Disquiet Junto Project 0534: Transition Capsule

The Assignment: Record music to help people efficiently reorient between two zones.

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, March 28, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 24, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0534: Transition Capsule**
The Assignment: Record music to help people efficiently reorient between two zones.

Step 1: This project looks at the new normal of office life, in particular back-to-back virtual conference meetings. Even if such circumstances don’t define your own life, there is a captive audience looking to manage the loss of mental transitions that gaps between meetings used to provide. Keep that audience in mind.

Step 2: In the new normal, one is less likely to change rooms, to walk down a hallway, to use public transportation, or to otherwise travel between meetings. Consider the benefits that such transitions used to provide before virtual conferences took over the lives of many professionals. Think about the way that a break or change in scenery or other transition used helped the brain process what has just happened and prepare for what’s about to happen.

Step 3: Imagine you could provide an easily consumable mental aid to ease the transition between meetings. Think of it as a Transition Capsule, which artificially induces the sort of reorientation that used to be provided by breaks and travel between meetings.

Step 4: Now, compose a piece of music that serves as a sonic Transition Capsule.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0534” (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 “disquiet0534” (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: [llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0534-transition-capsule/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0534-transition-capsule/)

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, March 28, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 24, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. How long a transition do you want to assist with?

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0534” 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 534th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Transition Capsule (The Assignment: Record music to help people efficiently reorient between two zones) — at: https://disquiet.com/0534/

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-0534-transition-capsule/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0534-transition-capsule/)

Disquiet Junto Project 0533: Numbers Magik

The Assignment: Remix a trio — potentially using its subsets and variants.

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, March 21, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 17, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0533: Numbers Magik**
The Assignment: Remix a trio — potentially using its subsets and variants.

Step 1: In a recent project, Junto members produced, over the course of three weeks, a large collection of asynchronous trios. In the first week, people recorded solos. In the second week, someone turned the solo into a duet, adding a second track but leaving room for a third. In the final week, someone completed a duet by adding that final piece of the puzzle. The tracks are accessible via the following Lines threads and SoundCloud playlists. Check ’em out:

[https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0525](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0525)

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0525-magic-number-1-of-3/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0525-magic-number-1-of-3/)

[https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0526](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0526)

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0526-magic-number-2-of-3/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0526-magic-number-2-of-3/)

[https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0527](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0527)

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0527-magic-number-3-of-3/)

Step 2: This project is to remix one of the trios. You might simply choose a trio, download it, and rework it. But you could do something more. You might locate other tracks that overlap with it. For example, there might be another trio based on the same duo, or you might use the duo or solo from which the trio was built. Take the materials of your choice, and remix them.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0533” (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 “disquiet0533” (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-0533-numbers-magik/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0533-numbers-magik/)

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, March 21, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 17, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. You needn’t stick to the length of the source audio.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0533” 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 533rd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Numbers Magik (The Assignment: Remix a trio — potentially using its subsets and variants) — at: https://disquiet.com/0533/

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-0533-numbers-magik/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0533-numbers-magik/)

Disquiet Junto Project 0532: Other Means

The Assignment: Make music about something you find difficult or unproductive to talk about.

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, March 14, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 10, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0532: Other Means**
The Assignment: Make music about something you find difficult or unproductive to talk about.

Step 1: Consider the following question: When is “talking” helpful or productive for you?

Step 2: Now consider things that talking about doesn’t seem to help, or perhaps even hinders, for you.

Step 3: Make music about the topic or concern that arose from Step 2.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0532” (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 “disquiet0532” (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-0532-other-means/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0532-other-means/)

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, March 14, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 10, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. Take the time you need.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0532” 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 532nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Other Means (The Assignment: Make music about something you find difficult or unproductive to talk about) — at: https://disquiet.com/0532/

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-0532-other-means/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0532-other-means/)

RIP, Ron Miles (b. 1963)

Veteran trumpeter

Trumpeter Ron Miles died yesterday at age 58. He played with a lot of my favorite musicians, including drummer Ginger Baker and clarinetist Ben Goldberg, and released at least a dozen albums of his own. I first experienced Miles when he was a member of the quartet of another favorite of mine, guitarist Bill Frisell. (Like Frisell, Miles was raised in Denver, Colorado.)

Frisell’s mid-1990s group, which also featured Eyvind Kang (violin) and Curtis Fowlkes (trombone), debuted with the 1996 album *Quartet*. The record is rich with arch instrumentals that explore noir atmospherics and hint at the electronically mediated Americana of Frisell’s work to come. It consists primarily of music composed for film and TV, including a Gary Larson *Far Side* special.

Miles’ trumpet, his voice, could achieve a tonal peacefulness, a poise and composure, that was all his own. He could also engage in a playful, communal, musical banter in whatever band he was part of. The above video is a live performance, apparently in Ljubljana, Slovenia, from the year after the release of *Quartet*. Just [last September](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/20/arts/music/ron-miles-village-vanguard-review.html), Miles headlined at the Village Vanguard in Manhattan when it reopened after the pandemic lockdown. And now he is dead, due to [a rare blood disorder](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bandleader-composer-educator-ron-miles-001742309.html). He will be missed.

Disquiet Junto Project 0531: Noise Sculpt

The Assignment: Listen for a mirage of your music within white noise.

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, March 7, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 3, 2022.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0531: Noise Sculpt**
The Assignment: Listen for a mirage of your music within white noise.

Step 1: You’ll be listening closely, intently to white noise (or some other noise type: pink, brown, the ocean, wind, etc.) for this project. Select a noise source.

Step 2: Listen closely for an extended period of time to the noise source you selected in Step 1. Try to get lost in it.

Step 3: Listen for music in the noise you selected in Step 1. Listen for some hint of — a mirage of — pattern or melody.

Step 4: Create an original piece of music that builds on the melody or pattern or other mirage of music you heard in Step 3.

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0531” (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 “disquiet0531” (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-0531-noise-sculpt/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0531-noise-sculpt/)

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, March 7, 2022, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 3, 2022.

Length: The length is up to you. What do you picture in the noise?

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0531” 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 531st weekly Disquiet Junto project — Noise Sculpt (The Assignment: Listen for a mirage of your music within white noise) — at: https://disquiet.com/0531/

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-0531-noise-sculpt/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0531-noise-sculpt/)