downstream – Page 248

Two Programs in Collaboration

A SuperCollider experiment

April 29, 2017April 30, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Multiple lines thread through this piece, one slow and muffled, like a water-logged bandoneon, the other chipper and vibrant, like a tiny robotic vibraphone with a glitchy chip. What it is is an experiment, apparently, in letting two pieces of software share data with each other in real time. The musician at the helm(s) of these softwares, programmed in SuperCollider, goes by Data Mads, who likens the composition to an experiment in code that is “selfaware.”

Video originally posted at [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZlilXXdmk4). More on the processes at [sccode.org](http://doc.sccode.org/Tutorials/A-Practical-Guide/PG_06g_Data_Sharing.html).

Disquiet Junto Project 0278: MacConnel’s Jingle

Interpret a work of contemporary art as a graphically notated score.

April 27, 2017April 28, 2017 / 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.

Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:

This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, May 1, 2017. This project was posted in the mid-afternoon, California time, on Thursday, April 27, 2017.

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 0278: MacConnel’s Jingle

The Assignment: Interpret a work of contemporary art as a graphically notated score.

Step 1: The image at the following URL is a photograph of Jingle, a 1980 work by the artist Kim MacConnel (b. 1946). The piece, which is approximately 8 feet wide and is made of acrylic on cotton, hangs at the Parrish Art Museum in the town of Watermill, New York, on the east end of Long Island.

https://disquiet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/kimmacconneljingle.jpg

Step 2: Compose a short piece of music that interprets MacConnel’s Jingle as a graphically notated score.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0278” (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:

http://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0278-macconnels-jingle/

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 wherever you are on Monday, May 1, 2017. This project was posted in the mid-afternoon, California time, on Thursday, April 27, 2017.

Length: The length is entirely up to the participant.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0278” 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 278th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “MacConnel’s Jingle: Interpret a work of contemporary art as a graphically notated score”— at:

https://disquiet.com/0278/

Disquiet Junto Project 0277: Chew Concrète

The Assignment: Make music inspired by C. Reider's Chew Cinders album procedures.

April 20, 2017May 5, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:

This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, April 24, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 20, 2017.

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 0277: Chew ConcrÃ¨te

The Assignment: Make music inspired by C. Reider’s *Chew Cinders* album procedures.

Step 1: This week’s project is inspired by the manner in which C. Reider recorded his recent album, *Chew Cinders* (Midnight Circles). We aren’t remixing his album. We’re remixing/repurposing his approach to the album. You can check it out here:

https://midnightcircles.bandcamp.com/album/chew-cinders

Step 2: This instruction is adapted, with Reider’s input, from the manner in which he recorded the album:

Process a sequence of standalone “chunks” of pre-recorded sound — voice, field recordings, noise — with an emphasis on the manipulation of time and pitch. Speed things up, slow them down, and explore the opportunity to use cutup techniques. Pay particular attention to segues between the chunks.

Step 3: Make a piece of music inspired by the approach delineated in Step 2.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0277” (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:

http://llllllll.co/t/chew-some-concrete-sounds-disquiet-junto-project-0277/

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 wherever you are on Monday, April 24, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 20, 2017.

Length: The length is entirely up to the participant.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0277” 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 277th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Chew ConcrÃ¨te: Make music inspired by C. Reider’s *Chew Cinders* album procedures”– at:

https://disquiet.com/0277/

Brian Eno Gives the BBC a Studio Tour

And talks generative art, sculptures, beat making, note taking, and more

April 17, 2017April 17, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

“I’m trying to make a version of me in this software,” Brian Eno tells the BBC’s Spencer Kelly in a half-hour video from the broadcaster’s Click show. The ambient godfather is giving Kelly a tour of his studio, displaying how he constructs his light installations, his sculptures made of small speakers, and his software-based music. We see the dark backroom where he’s transitioned from cathode ray tubes to LEDs, and his ceiling-high bookshelves, 65 percent of which he estimates have science as their subject. Kelly, whose BBC reporting focus is technology, pushes Eno to confirm himself as something of a scientist, which Eno agrees to do.

Broadcasting is an odd thing. Kelly needs to ask a generalist’s questions, even though it’s clear he must know quite a bit more than he’s actually acknowledging knowledge of. They get around to “those cards,” which leads to a bit of a history lesson about how Roxy Music’s limited budget inspired Eno to get some best practices in order, which in turn became the Oblique Strategies deck. He also spends an extended bit making generative drum beats, and gives us a flip through old notebooks. Somewhere people with high-definition monitors are making and trading screenshots, no doubt.

There’s also fodder for an incredibly subtle animated GIF around the 18:23 mark, when Eno, his head emerging from a thick, collared overshirt like that of a tortoise, juts back and forth along to a semi-randomized rhythm he’s just implemented.

Found via [synthtopia.com](http://www.synthtopia.com/content/2017/04/15/brian-eno-on-how-to-make-ambient-music/).

Musique ConcrÃ¨te + Video Games

The making of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

April 15, 2017April 14, 2017 / By Marc Weidenbaum

This short documentary video about the making of the video game *Resident Evil 7: Biohazard* explores the use of musique concrÃ¨te to achieve the game developers’ pursuit of a horror aesthetic. The 8-minute profile interviews various participants in the game’s production from a variety of sound roles, including audio director, composers, and music production supervisors.

Says one member of the team: “We talked about this whole musique concréte style. So using voices became part of the score, and we gave them instructions like pretend, you know, you’ve got a plastic bag over your head and you’re asphyxiating. Pretend you’re drowing; make a sound like that. By the end it got a little bit weird: you know, you’re a zombie cow and you’re dying.”

It’s interesting to observe their collective decision and their experience of moving away from traditional game music — which is generally electronic but also usually employs recognizably musical instrumentation or reference points — to work drawn entirely from recorded audio.

Video originally posted at [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/212347963). More on the video game, which was released back in January, at [residentevil7.com](http://residentevil7.com/). An album of the music was also released in January: [sumthing.com](https://www.sumthing.com/p/resident-evil-7-biohazard/).