downstream – Page 291

Why We Listen

I talk with Marc Kate about surface noise, classical motifs, and the reversal of Aphex Twin

March 22, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

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Major thanks to Marc Kate of the Why We Listen podcast for having included me in its ever growing catalog of conversations. My entry, [released a few days ago](https://whywelisten.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/why-we-listen-35-marc-weidenbaum/), is the 35th in Kate’s Why We Listen series. Previous participants include many folks I admire, including Morgan Packard, Richard Chartier, Cara Rose DeFabio, Erik Davis, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Holly Herndon, Leyland Kirby, Bob Ostertag, Geeta Dayal, and Keith Hennessy.

For each episode of Why We Listen, Kate asks the guest to bring three pieces of music, and then you sit in his studio and listen to them together and talk about them. I selected a piece of turntablism sound art by Maria Chavez, “Kids- TRIAL 18 (Unfinished),” a work of classical minimalism by Madeleine Cocolas, “I Can See You Whisper,” and an Aphex Twin rarity “Avril 14th reversed music not audio.”

A direct link to the MP3 file is here: [whywelisten.marckate.com](http://www.whywelisten.marckate.com/Assets/audio/35-Marc_Weidenbaum.mp3). The iTunes link is here: [itunes.apple.com](https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/why-we-listen-why-we-listen/id504696088). More on the episode at [whywelisten.wordpress.com](https://whywelisten.wordpress.com/2016/03/17/why-we-listen-35-marc-weidenbaum/).

What the Creators of the Monome Sound Like as Live Performers

Kelli Cain and Brian Crabtree recorded live in San Francisco (February 2016)

March 21, 2016June 13, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

**Update (April 3, 2016):** The SoundCloud account of half of the Monome duo mentioned below, [Kelli Cain](https://soundcloud.com/kcain/hollow-moon-rings-like-bell), today uploaded a higher-quality recording of the same concert:

The original post appears below.

The developers of the Monome have shepherded not just a series of refined devices, including their namesake grid and a growing number of synthesizer modules, but a community that makes music with them and software for them.

That Monome community largely gathers at [llllllll.co](http://llllllll.co), a discussion site, but occasionally there are opportunities to meet up in person. About a month back, on February 19, Monome’s Kelli Cain and Brian Crabtree, who are based in upstate New York, performed as a duo at a tiny shop in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond neighborhood. The audio for that set is now available as a free download from shop’s SoundCloud account ([soundcloud.com/betterforliving](https://soundcloud.com/betterforliving/kelli-cain-brian-crabtree-live-monome-performance)).

I was at the show, and can confirm the audio captures the songs well. It’s a series of gentle, folktronic pieces, each with a trance-like quality. Certainly there in the mix are the soft looping synthesizer sounds often associated with the Monome, but there’s also a sweet vocal thread, the pair harmonizing like adjunct members of Low or of Iron and Wine. The acoustic shaker heard early on in this half-hour set is one of several that come out of Cain’s work in ceramics (see: [kellicain.com](http://kellicain.com/)).

At the show Crabtree had several of the shakers on the table. He’d shake one for awhile, and then pass it to someone in the audience to continue the pattern. Each person became an extension of what Crabtree had started, but then altered it a little, whether through the conscious decision to contribute a musical idea, or simply because their sense of rhythm differed from his. Either way, the passing around of the shakers was a masterful example of the real (that is, physical) world reflecting something intrinsic to electronic culture (looping), all occurring in the context of a makeshift community (in this case the few dozen attendees).

Here are two shots I took at the time and that I posted the day after the show at [llllllll.co](http://llllllll.co/t/sf-tonight-at-8pm/2517/4?u=disquiet):

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weidenbaum-monome2016feb2

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/betterforliving](https://soundcloud.com/betterforliving/kelli-cain-brian-crabtree-live-monome-performance). More on the Monome, Cain, and Crabtree at [monome.org](http://monome.org).

Disquiet Junto Project 0220: Rhythmic Arrhythmic

The Assignment: Make overtly rhythmic music from short loops of overtly arrhythmic source audio, following instructions from Dennis DeSantis.

March 17, 2016March 18, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

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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.

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

This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, March 17, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 21, 2016.

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 0220: Rhythmic Arrhythmic

The Assignment: Make overtly rhythmic music from short loops of overtly arrhythmic source audio, following instructions from Dennis DeSantis.

Dennis DeSantis adapted this week’s project from the chapter “Implied Rhythm in Short Loops”from his excellent book Making Music: 74 Creative Strategies for Electronic Music Producers. The project explores how rhythm emerges from almost any audio material if short fragments of it are repeated incessantly enough.

Step 1: Find or make an audio recording of the arrhythmic material of your choice and gradually reduce its loop length until rhythmic patterns begin to emerge.

Tip: This usually works well with loops that are no longer than about two seconds.

Tip: Good sources include: existing music, field recordings, and recordings of speech.

Tip: “Bad”or uneven loops can often yield the most interesting results. Don’t necessarily aim for loops with clean boundaries or that are aligned to zero-crossings.

Step 2: Use the inherent rhythm in these short loops as the basis for a piece of new music in which the “discovered”rhythm is clearly audible.

Step 3: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

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, March 17, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 21, 2016.

Length: The length is up to you, though between two 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 “disquiet0220-rhythmicarrhythmic.”Also use “disquiet0220-rhythmicarrhythmic”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 220th weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Make overtly rhythmic music from short loops of overtly arrhythmic source audio, following instructions from Dennis DeSantis”) at:

https://disquiet.com/0220/

Gesturally Rhythmic Ambient Music

Straight outta Hiroshima

March 15, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://stabilo-loadbang.bandcamp.com/album/ebb-and-flow">ebb and flow by stabilo (speaker gain teardrop) / Gallery Six</a>

*Ebb and Flow* is a split EP of gesturally rhythmic ambient music built from field recordings and other noise sources. It doesn’t have a beat, per se, but it draws percussion into the mix. Half of the EP is by Stabilo and the other half is by Gallery Six. Both Stabilo (aka Yasutica Horibe, of the band Speaker Gain Teardrop) and Gallery Six (aka Hidekazu Imashige) are based in Hiroshima, Japan. The highlight of *Ebb and Flow* is “Endurance,” which balances a twinkling percussive element, like a vibraphone being played by tiny rubber balls, amid water drops and a thick sonic fog. Gallery Six’s “Vapor” is more textural than its title may suggest — it’s like the sound of a thousand pachinko machines playing from deep in some flooded cistern. There are four tracks in all, and the full set is highly recommended.

The EP is available for free download at [stabilo-loadbang.bandcamp.com](https://stabilo-loadbang.bandcamp.com/album/ebb-and-flow). More from Stabilo at [speakergainteardrop.com](http://speakergainteardrop.com/stabilo/). More from Gallery Six at [gallerysix.tumblr.com](http://gallerysix.tumblr.com/).

Sustained Chamber Ambient Music

Borosilicate Purl arrives on SoundCloud

March 14, 2016 / By Marc Weidenbaum

“Liberation Suite” was the first track to appear at the SoundCloud page of Borosilicate Purl, an ambient duo out of Michigan. Three more tracks have appeared in the past day, but as of yesterday “Liberation” stood alone. It makes for a strong start. It’s a beautiful work of sustained chamber ambient music. Strings maintain a running, cloud-bank placidity, while organ-like tones begin to fill out the body of the piece. At times it brings to mind the song-less country music of the Boxhead Ensemble, at others the amplified zithers of Laraaji, and at others still the more introspective guitar performances of Adrian Belew. The ambition of Borosilicate Purl is clear in how the apparent sparseness of the work belies its emotional heft, and how it utilizes over 10 full minutes to get where it’s going.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/borosilicate-purl](https://soundcloud.com/borosilicate-purl/liberation-suite). Borosilicate Purl is the duo of Michael Rice and Jeffrey Niemeier. They are based in Grand Rapids, Michigan