When is a trio a quintet? When the violist doubles as a vocalist and the saxophonist keeps one hand at the ready to adjust the Indian bellows instrument called the shruti box. Those would be, respectively, Gareth Lubbe and Hayden Chisholm, complemented by cellist Susanne Szambelan for a slow, considered piece titled “Spectral Awakening.” This live performance is a production of the Netherlands-based ConcertLab, which specializes in audio-visual studio recordings of musicians. This mission is no small thing. The way the camera moves through the trio is part of the performance. What begins with Chisholm alone for well over a minute expands as Szambelan’s elbow and cello scroll come into view, just as her playing enters the piece. This experience culminates later, toward the end, when all three musicians are simultaneously eking out sympathetic drones, the viewer’s eye primed to itemize who is responsible for what sounds. This video is ConcertLab’s 97th recording on YouTube I’m excited to hear what they’ll have for the 100th.
Disquiet Junto Project 0712: Zebra Code
The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code?
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.
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. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.
Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.
Disquiet Junto Project 0712: Zebra Code
The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code?
Step 1: Locate something you purchased or received that has a zebra code, or bar code, on the packaging.
Step 2: Interpret the bar code from Step 1 as a rhythm.
Step 3: Make music using the rhythm from Step 2.
This project was proposed thanks to Jason Richardson, who shared this Boing Boing post:
https://boingboing.net/2025/08/19/will-it-riff-turns-product-barcodes-into-heavy-metal-jams.html
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0712” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.
Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.
Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0712-zebra-code/
Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you.
Deadline: Monday, August 25, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.
About: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).
Please Include When Posting Your Track:
More on the 712th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Zebra Code — The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? — at https://disquiet.com/0712/.
Disquiet Junto Project 0711: Show & Tell &
The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.
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. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.
Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.
Disquiet Junto Project 0711: Show & Tell &
The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback
Step 1: Choose a track/composition you’re working on. Share the recording on the Lines forum on the llllllll.co discussion thread at:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0711-show-tell
Step 2: When posting the track, mention that you’re looking for feedback, describe what you’ve been up to on the track, and if applicable specify some aspects of the recording you might want input on.
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0711” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.
Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.
Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0711-show-tell/
Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you.
Deadline: Monday, August 18, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.
About: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).
Please Include When Posting Your Track:
More on the 711th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Show & Tell & — The Assignment: Share some recent music; get and give feedback — at https://disquiet.com/0711/.
Kronos in the Red (Hot)
Covering Dylan on the anniversary of the Trinity Test
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Kronos Quartet has released an EP to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the Trinity Test, the first nuclear detonation, back in July 1945. The EP, available on Bandcamp, has three tracks. The first is an extended version of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall,” its vocal a composite of sections sung by numerous musicians, including Allison Russell, Iggy Pop, Stephin Merritt, Gustavo Santaolalla, Laurie Anderson, and Willie Nelson. There’s also an expanded ensemble, including Santaolalla on ronroco and Chris Geddes on Hammond organ, plus many other players, and a sizable chorus.
The second and third track take the concept further, and further still. A “drone” version eschews familiar instrumentation in favor of an extended sonic bed, above which spoken lyrics are more layered (even cut-up) than in the first take, spoken by Ocean Vuong, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Ringo Star, and many others. (I’d love if Kronos also put out the isolated instrumental of this one.)
Finally, there’s a spirited raga inspired by Kronos’ efforts, performed by Terry Riley with Sara Miyamoto, who teamed with Kronos previously on a re-imagining of Sun Ra’s music. The Riley/Miyamoto piece, “Komal Reshab Asavari,” came out the month prior to coincide with Riley’s 90th birthday, and then was included in this release.
All these were collaborations with Red Hot Org. Kronos now has just one of its founding members, violinist David Harrington, plus cellist Paul Wiancko, who joined two years ago, and violinist Gabriela Díaz and violist Ayane Kosaza, who joined last year.
Musical & Environmental
New video from he_nu_ri
I follow the work of the musician who goes by he_nu_ri pretty closely, and I was excited when this video popped up on YouTube. Not only does it feature Serge synthesizer modules (designs that go back to the early 1970s, though these specific devices are fairly new), but the musician described it as pushing the bounds of what previous releases might suggest: these are “more experimental and atonal experiments.” That said, it’s a delight, precise little sounds that seem to echo forever, like drops heard from a deep deep well. It is at once musical and environmental.