Disquiet Junto Project 0716: Dense Fog Advisory

The Assignment: That's your band's name; now record something.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.

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. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

Disquiet Junto Project 0716: Dense Fog Advisory
The Assignment: That’s your band’s name; now record something.

There is just one step this week. You’re now recording music under the name Dense Fog Advisory. Record a new track, appropriate to your name.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0716” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0716-dense-fog-advisory/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. How long will this seasonal fog last?

Deadline: Monday, September 22, 2025, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.

About: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/

License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).

Please Include When Posting Your Track:

More on the 716th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Dense Fog Advisory — The Assignment: That’s your band’s name; now record something — at https://disquiet.com/0716/.

Synthesizer “Patch”

Benge on the E-Mu

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A fantastic, pop-minimalist use of a classic E-Mu synthesizer. The footage has received a treatment that might make you think it’s from the early days of synthesizers (the elbow patches don’t hurt — I imagine they’re also a “patch” joke, as in “synthesizer patches”), but this is a contemporary recording. That is Benge, aka Benjamin David Edwards, a specialist in vintage/retro synths, performing. He manages to summon up a lovely little melody that plays out in very simple tones, lovely little sounds that bring to mind some of Aphex Twin’s more subtle work. (I am likely mistaken, but I think that equipment is original, and not the mos-lab.com replica.)

Below the Ocean’s Surface

From London-based still fades

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

[bandcamp width=640 height=472 album=467281636 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]

Oceans Above And Skies Below, by the London-based musician who goes by the name still fades (lowercase), is well-titled. The tracks on the album are often oceanic in their scale and, when not, have a slowly billowing quality. And when oceanic, they emphasize the sublime: the surface below which much is happening. Heavy echoes here of Harold Budd’s music, in a good way. More from still fades at instagram.com/stillfades and youtube.com/@stillfades.

The musician also runs Sound Ghost, which makes synthesizer plug-ins, sound packs, virtual instruments, and other tools. Details at soundghost.net. I’m especially interested in musicians who make instruments and instrument makers who make music, because those parallel paths suggest a tight feedback loop in terms of utility, on that taps into the sense that anyone who makes things that helps musicians is a sort of meta-musician.

Irish Pumps Are Droning

Natalia Beylis explores her organ's unique qualities

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=3482933323 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small]

It’s hard to define in specific terms what distinguishes generic drones from interesting ones, as sometimes the difference can be a matter of context, but generally it’s because something is happening in the drone, perhaps a richness to the overtones, perhaps additional sonic elements. The quality can be fairly subtle and, yet, substantively transformative. Both those latter points — the overtones and the extraneous sounds — are central to The Roots of the Mountain Ash Embrace The Stone II by composer Natalia Beylis.

The sounds — thick as a chocolate shake — are made from a pump organ. Beylis’ interest is the way the simple act of the air making its way through the device creates microtonal variations. In addition, there is something almost alive in the creaking of the instrument. As she puts it in the accompanying liner note: “The clatters and groans heard within this recording are the sounds of my old pump organ leaning into its idiosyncratic self.”

This isn’t meditative music, per se, because at times the dense sine waves of the organ speed up, and then they quickly, even suddenly, subside. Such is not the stuff of a peaceful listen. However, it is fascinating as music to make peace with, to enter into a contract with to just listen for the half hour or so straight, and follow where the sounds take you. More from Beylis, who is based in Ireland, at nataliabeylis.com.