Disquiet Junto Project 0710: Let’s Get Loud

The Assignment: Make a piece of your own music louder/busier

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 0710: Let’s Get Loud
The Assignment: Make a piece of your own music louder/busier.

There is just one step in this project:

Choose a recent piece of your own music and rework it by making some portions of it significantly louder and busier than they were initially.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0710” (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-0710-lets-get-loud/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. 

Deadline: Monday, August 11, 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 710th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Let’s Get Loud — The Assignment: Make a piece of your own music louder/busier — at https://disquiet.com/0710/.

Disquiet Junto Project 0709: Overclocked

The Assignment: Speed up a machine (or process) until it falters.

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 0709: Overclocked
The Assignment: Speed up a machine (or process) until it falters.

Step 1: Think of a machine (or process) you use frequently.

Step 2: Push that machine (or process) by speeding it up, until it begins to break down.

Step 3: Record something making use of the sounds resulting from Step 2.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0709” (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-0709-overclocked/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How fast can you go?

Deadline: Monday, August 4, 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 709th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Overclocked — The Assignment: Speed up a machine (or process) until it falters — at https://disquiet.com/0709/.

Disquiet Junto Project 0708: Vocal Chords

The Assignment: Do something with layers of the sound of your voice.

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 0708: Vocal Chords
The Assignment: Do something with layers of the sound of your voice.

Step 1: Create simple chords by layering the sound of your voice.

Step 2: Do something with those chords.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0708” (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-0708-vocal-chords/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How long can you go without taking a breath?

Deadline: Monday, July 28, 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 708th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Vocal Chords — The Assignment: Do something with layers of the sound of your voice. — at https://disquiet.com/0708/.

On Repeat: Duo, Quartet, Solo

Home/office playlist

On Sundays I try to at least quickly note some of my favorite listening from the week prior — things I would later regret having not written about in more depth, so better to share here briefly than not at all.

▰ This duet between guitarist Eivind Aarset and electronic musician Jan Bang was recorded early in the pandemic, but I believe has only just now appeared online. A lot of the music Aarset makes is deeply indebted to Miles Davis’ electric era, and to the subsequent work of Jon Hassell; this track is a reminder that Brian Eno and David Byrne’s My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, which bears the influence of Hassell, also looms large. The piece, “Witness,” originally appeared on the duo’s fantastic 2020 album Snow Catches On Her Eyelashes.

▰ A very tight saxophone quartet performance, by the Amstel Quartet, based in Amsterdam, of a segment of Philip Glass’ score to Mishima. This is Vitaly Vatulya, soprano; Olivier Sliepen, alto; Bas Apswoude, tenor; and Harry Cherrin, baritone. There are moments when the highest part, which I assume is Vatulya’s soprano, chiming away, puts this over the top. Just tremendous.

▰ Ted Laderas, aka the OO-Ray, is back — or will be soon — with the forthcoming solo album Marginals, on the great Beacon Sound label. It’s due out August 15, 2025. Laderas plays solo cello with an array of electronic accompaniment and processing. Two tracks are up for pre-release listening. Especially recommended is “Harrow,” which has a quiet pulse and thick layers of playing.

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Disquiet Junto Project 0707: Chain of Practice

The Assignment: Make music from how you make music

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 0707: Chain of Practice
The Assignment: Make music from how you make music.

This project is the third of three that are being done by the Disquiet Junto in collaboration with the 2025 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 3 through 7. The festival topic this year is « Kette » — which translates, as the organization explains, to “Chain”: “Chains connect but they also bind. They create relationships but also restrictions. As a gift they look nice, feared when used in vice, and yet they can span bridges across fire and ice.” All three Junto projects this year engage with the work of Svetlana Maraš, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2025 festival.

We are working again at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the seventh year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern. Tobias helped prepare this week’s compositional concept.

Step 1: Think about your artistic practice.

Step 2: Write down one sentence that in some manner describes your artistic practice.

Step 3: Record yourself, or someone else, reading the sentence that resulted from Step 2.

Step 4: Use the recording made in Step 3 as the sole source material for a new musical/sonic composition.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0707” (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-0707-chain-of-practice/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you.

Deadline: Monday, July 21, 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 707th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Chain of Practice — The Assignment: Make music from how you make music — at https://disquiet.com/0707/.