Disquiet – Page 507 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

IM-OS: The Journal of Improvised Music – Open Scores

Edited by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen

August 29, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Now in its second year, the online journal *IM-OS* is a wellspring of experimental composition. The initials stand for Improvised Music – Open Scores, and there’s a slightly longer description on its homepage, [im-os.net](http://im-os.net/): “new music journal focused on improvised music, open scores in various forms like prose, graphic and action notations.” There have been four issues thus far, two in 2019 and two this year, all edited by Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen and Jukka-Pekka Kervinen. All are available as free PDFs.

The most recent, dated Spring 2020, includes a graphic score that approaches the rhetoric of current sitting U.S. president as a composition (see the graphic above) and a deck of cards from Dennis Báthory-Kitsz (see sample set below).

The second issue included an essay by Adam Wasażnik connecting such games as cribbage and Monopoly to music-making, and the third had an 80-card “mathematical music” game composed by Samuel Vriezen on the occasion of composer Tom Johnson’s 80th birthday. (Frequent Disquiet Junto participant Glenn Sogge has a card-based composition in the second issue titled “Gestures for one or more percussionists.”)

Check it out at [im-os.net](http://im-os.net/). More from Jukka-Pekka Kervinen, who is based in Finland, at [soundcloud.com/jpkervinen](https://soundcloud.com/jpkervinen) and from Carl Bergstrøm-Nielsen, who is based in Denmark, at [intuitivemusic.dk](http://intuitivemusic.dk/intuitive/cbn.htm). (Thanks to Colin Drake for having introduced me to the journal.)

Ebb and Flow

Modular ambiance from Orbital Patterns

August 28, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Another excellent ambient modular synthesizer piece from Orbital Patterns. Not even four minutes long, it played on repeat this morning for a couple hours while I tried to settle into another unsettling day. The video is titled “Layers,” appropriate to the variety of through-lines heard here, overlapping in various ways, ever in flux: plucked virtual strings that echo to infinity, a chiming ambiance like a phaser set for stunning, and the central singsong ebb and flow. Gorgeous.

Video originally posted at [youtube.com](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgzRpLbLUEI). More from Orbital Patterns (aka Abdul Allums of Rochester Hills, Michigan) at [orbitalpatterns.bandcamp.com](https://orbitalpatterns.bandcamp.com/) and [twitter.com/orbitalpatterns](https://twitter.com/orbitalpatterns).

Disquiet Junto Project 0452: Let’s Scream

The Assignment: Get cathartic. Be resilient. Turn your scream into music.

August 27, 2020August 28, 2020 / 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 Monday, August 31, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 27, 2020.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0452: Let’s Scream

The Assignment: Get cathartic. Be resilient. Turn your scream into music.

There’s only one step this week:

Step 1: It’s time to let out some stress. Record your scream and turn it into music.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0452” (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 “disquiet0452” (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 tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0452-lets-scream/

Step 5: Annotate your tracks 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.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, August 31, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, August 27, 2020.

Length: The length is up to you. Hold your scream as long as it takes.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0452” 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 452nd weekly Disquiet Junto project, Let’s Scream (The Assignment: Get cathartic. Be resilient. Turn your scream into music), at:

https://disquiet.com/0452/

What Was Then the Future

An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt

August 26, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

I’ve always taken this Lego figure to be a boombox, but I’ve come to recognize that the handle is a phone, and the screen interface on the front seems to be phone-like, as well. Perhaps the pieces were repurposed from other initial uses? Perhaps it’s a prototype for the boombox phone of what was then the future.

(In unrelated news, that is, indeed, ash from the NorCal fires on the window ledge.)

Haunting Stuff

"Helena" from the artist Oberlin

August 25, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

“Helena” is the center-most track of the 11 that comprise *Übersee*, a new album by Oberlin, the name under which Alexander Holtz records. The full album is on [Bandcamp](https://oberlin.bandcamp.com/album/bersee). This piece was uploaded to SoundCloud as an example. Its six minutes are like a premonition transformed into sound. It’s haunting stuff, all tunnel wind and interference hum, beats no louder than a pin prick, and no less sharp.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/moi-qui](https://soundcloud.com/moi-qui/helena-album-see-info).