Disquiet Junto Project 0688: Sign Up

The Assignment: Interpret a routine public sign as a musical instruction.

/ 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 0688: Sign Up
The Assignment: Interpret a routine public sign as a musical instruction.

Step 1: Think about signs you see near where you live or work, the sort of routine public signage one generally takes for granted. Consider in particular signs that, unintentionally, are open to broader interpretation than might have been intended.

Step 2: Choose a sign from Step 1.

Step 3: Willfully interpret the sign you selected in Step 2 as a musical instruction of some sort.

Step 4: Record a track in which you follow the musical instruction you inferred in Step 3.

Note: When posting the track, please, if possible, include a photograph or other rendering of the sign you employed.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0688” (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-0688-sign-up/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you.

Deadline: Monday, March 10, 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 688th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Sign Up — The Assignment: Interpret a routine public sign as a musical instruction — at https://disquiet.com/0688/

Under the Boardwalk

A new album from Grey Tissue

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

I’m not sure it is accurate to say that the four tracks of artfully mangled and repurposed tracks that comprise Boardwalk by Grey Tissue (aka Gabe Konrad) necessarily proceed from whisper to scream. Why, the very first track on the release, “Boardwalk I,” has a protracted feedback screech midway through that may keep some listeners from proceeding further, but doing so is highly recommended. There is, from “Boardwalk I” through the especially chaotic and boisterous “Boardwalk IV,” a persistent sense of consideration here, of sounds both sourced and utilized with particular ends in mind, more narrative than abstract, also haunting yet enticing. In the Drifters’s classic “Under the Boardwalk,” Johnny Moore sang, “From the park you hear the happy sound of the carousel,” and while quite different sounds are deployed on Grey Tissue’s Boardwalk, it is still very much a depiction of a place, a time, and a mood. The album was released by the Japanese label NEUS-318.

[bandcamp width=640 height=274 album=3411372053 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]

On Repeat: Schulz, Monome, Downes

Home/office playlist

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

On Sundays I try to at least quickly note some of my favorite listening from the week prior — things I would later regret having not written about in more depth, so better to share here briefly than not at all.

▰ Jeannine Schulz has an approach to releasing music that I’m still wrapping my head around, a mix of singles and albums and EPs that mark her as prolific but are also so understated that they feel less like a torrent and more like a steady trickle. A note at the end of the release page on Bandcamp reads: “Please make sure you download the music after the purchase as the musical content of the site sometimes changes. Tracks or albums are occasionally removed from the catalog.” Her latest, two tracks under the title All Is Found, is absolutely perfect for this mode, as it sounds like music being erased as it is being recorded. Schulz is based in Germany.

[bandcamp width=640 height=208 album=3115659778 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]

▰ I am a sucker for works in progress. I probably listen to more half-finished music than to mastered commercial releases. This video is an early-stages work (turn up the volume, as it’s quiet), a “a realtime performance processor and synthesizer” currently under development, using two Monome-made devices, the Grid and the Arc. It’s by Element433 (aka Pere Villez), based in Brighton and Hove, U.K.

▰ Archival listen: Enemy — actually all caps, ENEMY, apparently — is a trio consisting of Kit Downes, piano; Petter Eldh, double bass; and James Maddren, drums. I’ve been getting deep into Downes since hearing him on Breaking the Shell (my favorite album 2024), the trio record he recorded (playing organ, not piano) with electric guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Andrew Cyrille. I like a lot of the Enemy album The Betrayal, in particular the first track, which does this thing Robert Glasper, among others, does, where the piano sounds as if it had been sampled, the way the lines are fragmented and repeat little snippets frequently. The idea of a pianist simulating the sound of a seam in an audio loop makes me ecstatically happy. This is “post-MPC jazz” (the MPC being the sampling instrument made by Akai). Downes appears to split his time between London, England, and Berlin, Germany.

[bandcamp width=640 height=472 album=2639552960 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]

Disquiet Junto Project 0687: Applied Science

The Assignment: Record a piece of music that includes physiological and behavioral techniques.

/ 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 0687: Applied Science
The Assignment: Record a piece of music that explores physiological and behavioral techniques.

Step 1: It is understood in biology that there are differences between the “behavioral” and the “physiological,” between an action or response a person makes by choice, and one that happens on instinct or involuntarily. (Please forgive these rough descriptions.) Familiarize yourself with the concepts.

Step 2: Consider various ways that some musical activities might be considered behavioral, such as consciously playing notes, and others might be physiological, such as maintaining a beat.

Step 3: Record a piece of music that combines a mix of some of the behavioral and physiological music activities you thought about in Step 2.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0687” (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-0687-applied-science/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you.

Deadline: Monday, March 3, 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 687th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Applied Science — The Assignment: Record a piece of music that includes physiological and behavioral techniques — at https://disquiet.com/0687/

Disquiet Junto Project 0686: Catch Your Breath

The Assignment: Listen to yourself inhale and exhale; make music from what you sense.

/ 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 0686: Catch Your Breath
The Assignment: Listen to yourself inhale and exhale; make music from what you sense.

Step 1: Sit for a moment and slow your breath.

Step 2: Continue with Step 1 for a bit longer.

Step 3: Pay attention to your breathing, in and out, in and out. Don’t record yourself. Just listen, and feel.

Step 4: Consider how the process of breathing in and out slowly can lend shape to a piece of music. Again, just do this through personal consideration of the act of breathing. This project isn’t an exercise in audio sampling.

Step 5: Record a piece of music that engages with the ideas that surfaced in Step 4.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0686” (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-0686-catch-your-breath/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How long does one sit and just breathe?

Deadline: Monday, February 24, 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 686th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Catch Your Breath — The Assignment: Listen to yourself inhale and exhale; make music from what you sense — at https://disquiet.com/0686/