Disquiet Junto Project 0634: Bust a Move

The Assignment: Record a piece of music on top of a muffled recording of a piece of classical 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 appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went to the group email list (via juntoletter.disquiet.com). 

Disquiet Junto Project 0634: Bust a Move
The Assignment: Record a piece of music on top of a muffled recording of a piece of classical music.

Step 1: Locate a public domain recording of a piece of classical music, perhaps at archive.org.

Step 2: In some manner, muffle the original until it sounds like it is being heard from underground or through a thick wall. Perhaps run it through a low-pass filter. Or actually record it through a thick wall.

Step 3: Listen closely to what remains of the recording after Step 2.

Step 4: Record a piece of music on top of the audio that resulted from Step 2, leaving that foundation audible to some degree.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0634” (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-0634-bust-a-move/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. Optimally, it will be exactly the same length as the source audio.

Deadline: Monday, February 26, 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 634th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Bust a Move — The Assignment: Record a piece of music on top of a muffled recording of a piece of classical music — at https://disquiet.com/0634/

The image associated with this track is in the public domain, via Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Beethoven_bust_statue_by_Hagen.jpg

Disquiet Junto Project 0632: Shear Wind

The Assignment: Make the most of the disturbance within a field recording.

/ 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 just under five days to upload a track in response to the assignment. 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. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, February 12, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, February 8, 2024.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at juntoletter.disquiet.com). Note that this email provider changed recently to Buttondown (due to TinyLetter shutting down at the end of February).

Disquiet Junto Project 0632: Shear Wind
The Assignment: Make the most of the disturbance within a field recording.

Step 1: Consider how when making a field recording, there can be disturbances in it, such as a passing car or plane, or a noise you didn’t notice until you listened back, or a malfunction in the recording equipment. A common such problem is wind shear.

Step 2: Make a recording that has wind shear in it, perhaps by standing in the wind, or recording from a moving vehicle, or through some other technique. Or locate a pre-existing field recording with wind shear, perhaps on freesound.org.

Step 3: Make a piece of music employing the recording you made in Step 2, and make the wind shear a focus of the piece. That is, pay attention to, rather than avoid, this sound that you would likely in other circumstances identify as a shortcoming.

Seven Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0632” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0632” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0632-shear-wind/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. 

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, February 12, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, February 8, 2024.

Upload: When participating in this project, 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.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 632nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Shear Wind — The Assignment: Make the most of the disturbance within a field recording — at: https://disquiet.com/0632/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0632-shear-wind/

Disquiet Junto Project 0631: In a Silent Waveform

The Assignment: Take one held tone and make it dance slowly.

/ 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 just under five days to upload a track in response to the assignment. 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. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, February 5, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, February 1, 2024.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto). Note that this service will change shortly, likely to Buttondown, due to Tinyletter shutting down.

Disquiet Junto Project 0631: In a Silent Waveform
The Assignment: Take one held tone and make it dance slowly.

There is just one step to this project: Take one held tone and make it dance slowly.

As with any Junto project, interpret as you see fit.

Seven Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0631” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0631” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0631-in-a-silent-waveform/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. 

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, February 5, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, February 1, 2024.

Upload: When participating in this project, 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.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 631st weekly Disquiet Junto project, In a Silent Waveform — The Assignment: Take one held tone and make it dance slowly — at: https://disquiet.com/0631/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0631-in-a-silent-waveform/

On Repeat: Birdsong, Iceberg, Cello

Home/office playlist

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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

▰ This is a live performance reworking of sounds from the forest, emphasis on the birdsong, by Mark Harrop, aka UMCorps, based in Cornwall in the U.K. He employs various techniques on “Endless Woodland,” like pitch-shifting as well as the re-insertion of samples from the original material, turning the source audio into something cinematic, a combination of the everyday and the psychological experience of an imagined scenario.

▰ Heejin Jang’s new album, Human Iceberg, is the score to a collaborative project by that name that teams her with writer Lim Jina and visual artist Lee SunHo on what sounds, from the description, like a science fiction fable about climate change. Jang scored the project, expressing various settings, from the melting of an iceberg to technological failures to seemingly supernatural occurrences. While there are atmospheric moments, it gets loud; as Jang says on her Bandcamp page’s bio: “I make something noisy.” More at instagram.com/humaniceberg.official, best viewed on a laptop or desktop computer. Jang is based in Seoul, Korea.

https://heejinjang.bandcamp.com/album/human-iceberg

▰ Henrik Meierkord’s cello, sounding like it’s deep in cavern, combines on “Warum” with the samples and tape work of Marco Lucchi, moaning swells that turn the piece into a sort of conversation between the instruments. Meierkord is based in Sweden, Lucchi in Italy.

Disquiet Junto Project 0630: Creative Sufficiency

The Assignment: Count your tools in advance of employing them.

/ 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 just under five days to upload a track in response to the assignment. 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. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 29, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 25, 2024.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto). Note that this service will change shortly, likely to Buttondown, due to Tinyletter shutting down.

Disquiet Junto Project 0630: Creative Sufficiency
The Assignment: Count your tools in advance of employing them.

This project was proposed by Alex (aka XHG) from Switzerland, who also drew the cover image.

Step 1: The first thing to do is to set a limit. Specifically, you will determine — in advance — how many pieces of equipment or software you will need to produce and record a satisfactory piece of music. Think through what you want to record and what it might take.

Step 2: Now, decide upon a suitable number of items. It is suggested to count DAWs or AU-hosts and each used plugin individually (e.g., the iOS/iPadOS app AUM plus 3 Audio Units = 4 items). In advance of recording, count each piece of equipment and/or software you intend to use for recording. Come up with a total number.

Step 3: Now, produce a piece of music using the amount of equipment you decided on in Step 2. You can use fewer pieces of equipment but no more.

Option: Add a short description to your track. Describe your thinking from Step 1, your equipment from Step 2, and perhaps your experience with the process.

Seven Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0630” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0630” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. Perhaps you’ll set a limit in advance.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 22, 2024, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, January 18, 2024.

Upload: When participating in this project, 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.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 630th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Creative Sufficiency — The Assignment: Count your tools in advance of employing them — at: https://disquiet.com/0630/

This project was proposed by Alex (aka XHG) from Switzerland, who also drew the cover image.

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0630-creative-sufficiency/