece of music as a gift for someone special to you — at:

https://disquiet.com/0411/

Avian Collaborators

Diane Moser plays along

November 13, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

You have to listen fairly closely to hear the birds, but chances are that no matter how closely you listen, you won’t do so with the fully committed simpatico of pianist Diane Moser.

That’s Moser on piano in the audio, responding to what she reports are a chipping sparrow and a black capped chickadee. The track is barely a minute long, but the give and take between human and avian collaborators is so charming, it’s the sort of thing you put on repeat and let the marvel of it erase whatever negative concerns you may have about humans and the environment. The percussive play of her piano, the little filigrees she emits, match the birds’ singing, not just in shape and key, but tonality and presence.

This isn’t a momentary flirtation for Moser, who posted a second track ([“Dancin’ with Sparrows McD beginnings”](https://soundcloud.com/diane-moser/dancin-with-sparrows-mcd-beginnings)) the same day. She’s released a whole album dedicated to the approach ([*Birdsongs*](http://dianemosermusic.com/music/birdsongs/), with Anton Denner and Ken Filiano). In describing the experience at a residency that led to *Birdsongs*, she wrote: “Every day I improvised with the birds outside my studio in the woods. I really just wanted to be a part of their ‘band,’ and was hoping I wasn’t too intrusive.” That temperament, that quality of listening, is a hallmark of her more recent bird play-alongs as well.

Track originally posted to [soundcloud.com/diane-moser](https://soundcloud.com/diane-moser/hello-beginnings). More from Moser at [dianemosermusic.com](http://dianemosermusic.com/).