Disquiet Junto Project 0546: Code Notes

The Assignment: Make music that includes a secret message.

/ 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, June 20, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 16, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0546: Code Notes**
The Assignment: Make music that includes a secret message.

Step 1: This project was suggested by Glenn Sogge, informed by a widely circulated article about using music toward the end of the Cold War to encode information. Give it a read:

[https://www.wired.com/story/merryl-goldberg-music-encryption-ussr-phantom-orchestra/](https://www.wired.com/story/merryl-goldberg-music-encryption-ussr-phantom-orchestra/)

Step 2: Borrow, adapt, or create a means to compose music that includes coded information.

Step 3: Record a piece of music using the approach you decided upon in Step 2.

Step 4: When uploading the track, be sure to detail the approach you employed, and how you did so, and the message you encoded.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0546” (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 “disquiet0546” (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:

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0546-code-notes/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0546-code-notes/)

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, June 20, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 16, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0546” 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 546th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Code Notes (The Assignment: Make music that includes a secret message) — at: https://disquiet.com/0546/

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-0546-code-notes/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0546-code-notes/)

Image by Wapcaplet, used (text, color added) thanks to a Creative Commons license:

[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Enigma\_rotor\_set.png](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Enigma\_rotor\_set.png)

Disquiet Junto Project 0545: Unself-Awareness

The Assignment: Learn from feedback intended for others.

/ 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, June 13, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0545: Unself-Awareness**
The Assignment: Learn from feedback intended for others.

Step 1: This project builds on the previous one, but you needn’t have participated in project 0544 to do 0545. In project 0544, participants posted tracks for which they wanted feedback from other participants. Familiarize yourself with the discussion here:

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0544-feedback-loop/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0544-feedback-loop/)

Step 2: Pay particular attention to the feedback provided in the comments as the discussion thread proceeds.

Step 3: Choose one bit of feedback, and think about how you might apply it to your own music.

Step 4: Create or make a new track that benefits from what you learned in Step 3.

Step 5: Consider providing feedback to other people’s tracks.

Note: The Lines BBS runs on a discussion platform called Discourse, which has some built-in restrictions. Among these is that you can’t reply too many times to the same thread before someone else replies first. This is a “consecutive replies” matter. The best practice is to compile feedback to multiple tracks, and to tag reach recipient in one reply. If those instructions aren’t clear, just wait a little while after tracks begin to appear on the thread. Soon enough you’ll see examples of people doing exactly this.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0545” (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 “disquiet0545” (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:

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0545-unself-awareness/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0545-unself-awareness/)

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, June 13, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, June 9, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0545” 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 545th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Unself-Awareness (The Assignment: Learn from feedback intended for others) — at: https://disquiet.com/0545/

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-0545-unself-awareness/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0545-unself-awareness/)

Carmen Villain x Arve Henriksen

On her excellent Only Love from Now On

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

I often don’t get past the first track on *Only Love from Now On*, the recent album by Carmen Villain, because the nearly eight minutes of tribal Fourth World trance is essentially designed to be played on loop. It draws you close with held granular background textures, settles your pulse into a groove with a roughly 30 BPM slomo headnodder (or double that, depending on where you find the rhythmic locus — and even then, still quite sedate), and proceeds to layer the electronically mediated trumpet of Arve Henriksen — Villain’s fellow Norwegian — on top.

Henriksen alternates between the breathy noir melodicism of a hologram Chet Baker and the digitally generated chords long associated with Jon Hassell, finding blissful peace between two very different eras of jazz trumpet. He hits these plateaus of sound and lets them linger, playing call and response with himself thanks to distant triggered trills. All along, the underlying setting suggests something is afoot. The music feels ceremonial, yet the cause of the ceremony is unstated — an ambiguity that is right in line with Villain’s expressly atmospheric approach.

Album originally posted at [carmenvillain.bandcamp.com](https://carmenvillain.bandcamp.com).

Disquiet Junto Project 0543: Technique Check

The Assignment: Share a tip from your method toolbox.

/ 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, May 30, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 26, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0543: Technique Check**
The Assignment: Share a tip from your method toolbox.

Step 1: Think of some technique — small or larger, simple or complex — that you employ when making music.

Step 2: Make a piece of music employing that technique.

Step 3: When sharing the piece of music, describe the technique so that others might employ it.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0543” (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 “disquiet0543” (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:

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0543-technique-check/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0543-technique-check/)

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, May 30, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 26, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0543” 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 543rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Technique Check (The Assignment: Share a tip from your method toolbox) — at: https://disquiet.com/0543/

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-0543-technique-check/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0543-technique-check/)

Disquiet Junto Project 0542: 2600 Club

The Assignment: Make some phreaking music

/ 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, May 23, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0542: 2600 Club**
The Assignment: Make some phreaking music

Thanks to Alan Bland for proposing this concept for a project.

Step 1: The number 2600 holds particular meaning in hacker circles. Roughly half a century ago, it was discovered that 2600 cycles per second, or 2600 hertz, was the frequency that let people gain operator-level access to phone systems. If this story isn’t familiar, a quick web search will bring you up to speed. It’s widely documented. Familiarize (or re-familiarize) yourself with the doors opened by a whistle at 2600 cycles per second.

Step 2: Make music that somehow engages with the number 2600. You might employ a tone of 2600 hertz, though fair warning it’s quite high-pitched. You might simply use a whistle, in celebration of the Cap’n Crunch toy at the center of the 2600 phone phreaking (as it was called) story. Or you might come up with some other sonic exploration of the number.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0542” (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 “disquiet0542” (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:

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: [https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0542-2600-club/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0542-2600-club/)

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, May 23, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 19, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. How long can you exhale?

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0542” 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 542nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — 2600 Club (The Assignment: Make some phreaking music) — at: https://disquiet.com/0542/

Thanks to Alan Bland for proposing this concept for a project.

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-0542-2600-club/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0542-2600-club/)

Image by arbyreed. And it is used (cropped, with text added) thanks to a Creative Commons Attribution-license: [https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/). Original at [https://flic.kr/p/56Efud](https://flic.kr/p/56Efud).