Disquiet – Page 602 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

What Sounds Looks Like

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

April 5, 2019April 5, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

If you’ve ever been required to read contracts on a regular basis, you may know this feeling. The feeling: each paragraph, each sentence, each clause, sometimes even each word feels on its own like an individual vestige of an individual previous incident. The document in front of you is a clot of those numerous and varied incidents, all metastasized amid what was once likely a quite brief, concise, and even innocent document. The innocence was lost in a lengthy sequence of events that required clarification and amendment, and clarifications of amendments, and amendments of clarifications. Certainly some of the initial text reflected actual forethought: someone had considered a misreading of intent (how the spirit might be failed by the letter), and made sure to write — to embed — the specific meaning into the document. But that’s not the feeling you have. The feeling you have is where the scent of some previous incident rises from some bit of language, and with it the full sense memory of that incident you had not, yourself, actually been present for. And when you lift your face up from the contract, you face the real world, and in the real world there are similar clarifications and amendments, some providing helpful orientation, others downright dispiriting in that they evidence fully how sometimes even the most obvious thing needs to be written out in capital letters and affixed with a messy glob of tape.

*What Sound Looks Like: An ongoing series cross-posted from [instagram.com/dsqt](https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv5DAhjFsqA/).*

Disquiet Junto Project 0379: Open Studios

The Assignment: Share a track, get feedback, and give feedback.

April 4, 2019April 5, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the [Disquiet Junto group](https://disquiet.com/junto/), 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, April 8, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 4, 2019.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0379) for the duration of the project.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0379: Open Studios**

The Assignment: Share a track, get feedback, and give feedback.

Step 1: The purpose of this week’s project is to provide participants opportunities to get feedback on works-in-progress. Consider work you’re doing you’d appreciate responses to from fellow Junto participants.

Step 2: Either upload an existing recording (sketches and mid-process takes may prove optimal), or record something new and post it online for feedback. If there are some things in particular you’d like feedback on, mention what they are.

Step 3: After uploading, be sure to listen to the work of other participants, and to post responses.

**Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:**

Step 1: Include “disquiet0379” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0379” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0379-open-studios/

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.

**Additional Details:**

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, April 8, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, April 4, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0379” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and 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: Consider setting 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 379th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Open Studios / The Assignment: Share a track, get feedback, and give feedback — at:

https://disquiet.com/0379/

Davachi in Pale Bloom

A taste of the forthcoming album

April 3, 2019April 7, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://sarahdavachi.bandcamp.com/album/pale-bloom">Pale Bloom by Sarah Davachi</a>

When the held chord, all wavering sine waves, gives way to something else, when that foregrounded drone — somehow both a mainstay of experimental electronic music, and also the easiest of easy listenings — becomes background, and when that something else that comes to the fore is a piano, then something is most certainly up.

The initial chord is, soon, layered with another, higher chord, and the combination yields slow moving gusts of moiré patterns. The pair sandwiches the sequence of gentle piano phrases. The eternal hold of those chords balances against, contrasts with, the natural quieting of each struck piano figure, which are spaced out to draw focused attention. This is “Perfumes III,” the initial track release from the forthcoming album *Pale Bloom*, due out at the end of May from Sarah Davachi.

Davachi has made a name for herself in recent years as a thoughtful and dedicated synthesizer musician, and *Pale Bloom* apparently is a reunion of sorts, connecting back to an instrument of her youth. On this track, Hammond organ is a source of the droning backdrop to her piano. (Update: Contrary to what I initially wrote here, the album’s 20-minute track, “If It Pleased Me to Appear to You Wrapped in This Drapery,” contains no synthesizers, Davachi let me know via [Twitter](https://twitter.com/s_davachi/status/1113841176715509760): “that track is just strings and organ.”)

Track originally posted at [sarahdavachi.bandcamp.com](https://sarahdavachi.bandcamp.com/album/pale-bloom). More from Davachi at [sarahdavachi.com](https://www.sarahdavachi.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0378: Blue(tooth) Haze

The Assignment: Experiment with the sonic qualities of a failing signal.

March 28, 2019March 29, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, April 1, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 28, 2019.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0378) for the duration of the project.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0378: Blue(tooth) Haze**

The Assignment: Experiment with the sonic qualities of a failing signal.

Step 1: Find some sort of Bluetooth-enabled audio connection that is available to you. It might be headphones or microphone or other devices. The important thing is that audio can be sent to one device from another device by Bluetooth.

Step 2: Experiment with a sound sent via Bluetooth using the connection decided upon in Step 1. Work to find situations in which Bluetooth begins to fail, where the sonic signature of that signal failure becomes apparent. This will likely be due to distance, but you may find other creative approaches to achieve the distortion.

Step 3: Use the situation(s) located in Step 2 as the basis for an original piece of music, stressing an audio signal and then recording the way that signal distorts due to the failure of Bluetooth.

**Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:**

Step 1: Include “disquiet0378” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0378” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0378-blue-tooth-haze/

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.

**Additional Details:**

Length: The length is up to you. Short is good.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0378” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

**For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:**

More on this 378th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Disquiet Junto Project 0378: Blue(tooth) Haze / The Assignment: Experiment with the sonic qualities of a failing signal — at:

https://disquiet.com/0378/

Disquiet Junto Project 0377: Algorithms Assemble

The Assignment: Have fun with rules applied to scales, in coordination with the Algorithmic Art Assembly.

March 21, 2019March 24, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 25, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, March 21, 2019.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0377) for the duration of the project.

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

**Disquiet Junto Project 0377: Algorithms Assemble**

The Assignment: Have fun with rules applied to scales, in coordination with the Algorithmic Art Assembly.

This week’s project is being done with the Algorithmic Art Assembly, “a brand new two day conference and music festival, showcasing a diverse range of artists who are using algorithmic tools and processes in their works.” It’s being held in San Francisco on March 22 and 23, 2019. More information at [aaassembly.org](http://aaassembly.org/). The project is lightly adapted from one proposed by Junto member Charlie Kramer (aka NorthWoods).

Step 1: Define a scale of 8 notes (or sounds).

Step 2: Create a melody with 4 notes from the scale resulting from Step 1.

Step 3: Replace note 2 in the melodic sequence from Step 2 with an unused note (selected deterministically or randomly). Then do this for note 4, then for note 3, and then for note 1.

Step 4: Reintroduce the first melody as counterpoint to the result of Step 3. This establishes a pair of notes at each point in time.

Step 5: Repeat the algorithm on these pairs. Repeat to create triplets.

Step 6: Sequence variations to create a piece of music.

Extra credit: Do the same with note durations and velocities (e.g., 8 possibilities, 4 choices).

**Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:**

Step 1: Include “disquiet0377” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0377” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0377-algorithms-assemble/

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.

**Additional Details:**

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, March 25, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, March 21, 2019.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0377” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

**For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:**

More on this 377th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Algorithms Assemble / The Assignment: Have fun with rules applied to scales, in coordination with the Algorithmic Art Assembly — at:

https://disquiet.com/0377/

The project is lightly adapted from one proposed by Junto member Charlie Kramer (aka NorthWoods).