downstream – Page 206

Module Learning: Spectral Swoop

Give and take as structure

September 29, 2018September 29, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

It’s a little-known fact that the low-level drones experienced as much as heard in large office buildings aren’t the result of overlapping signal byproduct from various infrastructural activities — the off-sync relations between HVAC, electrical, and IT, for example — but, instead, are unattributed ambient sound-art installations funded by forward-thinking c-level thought leaders and artistically progressive boards of directors.

Well, no, not really. It is just noise whose happenstance subtle complexity can reward close attention, when it isn’t causing low-level discomfort.

In any case, this recording is a Saturday-morning attempt to combine the rough timbres of one module with the elegant spectrum analysis of another, all in the service of a certain HVAC je ne sais quoi. The main sound is a rich triangle coming from the Ieaskul F. Mobenthey Swoop, sent in turn through the 4MS Spectral Multiband Resonator, several bands of which are tweaked thanks to various low-frequency oscillations. The pace is set by the Delptronics Trigger Man, which, throughout, rotates the scale of the 4MS module two steps forward, one step back.

In addition, a bit of pink noise waves in and out, coming from an SSF Quantum Rainbow 2. The interwoven LFO patterns yield a song-like sequence of give and take, if not full on verse and chorus.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/disquiet](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/module-learning-spectral-swoop).

5 Recommendations for Bandcamp’s Voting Rights Fundraiser

Broken down by genre

September 28, 2018July 9, 2024 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Bandcamp is donating 100% today (Friday, September 28, “midnight to midnight Pacific Time”) of its share of proceeds from sales on the website to the Voting Rights Project. Often when Bandcamp does these fundraisers, the musicians also chip in their share. If you’re looking for something to buy, given how expansive Bandcamp’s holdings are, here are five recommendations:

Ambient: Mount Vision by Emily A. Sprague.

Hip-Hop: Delve Into Classical Moog by Kev Brown.

Downtempo Beats: Tidy by Ally Mobbs (with piano by ioflow on one track).

Trance: City of Light by Bill Laswell and collaborators Lori Carson, Trilok Gurtu, John Balance and Peter Christopherson (of Coil), and Tetsu Inoue.

Classical: Diary Reworks, on which eight acts rework music from Michael Price’s album Diary. Participants include: Michael A. Muller, Library Tapes, Dmitry Evgrafov, Sophie Hutchings, Madeleine Cocolas, Julia Kent, Akira Kosemura, and Marco Caricola.

Disquiet Junto Project 0352: Layering Permutations

The Assignment: Play something melodic atop two variations.

September 27, 2018September 28, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the [Disquiet Junto group](https://disquiet.com/junto/), 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, October 1, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, September 27, 2018.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0352) for the duration of the project.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0352: Layering Permutations**

The Assignment: Play something melodic atop two variations.

Step 1: The idea is to have a simple melody of some sort, and to then have two variations on that melody play simultaneous with it. The key word here is “melody.”

Step 2: Come up with a melody, and then come up with means to create variations on it. Think of the variations as permutations of the melody. Try to have the variations not veer too far from the original. As you develop the variations, think about relative balance between the three layers.

Step 3: Record a short piece of music in which the three layers are stacked atop each other. You might perform the layers separately and then combine them, or you might have a means for them to play simultaneously. You might have the balance between the tracks remain static throughout, or you may change relative volume at times.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0352” (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 “disquiet0352” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation 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-0352-layering-permutations/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Other Details:

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

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0352” 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: Please 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).

Context: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 352nd weekly Disquiet Junto project (Layering Permutations / The Assignment: Play something melodic atop two variations) at:

https://disquiet.com/0352/

Module Learning: Spectral (Rhythmic Bands)

An experiment with filterbank beats

September 25, 2018September 25, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

An experiment with another recent module acquisition: a spectral filter. It’s like my previous filterbank, the one that this rainbow-colored module (from the 4MS Company) replaced, in that it divides the incoming audio signal across the spectrum and helps you focus in on one narrow band or sliver of that sound, but it has many additional superpowers I’m only just beginning to learn.

Heard here is a little melody produced by the sequencer, the Monome Grid in the foreground, which is directing the notes played by a triangle wave via a module called Ansible. A trigger module (the Trigger Man) is setting the pace of the Grid, and also correlating some short sharp square waves from an LFO (the Batumi module) that are, in turn, creating little blips in the triangle wave (emanating from a Dixie II oscillator).

This is sort of the third stage of this experiment. Earlier in this process I was using other devices to add more variables to the sound, but I whittled back some of that spaghetti to settle on what I posted [a short video of to Instagram last night](www.instagram.com/p/BoIkWsoBvrh/). And then this morning I built it back up again:

The three main things this has that the Instagram didn’t have are: (1) the rhythm from the Trigger Man is a little more complex now, giving the melody a bit more of a herky-jerky beat; (2) the melody itself has some randomization going on (more like probability: will a note play or will it not); and (3) there’s a heavily subdued version of the audio that plays at the open and close (it’s running through a low-pass filter). There’s a bit of noise in this recording, and I’m not sure why.

Stasis Report: Loscil ✚ Grouper ✚ More

Five tracks newly added to the ambient playlist on Spotify and Google Play Music on September 23, 2018

September 23, 2018September 23, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The latest update to my Stasis Report ambient-music playlist. It started out just on [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/user/dsqt/playlist/1YhR54cjP640J92AOxaoel?si=kDLQAGomSnKEqaMTBllKvg). It’s now also on [Google Play Music](https://play.google.com/music/playlist/AMaBXylvMU-QFhCR1_vMgMgwndCq6WD-bq1MPNrUfZ9zXbCPE5IGbMj8aWwsLhjdTtH0QbKDa5dZkKizJ2pUmTHJ4Ib9Ws1_5A%3D%3D). The following five tracks were added on Sunday, September 23. Four of the tracks are fairly new, with the exception of one from 2012:

✚ “Quiet Midnight” off *Spring* by **ioflow** (aka **Joshua Saddler** of San Diego, California): [ioflow.bandcamp.com](https://ioflow.bandcamp.com/album/spring). Released on the Gohan Tapes label.

✚ “Laramie” off *Ghost Box (Expanded)* by **SUSS**, whose members are **Bob Holmes**, **Gary Leib**, **Pat Irwin**, **Jonathan Gregg**, and **William Garrett**: [suss.bandcamp.com](https://suss.bandcamp.com/album/ghost-box-expanded-2). Interview at [brooklynvegan.com](http://www.brooklynvegan.com/ambient-country-group-suss-prep-expanded-edition-of-debut-listen-to-laramie/). Album on the Northern Spy label.

✚ “Imprints,” a single by **Loscil**, working with **Field Works**, aka **Stuart Hyatt**, based on Hyatt’s own field recordings. It’s from a new collection, *Born in the Ear*, also featuring Paul de Jong, Eluvium, Forrest Lewinger, the Album Leaf, Greg Davis, Juana Molina, and Hyatt: [fieldworks.bandcamp.com](https://fieldworks.bandcamp.com/album/born-in-the-ear). Released on the Temporary Residence label.

✚ “Blouse” from *Grid of Points* by **Grouper**, aka **Liz Harris**: [grouper.bandcamp.com](https://grouper.bandcamp.com/album/grid-of-points). Released on the Yellow Electric label.

✚ “Brûlez ce coeur,” the title track off a 2012 album by **Les Momies de Palerme** (on Constellation Records), aka **Xarah Dion** and **Marie Davidson**: [cstrecords.com](http://cstrecords.com/cst070/), [soundcloud.com/constellation-records](https://soundcloud.com/constellation-records/sets/cst070). It’s also on Bandcamp, though minus a few tracks: [lesmomiesdepalerme.bandcamp.com](https://lesmomiesdepalerme.bandcamp.com). Davidson has a new album, *Working Class Woman*, due out October 5 on Ninja Tune.

Some previous Stasis Report tracks were removed to make room for these, keeping the playlist length to roughly two hours. Those retired tracks (Leila Abdul-Rauf, Lucrecia Dalt, M. Geddes Gengres, and Jake Muir, as well as Kara-Lis Coverdale remixing Úlfur) are now in the Stasis Archives playlist (currently only on Spotify).