Arve Henriksen’s Ambient Jazz

Re-listening to Towards Language (2017)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Arve Henriksen’s album *Towards Language* (Rune Grammofon) came out just over five years ago. It’s an essential catalog item for the growing library of what has come to be called “ambient jazz” — what used to be, when there was far less of this stuff, simply thought of as “music in the tradition of Miles Davis’ *In a Silent Way*.” The lush-yet-minimalist record teamed the Norwegian trumpeter with his countrymen Jan Bang and Erik Honoré (who have worked with numerous electronically mediated trumpeters, including Jon Hassell and Nils Petter Molvær).

Here is *Towards Language* on YouTube. You should start at the beginning, but if you’re looking for a key track, I recommend “Hibernal.”

And once you’ve gotten it under your skin, check out this live performance, which turns the trio into a quartet with the addition of guitarist Eivind Aarset:

Disquiet Junto Project 0559: Yes Exit

The Assignment: Compose your personal entrance and exit cues for conference calls.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 19, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 15, 2022.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the [llllllll.co discussion thread.](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0559-yes-exit/)

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0559: Yes Exit
The Assignment: Compose your personal entrance and exit cues for conference calls.

The latest update of your favorite (or least favorite, or simply most used) conference call app has introduced a new degree of personalization. You can now create your own entrance tone and exit tone, so people know when you joined and left a call.

This is a one-step project: record your own entrance tone and exit tone for conference calls.

Note: When posting, combine them into one track with a pause/silence in between.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0559” (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 “disquiet0559” (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-0559-yes-exit/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0559-yes-exit/)

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:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 19, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 15, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. These will likely be quite brief.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0559” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

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 559th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Yes Exit (The Assignment: Compose your personal entrance and exit cues for conference calls) — at: https://disquiet.com/0559/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0559-yes-exit/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0559-yes-exit/)

Vladislav Delay’s Gnashing Gears

The tracks are dire, corrosive, and insistent — which is to say, they're great.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Apparently the recordings that constitute this excellent album by Vladislav Delay, *Isoviha*, are four years old but it has only just been released. The tracks are dire, corrosive, and insistent — which is to say, they’re great. The music pushes rhythms to the breaking point, and then celebrates when the rhythms don’t merely break but fracture, splinter, and leave detritus in their flowing, hypnotic wake.

The music tends toward the urban industrial. “Isopaska” is the sound of a central utility hub after its transformers blow and the building melts. Like “Isomulkku,” which follows shortly thereafter, it features a brief vocal element, suggesting an automated emergency alert shortly before succumbing to whatever entropy is at the heart of the given track. Entropy is at the heart of all this music, a tension that lends depth and drama to the often relentless mechanics. Each track is like a machine on the verge of collapse. Delay (the Finnish musician Sasu Ripatti) doesn’t pummel the listener half as much as he pummels his source material.

Each time I play this — and I’ve listened to it frequently since its mid-July 2022 release — I am entranced by the hints of dub that flavor the opening track, “Isovitutus,” before it gives way to head-banging extremes of stop’n’start noise. And Delay is no ungracious host. Amid the gnashing of gears, there is room for “iS,” tellingly the album’s shortest cut, at just over two minutes. It’s by no means a pure drone, as it has sandpaper textures and a fierce undercurrent, but it is a respite, nonetheless, and a welcome one.

Disquiet Junto Project 0558: Chore Progressions

The Assignment: Use a routine activity as the map of a composition.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 12, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 8, 2022.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the [llllllll.co discussion thread](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0558-chore-progressions/).

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0558: Chore Progressions
The Assignment: Use a routine activity as the map of a composition.

Step 1: Think of a routine chore that you do frequently.

Step 2: Think through the process of the chore, and break it down into a handful or so of phases.

Step 3: Reenact the chore, and record a representative bit of audio at each of the phases determined in Step 2.

Step 4: Produce a musical composition that occurs in a sequence of phases, following the sequence determined in Step 2. During each phase of the composition, employ sound recorded during the corresponding phase of the chore.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0558” (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 “disquiet0558” (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-0558-chore-progressions/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0558-chore-progressions/)

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:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 12, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 8, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. Using the length of the chore may or may not make sense when determining the length of your piece.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0558” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

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 558th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Chore Progressions (The Assignment: Use a routine activity as the map of a composition) — at: https://disquiet.com/0558/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0558-chore-progressions/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0558-chore-progressions/)

Disquiet Junto Project 0557: Condensation Is a Form of Change

The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score that depicts four phases.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 5, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

Tracks are added to the [SoundCloud playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0557) for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the [llllllll.co discussion thread](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0557-condensation-is-a-form-of-change/).

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0557: Condensation Is a Form of Change
The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score that depicts four phases.

A combined play on a Brian Eno phrase and a John Cage visual motif is pretty much foundational Disquiet Junto territory. This week, interpret this image as a graphic score:

And there’s a [high resolution copy of the image](https://www.dropbox.com/s/frxh96qwx5a2qgm/junto-0557-weidenbaum.png?dl=0), too.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0557” (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 “disquiet0557” (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-0557-condensation-is-a-form-of-change/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0557-condensation-is-a-form-of-change/)

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:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, September 5, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, September 1, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0557” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

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 557th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Condensation Is a Form of Change (The Assignment: Interpret a graphic score that depicts four phases) — at: https://disquiet.com/0557/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0557-condensation-is-a-form-of-change/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0557-condensation-is-a-form-of-change/).