How this is the first mention I’ve made of Clocktower on Disquiet.com is beyond me, since I listen to the website — specifically its Clocktower Radio, founded in 2003 — a lot. I did [express concern](https://disquiet.com/2008/10/19/tangents-3-months-of-433-micing-marfa-three-martinez-scores/) back in [2008](https://disquiet.com/2008/10/19/tangents-3-months-of-433-micing-marfa-three-martinez-scores/) when its founder, Alanna Heiss, left the museum she founded, MoMA PS1 (previous PS1, originally Institute for Art and Urban Resources Inc.), but far as I can tell that’s the only mention of it here. In any case, Clocktower Radio is a long-running Internet audio series based in New York City.
Recently posted on the site is a half-hour live performance by guitarist Hubble (aka Ben Greenberg), recorded live on March 24, 2016, as part of an evening of quadrophonic pieces. It moves comfortably from expansive atmospherics to dense, tribal minimalism, the layers of (presumably live-looped) material gathering like fierce shadows. The antic momentum brings to mind early Battles, while the orchestral timbre naturally connects to the work of Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca. (**Update 2016.05.16:** There is no live looping, per a [tweet](https://twitter.com/missionhubble/status/732215462784831488) from Greenberg.)
Track originally posted for streaming at [clocktower.org](http://clocktower.org/show/tetraphonics-hubble-ben-greenberg#). More from Greenberg, who is based in New York City, at [missionhubble.blogspot.com](http://missionhubble.blogspot.com/), [soundcloud.com/hubbletrouble](https://soundcloud.com/hubbletrouble), [facebook.com/missionhubble](https://www.facebook.com/missionhubble), and [twitter.com/missionhubble](https://twitter.com/missionhubble). Images by Anice Jee from the post at [clocktower.org](http://clocktower.org/show/tetraphonics-hubble-ben-greenberg).
Following a deep, shuddering, glottal opening — a few terse notes sawed in sequence — the remainder of “Gunners Pool” by Martin Colborn provides a brief sense of a sonic miasma, alternately haunting and enchanting. It’s a low-volume atmosphere of sour notes, playing in semi-unison. Colborn’s very brief liner note (five words: “Ebow and stark scratchy sounds”) singles out a device that lets the strings of an instrument vibrate endlessly (or at least until the EBow’s battery wears out). Play this in one room and then go read in another. It is the aural potpourri of lingering anxiety, of restrained fear.
Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/martin-colborn](https://soundcloud.com/martin-colborn/gunners-pool). Set it on repeat. I played it about 50 times in a row today. I previously wrote about a Colborn track late last month: [“All the More Beautiful for That Absence.”](https://disquiet.com/2016/03/26/martin-colborn/) He’s based in Durham, England.
The Monome developer responds blissfully to a Junto prompt (his own)
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
I don’t usually single out Disquiet Junto tracks for separate mention as daily Downstream mentions, but this week, the 223rd in the project series, is an exception. Not only did Brian Crabtree, who developed (with Kelli Cain) the ingenious Monome instrument (the lit-up one shown above), devise the idea for this week’s Junto compositional prompt, he also did the project himself.
The week’s project idea, titled “Layered Sameness,” is to record multiple versions of the same solo piece and to then hear them played back all at the same time. The solo piece is, itself, intended to be a series of loops, all played by hand. Thus there are multiple levels of variation on theme, among them the variation between loops and the variation between each overall take. The result is center-less, often quite blissful, as in Crabtree’s (his SoundCloud moniker is Tehn), which is a gentle percussion pattern, like a gamelan built of champagne glasses:
More on the Monome at [monome.org](http://monome.org/). More from Crabtree at [nnnnnnnn.org](http://nnnnnnnn.org/). Listen to the full set of musical responses to the project, 25 as of this post, at [soundcloud.com/disquiet](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet0223-layeredsameness).
The Assignment: Record multiple, slightly varying takes on the same looped composition in this project by Monome's Brian Crabtree.
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com and at 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.
Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of project 0223:
This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 7, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, April 11, 2016.
Disquiet Junto Project 0223: Layered Sameness Record multiple, slightly varying takes on the same looped composition in this project by Monome’s Brian Crabtree.
This week’s project was developed by Brian Crabtree, who along with Kelli Cain makes the Monome, the adventurous grid music interface.
The project is an exploration in repeatability, phasing, and density.
Step 1: Compose a relatively simple, short(ish), performable moment to be repeated as a loop, such as notes on a guitar, or clapping, or vocalizing, or some other live performance technique.
Step 2: Choose how many times you’ll play the loop in a row. Aim for a total duration of a minute or two, but feel free to deviate from this suggestion.
Step 3: Record yourself performing this loop, without a metronome.
Step 4: On a new track, record yourself again performing the same number of loops for roughly the same amount of time without listening to the previous take(s) or to a metronome.
Step 5: Repeat step 4 between 4 and 40 times.
Step 6: Adjust master levels. If desired, pan each track randomly.
Step 7: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.
Step 8: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 9: 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, April 7, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, April 11, 2016.
Length: The length is up to you, though between one and two minutes feels 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 “disquiet0223-layeredsameness.”Also use “disquiet0223-layeredsameness”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 223rd weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Record multiple, slightly varying takes on the same looped composition in this project by Monome’s Brian Crabtree”) at:
Peter Courtemanche is at play in stereoscopic fields of quiet noise.
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
The noises are slight and tenuous, frail and mobile. They slither around headspace, veering left and right as they sag and flourish, as they alternately whither, sputter, and, unexpectedly, rise. This is tinnitus as composition, everyday irritant as strange attractor. It’s three quarters of an hour of Peter Courtemanche, who works under the name Absolute Value of Noise and focuses his activities on field recordings of engineered noise, cataloging all manner of sonic fissures. It’s episode 72 of Jeff Kolar’s invaluable audio series, Radius. The [accompanying text](http://theradius.us/episode72) provides context:
>Some of the motors are recorded from afar with his large bicycle wheel antenna (this is an antenna system that he uses in performances); some are recorded up close using smaller wheel antennas (1 foot) while some have coils wrapped around the motors themselves.
Click through (to [theradius.us](http://theradius.us/episode72)) as well for details on the various sound sources and recording scenarios, such as this diary entry:
>(3) Number 25 Bus (August 2008 / May 2015): sitting at the back of the bus recording acceleration and deceleration. This is a diesel bus that runs past his house. The engine is at the back under the floor-boards. He imagines that the antenna is picking up the firing of the spark-plugs and whatever other electronic signals are flying about when the bus pulls away from the stop.
Originally posted at [soundcloud.com/theradius](https://soundcloud.com/theradius/episode72). More from Courtemanche, who’s based in Vancouver, at [absolutevalueofnoise.ca](http://absolutevalueofnoise.ca/).
