downstream – Page 237

Music for an Aquatic Road Movie

France Jobin in collaboration with Stephan Mathieu

October 17, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://francejobin.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-the-answer">Music for the Answer by France Jobin and Stephan Mathieu</a>

France Jobin and Stephan Mathieu composed this seven-part sequence, rich with sublimated internal motion, as the score to a film by Cedrick Eymenier, titled *The Answer*. Released in 2016 as part of Mathieu’s Radiance series,
*Music for the Answer* opens with certain emotional intensity, a sense of expectation as the slow-motion sounds being to whirl. The recordings that follow more than rise to the occasion. The variety in the set is striking. There is the high-pitched whistle that serves as the through line amid “Sea Song V.” There are broken chimes on “The Answer,” those shards of glisten slowly merging into a nocturnal drone. There is the insect-like white noise cycling amid on “The Answer VII.” And there is what sounds like a irrevocably warped vinyl recording of horns in the dense, kaleidoscopic “Sea Song I.” Among all the tracks, texture is paramount, from soft shadings to hyper-detailed micro-fissures.

The trailer for Eymenier’s film is online. It’s been characterized as an “aquatic road movie,” and was shot Canal du Midi in the south of France:

France Jobin is a Montreal, Canada-based composer and curator, with albums on And/Oar, Line, Room 40, and other labels. Stephan Mathieu is a prolific German sound artist and musician who has recorded for 12k, Ritornell, Lucky Kitchen, and Editions Mego, among other labels. Both have exhibited numerous sound installation.

Album originally posted at [francejobin.bandcamp.com](https://francejobin.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-the-answer). More on Cedrick Eymenier’s The Answer at [cedrickeymenier.com](http://cedrickeymenier.com/index.php/videos/the-answer/). More from Jobin at her website, [francejobin.com](http://www.francejobin.com/), and Mathieu at [schwebung.bandcamp.com](https://schwebung.bandcamp.com).

Step Inside an Organ with Claire M Singer

Cello and electronics in hand

October 13, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Step inside an organ, and then step inside one of its pipes, and then settle in for a spell. Listen as the pipes resound. Listen not just to the pipe you’re in, but to how it responds to the pipes around it, to the air current, to the shape of the majestic hall in which it resides. Listen further to the song that seems to form, out of the ether, from the beading tonalities of this magnificent mix of space and sound.

This is not how the music was made — no miniaturization was involved, no *Fantastic Drone Voyage* — but it is the sense of “Fairge,” an excerpt of which, two and a half minutes in all, has been posted at the website of the Touch label, [touchshop.org](http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=827). It’s the title (and sole) track off Claire M Singer’s forthcoming release, due out on October 20. The track heard currently on that page is about 10 percent of the full piece, which was scored for organ, cello and electronics — as well, it seems, voice, since vocal tones certainly emerge from the heavenly backdrop Singer has summoned up. (Jack Chuter at [attnmagazine.co.uk](http://www.attnmagazine.co.uk/music/12525) also hears voices.)

“Fairge,” which is apparently Scottish Gaelic for “the ocean,” was composed for, and recorded in June of this year on, an organ installed at Oude Kerk, not only the oldest church in Amsterdam, but the city’s oldest building as well, dating back 800 years. The organ itself is far more recent, built in 1965.

Track originally posted at [touchshop.org](http://touchshop.org/product_info.php?products_id=827). More from Claire M Singer at [clairemsinger.com](http://www.clairemsinger.com). Image from [spitfireaudio.com](https://www.spitfireaudio.com/ones-to-watch/claire-m-singer/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0302: Gronkytonk

Record a single in the genre introduced in Malka Older's novel Infomoracy.

October 12, 2017August 7, 2019 / 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.

This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, October 16, 2017. This project was posted in the late morning, California time, on Thursday, October 12, 2017.

Tracks will be added to the (https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0302) 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 0302: Gronkytonk**

Record a single in the genre introduced in Malka Older’s novel Infomocrocy.

Step 1: There’s a genre of music called “gronkytonk” in Malka Older’s novel Infomocracy. You can see the word in context on this page:

https://goo.gl/JmfSxN

Step 2: Consider what gronkytonk might sound like.

Step 3: Record a gronkytonk single.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If your hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0302” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.

Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0302-gronkytonk/

Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, October 16, 2017. This project was posted in the late morning, California time, on Thursday, October 12, 2017.

Length: The finished track’s length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0302” 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 302nd weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Gronkytonk: Record a single in the genre introduced in Malka Older’s novel Infomocracy) at:

https://disquiet.com/0302/

Kat Estacio’s Ambient Ceremony

A live recording from Toronto

October 11, 2017November 9, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Kat Estacio is a member of Pantayo, an all-women Filipino ensemble that explores kulintang. Kulintang is a Southeast Asian musical form involving numerous gongs, and it has a cultural presence in the Philippines. Estacio, who is based in Toronto, also performs her own music solo, some of which can be heard in a live performance from this time last year titled [*I Made a Mess*](https://soundcloud.com/kat-estacio/sets/i-made-a-mess). It’s comprised of three live recordings from the Toronto venue the Music Gallery, which I only had a chance to visit once, well over a decade ago, but I’ve kept track of ever since. The first piece, “Debris Kiss (Movement 1 & 2),” is a splendid thing, insinuating light percussion intonations amid a tonal field of high-pitched drones. The result is ceremonial and contemplative.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/kat-estacio](https://soundcloud.com/kat-estacio/01-debris-kiss). More from Estacio at [katslexic.tumblr.com](http://katslexic.tumblr.com/). More from Pantayo, Estacio’s kulintang collective, at
[pantayo.bandcamp.com](https://pantayo.bandcamp.com).

Disquiet Junto Project 0301: Parts > Sum

Artfully reduce an album to something less than itself.

October 5, 2017October 7, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, October 9, 2017. This project was posted in the early afternoon, Manhattan time, on Thursday, October 5, 2017.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](http://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0301) 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 0301: Parts > Sum**

Artfully reduce an album to something less than itself.

Step 1: Download the album 5 Minute Meditations by Lee Rosevere. It’s available here from the record label Happy Puppy Records:

https://goo.gl/Wn5t1r

Step 2: The album has 11 tracks. You’ll be focused solely on tracks 1 through 10. Review the material to get a sense of the music.

Step 3: Create a five-minute track of your own using audio extracted from each of the first 10 tracks on the album 5 Minute Meditations. Important: The goal for your track is that while it will contain material from all of those 10 tracks, the end result (the sum) will be less than total of the constituent parts. In other words, your own 5 Minute Meditation will take Rosevere’s source ambient recordings and produce from them something even more ethereal, more ambient, more artfully threadbare.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If your hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0301” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.

Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0301-parts-sum/

Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, October 9, 2017. This project was posted in the early afternoon, Manhattan time, on Thursday, October 5, 2017.

Length: The finished track should be roughly five minutes long.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0301” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Download: It is required, per the source audio’s Creative Commons license, 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 301st weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Artfully reduce an album to something less than itself”) at:

https://disquiet.com/0301/