downstream – Page 218

Disquiet Junto Project 0333: Half Evil

Where numerology casts a shadow on musicology.

May 17, 2018May 18, 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 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, May 21, 2018. This project was posted in the evening, California time, on Thursday, May 17, 2018.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0333) for the duration fo 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 0333: Half Evil**

Where numerology casts a shadow on musicology.

Step 1: This week’s project is the 333rd consecutive Junto project. That’s half of 666. Ponder the dark side.

Step 2: Record a piece of music that could be described as “half evil.”

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0333” (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 “disquiet0333” (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: Please consider posting your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0333-half-evil/

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. A play on numbers is worth considering.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0333” 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: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

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

More on this 333rd weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0333: Half Evil / Where numerology casts a shadow on musicology) at:

https://disquiet.com/0333/

The Shoegazer Western

An EP from Not Close Nor Far

May 7, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://notclosenorfar.bandcamp.com/album/hiss">Hiss by Not Close Nor Far</a>

“Lo-fi guitar from a basement” is how the artist who goes by Not Close Nor Far describes the four-song collection that is *Hiss*, released this past week on [Bandcamp](https://notclosenorfar.bandcamp.com/).

The set, a bit over 11 minutes in length, opens with a second or so of actual hiss, the background noise of a guitar amplifier, before kicking into an exploration of sonic landscapes. The guitar will draw positive comparisons to an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western backing score. Those big, broad strums are further backed here by chilly synthesizer chords, lending some Angelo Badalamenti dreaminess to the goings-on. That track, which is splendid, is titled “Wandering,” and it introduces a combination of sedate pace and voluminous space that remains consistent throughout the EP. It’s evident on “Sit with Me,” which has the aura of a juke joint that specializes in shoegazer music, and on “Wait,” which doubles down on the Badalamenti-esque orchestrations with which the record opens.

There is a lot packed into this short collection, and while each piece is distinct from the others, it all works together as variations on a sensibility marked by big-sky expansiveness.

Album originally posted at [notclosenorfar.bandcamp.com](https://notclosenorfar.bandcamp.com/). Not Close Nor Far is based in Calgary, Alberta. Not other name is given.

Disquiet Junto Project 0331: Born Under a Bad Sine

What does it sound like when a robot has the blues?

May 3, 2018May 7, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, May 7, 2018. This project was posted shortly after noon, California time, on Thursday, May 3, 2018.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0331) 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 0331: Born Under a Bad Sine**

What does it sound like when a robot has the blues?

Step 1: What does it sound like when a robot has the blues?

Step 2: Record a piece of music that attempts to answer the question from Step 1.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0331” (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 “disquiet0331” (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: Please consider posting your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0331-born-under-a-bad-sine/

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, but between two and three minutes seems about right, unless your robot gets stuck in a loop and goes on longer, of course.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0331” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

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

More on this 331st weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0331: Born Under a Bad Sine / What does it sound like when a robot has the blues?) at:

https://disquiet.com/0331/

Revising Patchwork

A modular synthesizer track and what succeeded it

May 1, 2018May 1, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

A week ago, Darren Harper posted the results of one of his synthesizer patches online. The audio track, bearing a timestamp for a title, [“~4/23/18,”](https://soundcloud.com/darrenharper/patch-42318) is soft matter infused with abrasions and occasionally launching peaks of sound from its core. At nearly eight minutes in length, it is like the scientific surveillance of some newly discovered utopian microsonic world, Whoville via R. Murray Schafer. A brief technical explanation is provided by Harper, those occasional peaks characterized thusly: “new bits and pieces pop up throughout.” The depiction is for participants of synthesis more than for observers, and it belies the environmental simulacrum of the achievement.

A week later, Harper revisited his patch, and found another environment entirely. This follow-up track, [“~4/30/18 (4/23 redeux),”](https://soundcloud.com/darrenharper/43018a) is even softer than the original, and it seems to look up and outward where the other looked down and in. Those “bits and pieces” are largely gone, replaced with lens flare grace notes amid a huge floating zone. It is, as Harper writes briefly, a “more spacious version.” That is an understatement.

Tracks originally posted to the SoundCloud account of Darren Harper, [soundcloud.com/darrenharper](https://soundcloud.com/darrenharper). More from Harper, who is based in Nederland, Colorado, at [darrenjh.blogspot.com](http://darrenjh.blogspot.com).

Disquiet Junto Project 0330: Wax Off

Make a piece of music by erasing aspects of a pre-existing track.

April 26, 2018April 28, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, April 30, 2018. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, April 26, 2018.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0330) 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 0330: Wax Off**

Make a piece of music by erasing aspects of a pre-existing track.

This project was proposed by frequent Junto participant Zero Meaning.

Step 1: Make a piece of music by erasing aspects of a pre-existing track. You’ll be taking an earlier audio track of your own and reworking it. Select a track. It might help to read through these instructions in full before making the selection.

Step 2: The theme of this project is “erasure.” You will be removing material from the track you selected in Step 1. Consider what “erasure” can mean in terms of sound: removal, texture, fragments, artifacts, etc. What techniques would erasure entail?

Step 3: Apply the concepts and techniques you came up with in Step 2 to the track you selected in Step 1. The new track should remain the same length as the source track. That is, the canvas is to be the same, and only the contents are to be altered. One additional note: even if multitracks/stems are available, they shouldn’t be employed for this project; only the “final” version of the track from Step 1 can be used for this project.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0330” (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 “disquiet0330” (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: Please consider posting your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0330-wax-off/

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 finished track should equal to the length of the source track.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0330” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Download: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

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

More on this 330th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Disquiet Junto Project 0330: Wax Off / Make a piece of music by erasing aspects of a pre-existing track) at:

https://disquiet.com/0330/

The project was proposed by frequent Junto participant Zero Meaning. More from whom at:

https://www.twitch.tv/zeromeaning/