Disquiet Junto Project 0540: 5ive 4our

The Assignment: Take back 5/4 for Jedi time masters Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond.

/ 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 9, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 5, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0540: 5ive 4our**
The Assignment: Take back 5/4 for Jedi time masters Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond

Step 1: The day before this project began was May 4, which has been claimed by a fantasy from a galaxy far far away. Prepare to reclaim the day for the late jazz pianist Dave Brubeck and saxophonist Paul Desmond.

Step 2: Now, in honor of Dave Brubeck’s classic recording of the Paul Desmond composition “Take Five,” record something original in 5/4 time.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0540” (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 “disquiet0540” (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-0540-5ive-4our/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0540-5ive-4our/)

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 9, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, May 5, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0540” 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 540th weekly Disquiet Junto project — 5ive 4our (The Assignment: Take back 5/4 for Jedi time masters Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond) — at: https://disquiet.com/0540/

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-0540-5ive-4our/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0540-5ive-4our/)

Disquiet Junto Project 0539: Control Breath

The Assignment: Let your slow breathing guide a piece of 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 2, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 28, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0539: Control Breath**
The Assignment: Let your slow breathing guide a piece of music.

Step 1: You’re going to record a piece of music in which not just the pace but the shape of your breathing will provide the foundation. Plan to do so with slow breathing.

Step 2: Spend some time just breathing, and paying attention to the breath. Locate a pace that is comfortable to you

Step 3: Best you can, record yourself breathing. It might take time to get the sound right. Record at least a few minutes.

Step 4: Listen back to the breathing you recorded in Step 3.

Step 5: Make a piece of music using the recording from Step 3. Retain the recording in your new piece of music. The sound of you breathing doesn’t need to be prominent, but it should both provide the shape and pace of your work, and at least occasionally be audible.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0539” (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 “disquiet0539” (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-0539-control-breath/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0539-control-breath/)

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 2, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 28, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. Slow often works best when it’s slow and long.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0539” 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 539th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Control Breath (The Assignment: Let your slow breathing guide a piece of music) — at: https://disquiet.com/0539/

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-0539-control-breath/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0539-control-breath/)

Current Favorites: Trumpet, Melodica, Buddha Machine

Heavy rotation, lightly annotated

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

My weekly(ish) answer to the question “What have you been listening to lately?” It’s lightly annotated because I don’t like re-posting material without providing some context. I hope to write more about some of these in the future, but didn’t want to delay sharing them:

▰ There’s a new album from the late Japanese trumpeter Toshinori Kondo due out next month. It’s two CDs. One CD is all what the label describes as [ambient pieces](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0bCe9VBkmI), and here’s a taste:

The second CD is [a concert from 2005](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUiAw3yfJno). Here’s a video of some of it, complete with live painting by Seitaro Kuroda. The band is Kondo (trumpet) + Bill Laswell (bass) + Hideo Yamaki (drums) + Yoshinobu Kojima (keyboards).

▰ Kaori Suzuki’s nearly half-hour [“Music for Modified Melodica”](https://movingfurniturerecords.bandcamp.com/album/music-for-modified-melodica) exemplifies her penchant for intensity. The overtone overload — the notes note: “Intended for hi-volume listening!” — cycles through like a massive chorus of insects with phenomenal breath control, and I mean that as a high compliment.

▰ With [“Transporter,”](https://soundcloud.com/j_butler/transporter) J Butler reworks a Buddha Machine, singing bowls, and other atmospheric source material along with field recordings into something that sounds like if Brian Eno’s “Apollo” was about a walk in the forest:

EarthPercent for Earth Day and Beyond

A Brian Eno joint

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

As of Earth Day 2022, Friday, April 22, there’s a slew of tracks up on Bandcamp as part of EarthPercent ([earthpercent.org](https://earthpercent.org)), a project co-founded by Brian Eno. EarthPercent encourages musicians (and other participants in the music industry) to pledge 1% of their income in order to address climate matters. Given the dismal economic state of the music industry, this may sound like a difficult pitch — but, Eno being Eno, he managed to get a ton of musicians to upload exclusive tracks as part of EarthPercent’s fundraising activities.

The names in the Bandcamp event range across genres. On the ambient and post-classical tip, I recommend Isobel Waller-Bridge’s “Elizabeth,” a minute and a half of choral hush; Poppy Ackroyd’s live set (three pieces originally recorded for her glistening *Pause* album from late last year); and Galya Bisengalieva’s brutally arid “Kantubek.” (Major thanks to Ian Brooks on Twitter for having hipped me to the latter two.)

Eno himself sings on “Did The World Begin Today,” featuring Leo Abrahams. It’s a beautiful, super-slow ballad, on the order of his “You Don’t Miss Your Water” cover, and his collaboration with John Cale, *Wrong Way Up*. Eno also worked on tracks with Michael Stipe and with Hot Chip.

None of the EarthPercent songs are streaming unless you purchase them, hence the lack of an embedded player in this post. Explore the full collection at [earthpercent.bandcamp.com](https://earthpercent.bandcamp.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0538: Guided Decompression

The Assignment: Get someone from tense to chill.

/ 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, April 25, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 21, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0538: Guided Decompression**
The Assignment: Get someone from tense to chill.

Step 1: Your goal with this piece is to guide someone from a place of intense stress to something more sedate. Keep that in mind.

Step 2: A lot of meditation-oriented music takes the end point as the start. Consider that it can be jarring to listen to calm music when you are anything but calm.

Step 3: Compose a piece of music that starts in a state of accelerated tension, allows the listener to align their own tension with that of the music, and then slowly proceeds to calm down, until the music is sustainably peaceful.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0538” (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 “disquiet0538” (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-0538-guided-decompression/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0538-guided-decompression/)

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, April 25, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 21, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. How long does it take to calm down?

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0538” 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 538th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Guided Decompression (The Assignment: Get someone from tense to chill) — at: https://disquiet.com/0538/

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-0538-guided-decompression/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0538-guided-decompression/)