Disquiet Junto Project 0748: And a Two (2/3)

The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio.

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 llllllll.co discussion thread.

A full list of the three sequential “trios” projects is being updated in this read-only Google spreadsheet.

Disquiet Junto Project 0748: And a Two (2/3)
The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio.

Please note: While this project is the second of a semi-annual three-part sequence that will unfold over the course of three consecutive weeks, starting last week, you can participate in any or all three of those weekly parts. 

There are two versions of the instructions for this week’s project — one very short, the other very long, should clarifications prove useful. (You can do two tracks this week, if you’d like, just be sure to read the longer set of instructions if you elect to.)

. . .

Very short version (about 35 words): Select a track from last week’s project (disquiet.com/0747), pan it to the left, and add your own line to the right, leaving room in the center for someone to eventually turn it into a trio.

. . .

Very long version of the instructions (about 600 words):

Step 1: This week’s Disquiet Junto project is the second in a sequence intended to encourage and reward asynchronous collaboration. This week you’ll be adding music to a pre-existing track, which you will source from last week’s Junto project (disquiet.com/0747). Note that you aren’t creating a duet, precisely — you’re creating the second third of what will eventually be a trio. What that means is: Leave space for what is yet to come.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice, as a complement to a pre-existing track. First, you must select the piece of music to which you will be adding your own music. There are tracks by numerous musicians to choose from (over 50 as of last count). There is a full list of them in this read-only spreadsheet:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iJtMDvWflHxFgkCYCKiHKCtBuVBdf4b6RoJMLBAKQ-8/edit?gid=0#gid=0

(Note that it’s possible another track or two will pop up in — and some may disappear from — that playlist and the related discussion on llllllll.co. Things are fluid on the internet.)

To select a track, you can listen through all those and choose one, or simply look around and select, or you can come up with a random approach to sifting through them.

It’s fine if more than one person uses the same original track as the basis for their piece (more on this in Step 5 below).

You’ll note that in the spreadsheet, almost every track has two URLs. The first URL is where the given track appears online, so you can download it and add to it. The second URL is the place on the llllllll.co message board where the project discussion took place. It is strongly encouraged that you look at that discussion link for the track you select, because many of those posts include additional contextual information there, such as BPM, key, and instrumentation.

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly the length of the piece of music you selected in Step 2. Your track should complement the piece from Step 2, and leave room for an eventual third piece of music. When composing and recording your part, don’t alter the original piece of music at all, except to pan the original fully to the left if it hasn’t been panned left already. In your finished audio track, your new part should be panned fully to the right. 

To be clear: The track you upload won’t be your piece of music alone; it will be a combination of the track you selected in Step 2 and yours.

Step 4: Also be sure, when done, to make the finished track downloadable, because it will be used by someone else in the third phase of this Junto project series.

Step 5: You can contribute more than one track this week. In normal circumstances, Junto projects have a one-track-per-participant limit. You can do two this time. For the second, it’s appreciated if you try to work with a solo that no one else has used yet. An updated list in maintained in this Google Drive document of what has been utilized:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iJtMDvWflHxFgkCYCKiHKCtBuVBdf4b6RoJMLBAKQ-8/edit?gid=0#gid=0

The goal is for many as people as possible to benefit from the experience of being part of an asynchronous collaboration. That, foremost, is the spirit of this project.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0748” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one or two tracks this week (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If you feel inspired to post more than two tracks (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which are the two “main” renditions for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0748-and-a-two-2-3/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. Stick close to the length of the track yours adds to.

Deadline: Monday, May 4, 2026, 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 748th weekly Disquiet Junto project, And a Two (2/3) — The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio — disquiet.com/0748.

15 Minutes

Courtesy of Modular Ambient

Another fine 15-minute slice of ambient modular synth from the appropriately named Modular Ambient station/channel/account/ethos/vibe on YouTube, all shimmering tones and light glitch that throbs and pulses, shifts and drifts, in accordance with the lights of various bits of kit. It’s been a while, for whatever reason, since I added a video to my massive YouTube playlist of (currently 225) live ambient performances, but this one made it immediately.

On Repeat: Aarset, Potter, 2022 KMRU

Home/office playlist

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.

▰ Electric guitarist Eivind Aarset’s quartet is a gift that keeps on giving. The two drummers (Erland Dahlen, Wetle Holte) are so tight with drummer Audun Erlien that it sounds like a much more compact group than it is.

▰ The saxophonist Chris Potter assembled a remarkable ensemble, featuring Bill Frisell (guitar), Nate Smith (drums), Burniss Travis (bass), Rane Moore (clarinet), Zekkereya El-magharbel (trombone), and Sara Caswell (violin), and on top of how great they sound together, the video does a solid job of introducing them one at a time in a manner that slowly exposes how much is going on sonically.

▰ This live video of KMRU performing solo in Milan, Italy, dates from 2022, but appears to have only just popped up on YouTube. It’s 45 stellar minutes of drones and noise, lightly glitched, and atmospherically entrancing.

Disquiet Junto Project 0747: And a One (1/3)

The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

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 llllllll.co discussion thread.

A full list of the tracks, both on (50 of them) and off (3 more) SoundCloud, are in a read-only Google spreadsheet.

Disquiet Junto Project 0747: And a One (1/3)
The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio.

Please note: While this project is the start of a semi-annual three-part sequence that will unfold over the course of three consecutive weeks, you can participate in any or all three of those parts. 

Step 1: This week’s Junto project is the first in a sequence intended to encourage and reward collaboration. You will be recording something with the understanding that it will remain unfinished for the time being. Your part will be done, but more will happen. Read on.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music using any instrumentation of your choice. Conceive the piece as something that leaves room for something else — other instruments, other people — to join in. (Keep in mind that your piece resulting from this week’s project will be panned to the left in the second and third weeks of this sequence.)

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly two to three minutes in length, as described in Step 2. 

Step 4: This is important: be sure to make your track downloadable because it may be used by someone else in the next Disquiet Junto project, and the one after that.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0747” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0747-and-a-one-1-3/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is usually up to the musician, but for this one, please, per the instructions, keep it to roughly two to three minutes in length. Thanks.

Deadline: Monday, April 27, 2026, 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 747th weekly Disquiet Junto project, And a One (1/3) — The Assignment: Record the first third of a trio — disquiet.com/0747.

On Repeat: Akinmusire / Halvorson, Paperclip Minimiser, Ambient Modular

Home/office playlist

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.

▰ New collaboration between trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and guitarist Mary Halvorson, Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings, gets a preview with the forthcoming (June 12, 2026) album’s fourth track (of nine), appropriately title “Soundcheck.” It’s especially exciting because it appears (check around 25 seconds in) to evidence Akinmusire employing electronics to layer his instrument and, soon after, to develop foundational pads.

An advance note from the releasing label, Nonesuch, confirms this:

Though Halvorson regularly uses effects pedals on her guitar, Akinmusire’s use of one on Slo-Mo Neon Luminate Hoverings is new. Having recently gotten an updated model of the Line 6, Halvorson was passing her old ones along to friends. “Ambrose was interested in trying a Line Six. I gave him one five minutes before the rehearsal and was amazed how quickly he was able to do incredible shit on it … in literally five minutes,” she says.

“But I’ve been watching you, I’ve been watching Bill [Frisell] and other people use it for a long time,” Akinmusire says. “I approached it as if it were its own musician. I played and it would process the sound and then I would choose to react to that or not.

▰ Super dessicated minimal dub techno from Paperclip Minimiser, aka John Howes. The embed isn’t working so get the set, titled II, at Bandcamp.

▰ The YouTube account Ambient Modular has been uploading solid 15-minute sessions, largely with the same set-up, by appearances, providing a glimpse into the variety a single system is capable of. The streams happen daily starting, per the channel’s information, at “00:00 AM UTC (9:00 PM JST).”