downstream – Page 273

On the Far Side of Whether

Neo-classical ambient from Houston, Texas—based Slow Meadow

August 5, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Much non-label work on SoundCloud can, thankfully, have the feel of a sketch to it. That’s sketch, not sketchy. There is a lot of work on SoundCloud that is posted mid-state, when it is truly a work in progress, when what is heard is a snapshot of a piece between when it was begun and whether it will be finished. Which is why a track that feels fully complete can carry such momentum, such weight, even when it is itself light as a feather.

“A Magnificent Gray” by Slow Meadow is a slow, neo-classical composition of graceful, gently evolving scope. It begins in a semi-mechanical state, drones and gears and gadget-like clicking, joined at the half-minute mark by the sort of piano that, in the hands of Nils Frahm and others, has brought minimalism, and classical, and ambient into a single spot in many listeners’ imagination.

From there it builds, so slowly you don’t realize it until you listen through again. Strings expand its depth and its sensibility, but what really changes is the number of voices. What began solo becomes a conversation among parts. And then it fades in a slightly backward-masked tonal collapse. The piece is fully considered, fully composed, entirely self-contained. Gorgeous stuff.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/slow-meadow](https://soundcloud.com/slow-meadow/a-magnificent-gray-1). Slow Meadow is Matt Kidd of Houston, Texas. Found via a SoundCloud repost by [ivan87-4](https://soundcloud.com/ivan87-4). More from Kidd at [slowmeadow.com](http://www.slowmeadow.com/) and [twitter.com/slowmeadow](https://twitter.com/slowmeadow).

Disquiet Junto Project 0240: Emerging from a Drone

The Assignment: Compose a piece of music in which a drone slowly, imperceptibly, gives way to something rhythmic and/or melodic.

August 4, 2016August 11, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group on [SoundCloud.com](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/) and at [disquiet.com/junto](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. 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 was posted in the evening, California time, on Thursday, August 4, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, August 8, 2016.

Tracks will be added to this playlist 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 0240: Emerging from a Drone

The Assignment: Compose a piece of music in which a drone slowly, imperceptibly, gives way to something rhythmic and/or melodic.

Please note the new instructions below, in light of SoundCloud closing down its Groups functionality.

Big picture: One thing arising from the loss of the Groups functionality is the goal that an account on SoundCloud is not necessary for Disquiet Junto project participation. The aspiration is for the Junto to become platform-agnostic.

Project Steps:

Step 1: Record a short drone, something that suggests stasis, timelessness, something that could play forever and feel like it never substantially changes.

Step 2: Create a piece of music that slowly emerges from that drone. More to the point, create a piece of music for which the drone is the beginning — a drone that slowly, imperceptibly, gives way to something rhythmic or melodic or both.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done :

Step 1: Per the instructions below, be sure to include “disquiet0240” in the name of your track.

Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track. It is also helpful that you are a member of the discussion boards at llllllll.co.

Step 3: Add your track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud (this specific task will continue until the August 22 sunsetting of that service). The group is here:

https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Step 4: This is a new task, if you’ve done a Junto project previously. In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co post your track:

http://llllllll.co/t/music-that-emerges-from-a-drone-disquiet-junto-project-0240/4027

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.

Deadline: This project was posted in the evening, California time, on Thursday, August 4, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, August 8, 2016.

Length: The length is up to you. Between one and four minutes seems about right.

Upload: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, only upload one track for this project, 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.

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please in the title to your track include the term “disquiet0240.”Also use “disquiet0240”as a tag for your track.

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 240th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a piece of music in which a drone slowly, imperceptibly, gives way to something rhythmic and/or melodic”— at:

https://disquiet.com/0240/

Lucia H Chung and the Mixer

A feedback-based preview of her forthcoming Inner Geography album

August 1, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Lucia H Chung’s instrument of choice is a no-input mixer. This process involves producing feedback that results from feeding a mixer back into itself, taking the non-silent aspects of the device and enlarging them until they become audible — not just audible but, in Chung’s hands, enveloping.

This track, “Inner Geography (Preview),” is a short excerpt from a forthcoming album on the Arell label, based in England. It’s a series of rich swells, each threatening to burst, swells that eventually give way to an antic ticking. The full release, under Chung’s en creux moniker, will be a single, 25-minute performance.

The swells have a shuddering, thunderous appearance on first listen, a sharp static trailed by a bell-like drone. Upon repeated listens, each swell reveals its distinct character: saw waves of varying shard-like shapes and sizes, white noise that pulses, and filigrees of harsh, darting sounds. Most notably there is Chung’s attention to attack and release, which lends drama to the sequence of isolated events.

Presumably the full release proceeds from where this track ends, and the swells are, collectively, themselves a subset of a larger, even more varied episodic sequence.

<a href="http://arell.bandcamp.com/album/inner-geography-preview">Inner Geography (Preview) by en creux</a>

Album originally posted at [arell.bandcamp.com](https://arell.bandcamp.com/album/inner-geography-preview). More from Chung at [luciahchung.com](http://luciahchung.com/). Together with her husband, Martin J Thompson, who mastered the recording, she runs the label SM-LL, which is based in London ([sm-ll.com](http://sm-ll.com)).

Disquiet Junto Project 0239: Code Requiem

The Assignment: Compose a short composition in memoriam for a piece of recently deceased software.

July 28, 2016July 28, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

deadcode

This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, July 28, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, August 1, 2016.

Tracks will be added to this playlist 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 0239: Code Requiem

The Assignment: Compose a short composition in memoriam for a piece of recently deceased software.

Please note the instructions below, in light of SoundCloud closing down its Groups functionality.

Project Steps:

Step 1: Compose a short composition in memoriam for a piece of recently deceased software.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done :

Step 1: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud (this task will continue until the August 22 sunsetting of that service). It’s here:

https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Step 2: This is a new task, if you’ve done a Junto project previously. In the comment field to the track mention @disquiet. This will ping me to add the track to a playlist.

Step 3: Per the instructions below, be sure to tag your track #disquiet0239

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 was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, July 28, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, August 1, 2016.

Length: The length is up to you. Between one and three minutes seems about right.

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please in the title to your track include the term “disquiet0239.”Also use “disquiet0239”as a tag for your track.

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, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 239th weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Compose a short composition in memoriam for a piece of recently deceased software”— at:

https://disquiet.com/0239/

Chrissie Caulfield’s “Ambient Improv”

Pushing at assumed identities

July 26, 2016July 25, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Chrissie Caulfield, who’s based in Leeds, England, has a broad understanding of the violin and of ambient music. She pushes both well past their assumed identities. In her hands the violin is a sound source for myriad tweakings and warpings, transformations and embellishments. Likewise, her ambient music is rarely static, rarely free of developmental process. It’s rarely even peaceful.

“Ambient Improv,” a recent track she uploaded to her SoundCloud account yesterday, may not even have a violin in it. She lists the instrumentation as Blofeld (the synthesizer, not the James Bond villain) and Montage (presumably the Yamaha synth), though perhaps the violin is so implicit in her work that she doesn’t even think to mention it. The piece is a spacey mix of heavy oscillations, burpy grace notes, and nearly sub-aural hums that radiate when played with a proper woofer. It changes as it proceeds, from horror-movie organ chords to otherworldly sci-fi touches.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/chrissieleeds](https://soundcloud.com/chrissieleeds/ambient-improv). More form Caulfield at [chrissieviolin.info](http://chrissieviolin.info/), [twitter.com/chrissie_c](https://twitter.com/chrissie_c), and
[chrissieviolin.wordpress.com](https://chrissieviolin.wordpress.com/).