Modular Duet (MP3)

A collaboration bonded in patch cords

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

“Eastern Barsmith” is a modular collaboration between Craque and his partner bsmith. The liner note that accompanies the track is on the deep tech/gadget end of the continuum, but the music itself is a pleasing series of warbly reveries, the sort of thing that might accompany video of a robot hobbit making his way through an arcade shire.

The liner note reads as follows:

Dual barton quantizers with custom scales collected by craque and bsmith, programmed by bsmith.

In play: Pressure Points sequence and Doepfer a149 random CV, quantized to several crazy modal/non-western scales. Livewire Bissell Generator providing some ramps (also quantized) and envelopes; filters: Moog MF101, Doepfer a124 Wasp, Bubblesound SeM20; VCOs: ‘Walekko’ Anti-Oscillator, Intellijel Dixie; delay/echo fx: TipTop Z5000.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/craque. Craque is Matt Davis of Fullerton, California. More on him at craque.net. Photo above of Craque’s studio.

Loscil Live Set (MP3)

Recorded two years ago next month in Vancouver

/ By Marc Weidenbaum


Loscil, aka Scott Morgan of Vancouver, Canada, has just one track associated with his SoundCloud account, and it’s been up for seven months. What it is is a live set, recorded two years ago next month, back in November 2010, when he opened for Tim Hecker at Vancouver’s Western Front. It’s an alternately sinuous and pulsing ambient study of patterns, all subdued heartbeat rhythms and cumulous spaciousness.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/loscil. His website is loscil.ca, but it appears not to have been updated since July 2009, at least not its news page, whereas over at twitter.com/_loscil_ he’s a fairly regular presence. More music at loscil.bandcamp.com.

Gentle While the World Isn’t

A Saturday sketch from Jared Smyth

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Jared Smyth titled a recent SoundCloud upload of his “for saturday afternoon bleedthrough broadcasts” and provided by way of a liner note a simple string of factoids: “open reel tape loops, 2880, guitar, mic(s), and feedback mixer.” (The “2880” is likely the Electro-Harmonix 2880, which aligns with the sense of layering throughout.) The result is a lovely swath of everyday ambience: gentle strings resounding at a rarefied pace amid a white-noise haze of lightly gritty interference, out of which emanates the slightly audible hint of conversation. It’s the sound of someone who’s decided to make something beautiful while the rest of the world goes about its urgent business.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/jared-smyth. More on Smyth at jaredsmyth.info and uprlip.com.

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

/ By Marc Weidenbaum
  • Is this Doctorow/Gaiman/Link/etc. Humble Bundle the first time Linux users are paying a higher average than Mac/PC? http://t.co/KPx4aWIS #
  • Obituary for late pirate radio figure Paddy Roy Bates (b. 1921): http://t.co/790KuSX1 #
  • Reportedly deceased: radio pirate Paddy Roy Bates (b. 1921), founder of the Principality of Sealand. #
  • Because nothing says "electric" like an unintended receptacle for pine needles: http://t.co/p8nzOjRg #
  • Tomorrow in "sound" class, "product design": implicit v explicit, product v category, intended v unintended, Tati/Playtime, edible acoustics #
  • The myth of the paperless office is the desk covered with screens. #
  • Tom Marioni's Musical Instrument That Cannot Be Played (2003): http://t.co/FFMYHkp8 #
  • Detail of grid of exposed cassette tapes that is Brian Caraway's Counter Force (2011): http://t.co/J8ENt34d #
  • Somewhat confused that Philip Glass was born just 5 years after Glenn Gould. Then again, rock-era technology influenced both worldviews. #
  • Man, last night's episode of Alphas opened with the Tuvan-throat-singing mutant. Good times. #
  • "After 10 years we still hear the word 'robospeak' as people pass by our store. It's Robotspeak!" Happy birthday to an SF institution. #
  • Over 20 tracks in latest @djunto, with hours to go. Each adds a single element to duet by composer Kenneth Kirschner: https://t.co/BLNzb1H4 #
  • RIP, jazz saxophonist John Tchicai (b. 1936), whom I had the pleasure to get to know when we both lived in the Sacramento area. #
  • The new rjdj.me site is live: "We don't do apps. We craft sonic experiences!" #
  • Experimenting with using Notes instead of Stickes in OS X, so they'll sync across devices. Any way to adjust leading? #
  • Information flows through this: http://t.co/ls95gfTu #
  • Ah the music in Walter's head during interrogation in Fringe is same that haunts Juliette Binoche in Blue. Post update: http://t.co/0y67ulCh #
  • Now 10 @djunto tracks that add a single element to pre-existing duet by composer Kenneth Kirschner for viola and piano: http://t.co/lSzme8ob #
  • Today's schedule: type, type, type, read, type, Nick Lowe (3:35pm – 4:25pm), type type, jambalaya, type, watch, read. #
  • RIP, Howard H. Scott (b. 1920), "of the team at Columbia Records that introduced the long-playing vinyl record in 1948" http://t.co/1m8u4WoE #
  • The RjDj app is still in the iTunes app store. It won't be soon. Download while you can. Highly recommended. Details: http://t.co/JlEAGl9f #
  • Despite appearances, use of "ambient" in steady decline since 1994, at least according to Google Ngram: http://t.co/GaSdVpdL #
  • Use of word "disquiet" dipped for first six years after I purchased the .com domain name: http://t.co/DJj72HqJ #
  • Fact that "clone wars" needs Wikipedia disambiguation page. Fact that I'm looking at it. Chart of "disambiguation" use: http://t.co/gzQ2n5Tb #
  • New @disquiet Twitter background image is Oliver Munday poster for @apexart exhibit organized by @notrobwalker, sound by @djunto. #
  • Beautiful first 5 @djunto entries. Each adds an element to a piano/viola duet by Kenneth Kirschner & Tawnya Popoff: https://t.co/djjhqiob #
  • Using @googledrive with students in "sound" class I'm teaching; they save & share their semi-daily sound journals. Works well. #
  • The serrated silhouette of the stealth bomber over San Francisco is particularly Minecraft on this blue-sky day. #

A Grace Note’s Grace Note

The sonic inquisitiveness of Darcy Jean and Jeff Morton

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Like the best Ameritronic music (that’s an unnecessary but useful amalgam of Americana and electronic), Western Mourning by Darcy Jean and Jeff Morton has all the stuff of songs, minus the songs themselves. There are loose semblances of tonal structures, and fairly recognizable instrumentation, notably the lightly struck guitars, and there are production effects that lend depth and resonance, and even if there aren’t songs there are compositional approaches, an inherent sense of development, even if it’s more a matter of sonic inquisitiveness than of melodic evolution. In “Lead a Horse to Drinking,” the shimmer of a gently touched guitar string, what might be a grace note’s grace note, expands into several seconds of winsome feedback (MP3). In “Don’t Take Your Gun and Go Into Town,” the echo finds a comfort zone between the concrete-and-iron aesthetic of industrial music and the rural affect of country music (MP3). And “Cold as the Clay” makes much of bent notes and erratic percussion (MP3). The titles themselves hint at the duo’s purposefully pedestrian intent. “Don’t Take Your Gun and Go Into Town” seems to remove the poetry from the similar Johnny Cash refrain, while “Cold as the Clay” adds a beat and thus diminishes the readily available alliteration. “Lead a Horse to Drinking” seems just shy of the jokey wordplay that emanates from so many Nashville publishing houses.

[audio:http://archive.org/download/pan071/pan071-morton_jean-1-dont_take_your_gun.mp3|titles=”Don’t Take Your Gun and Go Into Town”|artists=Darcy Jean and Jeff Morton] [audio:http://archive.org/download/pan071/pan071-morton_jean-2-lead_a_horse_to_drinking.mp3|titles=”Lead a Horse to Drinking”|artists=Darcy Jean and Jeff Morton] [audio:http://archive.org/download/pan071/pan071-morton_jean-3-cold_as_the_clay.mp3|titles=”Cold as the Clay”|artists=Darcy Jean and Jeff Morton]

Morton is credited with casio keyboard, Jean with guitar and delay pedal. The duo recorded the album in Regina, Saskatchewan, in October 2011, and the set of three tracks was released for free download on the excellent Panospria netlabel. It’s available at notype.com/drones.