This went out today as a weekly bonus — a thank-you to people who financially support This Week in Sound. It’s a supplement to the free Tuesday and Friday issues: an annotated playlist of recommended music. I wrote about (1) a drone by Bell Mechanical, (2) a preview of an album by Alfredo Costa Monteiro, and (3) a video by Modular Beat.
The Audium is a longstanding space for experimental, immersive sound in San Francisco. The venue was originally housed in an old building in the Richmond District, opening in 1967 after over a decade of planning and one-off performances, and it has been closer to the City Hall area, on Bush Street, since 1975. The Audium’s small auditorium has no windows. When the concert begins, the lights are fully turned off. Aside from dimly glowing arrows on the floor that direct toward the exit, it is pitch black; you can’t see your own hands, let along the person seated next to you. I attended an evening concert there on Saturday, July 1: a revisitation of a 1969 work by cofounder Stan Shaff (the other founder was Doug McEachern), with Shaff’s son, David Shaff, performing. The piece was an hour long. It consisted of mostly real-world sounds — sirens, horns, bells, balloons, traffic — being moved around the room’s 176 individual speakers, and transformed in the process: filtered, slowed, garbled, dissected. In addition, one heard fantastical abstractions and bits of found media, what seemed at times like soundtracks to TV shows and commercials. There was a 10-minute intermission halfway through the concert. I shot this short video during the break as part of my ongoing series of 30-second field recordings (I’ve been posting these vertical videos at instagram.com/dsqt and tiktok.com/@disquiet.com). I’m always interested in chatter when the combined verbalization transcends communication and becomes a matter of texture, tonality, and rhythm. I was especially keen here to witness whether the specific circumstances in any way impacted the way people spoke, both individually and collectively — did they perhaps hear themselves, in this tiny room, as source audio for an intimate, spatial performance like the one we were all there to experience?
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, 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. (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, July 3, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 29, 2023.
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).
Disquiet Junto Project 0600: Reaching Out
The Assignment: This is a shared sample project. Rework a set of seven WAV files provided by Marcus Fischer.
Step 1: The musician Marcus Fischer, long a friend of and participant in the Disquiet Junto, has graciously put together a set of shared samples that will be the source audio for this project. Part of the beauty of a shared sample project is that there will be an underlying quality — a tonality, a texture, a commonality — to all the disparate works that are produced from the foundational material. Listening to the variations as they surface will be its own special source of pleasure. You can access the files here:
https://www.dropbox.com/t/TGexgpq93GPLGFxE
Step 2: You can rework the audio from Step 1 in any way that you see fit. You can use all of it, or just one tiny piece, or whatever subset you find strikes your ear. The one stipulation is your finished piece should begin and end with an unadulterated segment of one of the provided tracks for at least two seconds. Please credit Marcus Fischer when posting your track.
Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0600” (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 “disquiet0600” (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-0600-reaching-out/
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.
Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [email protected] for Slack inclusion.
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, July 3, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 29, 2023.
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 600th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Reaching Out (The Assignment: This is a shared sample project. Rework a set of seven WAV files provided by Marcus Fischer), at: https://disquiet.com/0600/
Please credit Marcus Fischer when posting your track.
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-0600-reaching-out/
This project’s cover image is a detail of a photo by Marcus Fischer.
After I sent out Wednesday’s issue (just for paid subscribers), it occurred to me that a lot of readers come to Disquiet.com and to This Week in Sound from my book about Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II (Bloomsbury 33 ⅓, 2014). Due to that connection, I figured I’d reprint here one item of the three from Wednesday (the other two were about Brian Eno and Anton Lukoszevieze), as this relates to Aphex Twin’s just announced release, and the first track available from it:
DARK STAR: Aphex Twin has a new track out today, the first from a forthcoming EP due on June 28. “Blackbox Life Recorder 21f” is less frantic, less redolent of EDM excess, than has been much of his output since he returned from something akin to professional stasis back in 2014 with the album Syro. It’s been five years, though, since he last released anything (that was 2018’s Collapse). The imagery accompanying this release appears to be a 3D mishmash of musical instrument interfaces. I have had my impression of Buchla synthesizers in the mix confirmed by an informed friend. Here they look like Buchla was absorbed by the Borg from Star Trek. That cube structure aligns with some of the visuals from Aphex’s set last week at the festival Sónar in Barcelona (full video on YouTube). This new track, very much to its credit, doesn’t end where it starts. What begins as a welcomingly sedate, fairly straightforward Aphex song — mellow melody hovering above a slightly broken beat — blossoms into something far more rhythmically complex and melodically florid. And then it veers again, slowing rapidly to close with extended phrases of what sound like sampled or synthesized voices: 21st-century Gregorian chants for chill-out rooms.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, 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. (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, June 26, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
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).
Disquiet Junto Project 0599: Minimal(ist) Blend
The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts.
This project is the third of three that are being done in collaboration with the 2023 Musikfestival Bern, which will be held in Switzerland from September 6 through 10. The topic this year is « √ » — as the organization explains: “the radical, or square root symbol and the power of its symbolism are central to the festival and these will be translated into music in multifarious ways.” All three projects will engage with the work of Éliane Radigue, who is the Composer-in-Residence for the 2023 festival.
We are working at the invitation of Tobias Reber, an early Junto participant, who is in charge of the educational activities of the festival. This is the fifth year in a row that the Junto has collaborated with Musikfestival Bern.
Select recordings resulting from these three Disquiet Junto projects may be played and displayed throughout the festival. Anyone who’s interested in having their work included in the event should set their download option to “on.”
Step 1: You’re going to record a piece of music with between four and seven self-contained parts that get combined in various ways as the piece progresses. These parts should be minimalist. Drones would work well. Record a selection of such parts.
Step 2: Mix the parts recorded during Step 1 into a single work. When doing so, explore how different combinations achieve different ends, and how you handle transitions. (Also: consider lightly transforming the material by utilizing granular synthesis.)
Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0599” (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 “disquiet0599” (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-0599-minimal-ist-blend/
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.
Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [email protected] for Slack inclusion.
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, June 26, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 22, 2023.
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 599th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Minimal(ist) Blend (The Assignment: Make a piece of music that combines self-contained minimalist parts), at: https://disquiet.com/0599/
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-0599-minimal-ist-blend/
