Disquiet Junto Project 0695: Clean After Each Use

The Assignment: Put a piece of music through the dryer.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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 0695: Clean After Each Use
The Assignment: Put a piece of music through the dryer.

Step 1: Think about lint for a moment — all the stuff that’s cast off from your clothes when you send them through the dryer.

Step 2: Now consider what might be cast off from your music if you could send your music through the dryer for a cycle or two.

Step 3: Select a piece of your own music, and send it through the metaphorical dryer. What results?

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0695” (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-0695-clean-after-each-use/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. Keep it light?

Deadline: Monday, April 28, 2024, 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 695th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0695: Clean After Each Use — The Assignment: Put a piece of music through the dryer — at https://disquiet.com/0695/

From Little Things

Big things thrum

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The installation artist Zimoun specialized in large-scale exhibits where substantial batteries of physical objects combine to make a lot out of a little, whether it’s ping pong balls, or springs, or cardboard boxes, or piano strings, or polyethylene tanks, or DC motors, or cotton balls — or, generally, two or more of those in combination. Experienced in person, the works take on a semi-lifelike, if not necessarily sentient, quality — that is, they are “generative” (in the sense that predates the near wholesale accession of that term by commercialized artificial intelligence). By contrast, Zimoun documents these with short videos that are, if you’ve seen the work close up, akin to a postcard representing a cross-country trip, not so much shorthand or short shrift as a considered encapsulation. Among his latest, from this still fairly new year, is “24 prepared dc-motors, 24 metal barrels, 265m piano strings” (the pieces usually have titles determined by their constituent parts), which summons up an orchestral drone, as the vibrating strings cause deep emanations from the metal drums.

Disquiet Junto Project 0694: 5/4ify

The Assignment: Add a beat to a pre-existing piece of music.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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 0694: 5/4ify
The Assignment: Add a beat to a pre-existing piece of music.

There is just one step to this project: Take a pre-existing piece of music that is in 4/4 — either your own or something in the public domain — and add a beat to each measure, transforming it into 5/4.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0694” (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-0694-5-4ify/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. Maybe 25% longer than usual?

Deadline: Monday, April 21, 2024, 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 694th weekly Disquiet Junto project, 5/4ify — The Assignment: Add a beat to a pre-existing piece of music — at https://disquiet.com/0694/

“Avril 14th” 2025

Much more interesting than Record Store Day

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

There are many great electronic holidays, like those associated with various Roland instruments: 808 Day (for the TR-808 Rhythm Composer, August 8), 404 Day (for the SP-404, April 4), 303 Day (for the TB-303, March 3). My favorite is April 14, for Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14th,” off the 2001 album Drukqs. Many cover versions appear each year, and I’ll share some of my new favorites as the today proceeds. There were, a usual, tons, and I just posted the ones that really struck me. (This entry was last updated the morning of April 15, 2025.)

▰ Here’s flute (Serena Huang) and violin (Michael Shingo‬) version:

▰ Here’s a harp (Sáoirse Éirinn) and pedal steel (Joel Harkin) duet take:

▰ And it wouldn’t be Avril 14th without a Moog cover, this from a musician who goes by Sequence Mode:

▰ Shane Parish on acoustic guitar, plus birdsong:

▰ An upbeat rendition, entirely on the Elektron Analog Rytm, from my friend RPLKTR (aka Łukasz Langa)

▰ And from БРЎТАЌ on the Sunvox software synth:

▰ And over at Music and Math and Feelings, the Substack of Chris Thompson (percussionist in Alarm Will Sound), there’s a gorgeous exploration of just intonation and oscilloscope visualization: chrispthompson.substack.com (not embeddable).

Disquiet Junto Project 0693: Melody Sorted

The Assignment: Reorganize a familiar song note by note.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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 0693: Melody Sorted
The Assignment: Reorganize a familiar song note by note.

Step 1: Choose a familiar song for which you have access to the sheet music.

Step 2: Select a segment of the song, perhaps one round of the chorus and the verse — perhaps more, or less, after you finish reading these instructions.

Step 3: Write down all the notes (and their lengths) in the main melodic line.

Step 4: Alphabetize the notes, and also sort them by length, in ascending order, so an Ab goes before an A, and a quarter note goes before a whole note, and so forth. (You might also adjust for where the note falls relative to middle C, starting low and proceeding up.)

Step 5: Record results when all those notes are played in the sequence that was derived during Step 4.

Bonus round: Also consider appending to Step 5 what it sounds like when that same set of notes is played randomly.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0693” (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-0693-melody-sorted/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How much time do you have to sort?

Deadline: Monday, April 14, 2024, 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 693rd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Melody Sorted — The Assignment: Reorganize a familiar song note by note — at https://disquiet.com/0693/