Disquiet – Page 607 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

The “Electricity” of Colorlist

The trio of Charles Gorczynski, Charles Rumback, and John Hughes

February 19, 2019February 20, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="http://shop.serein.co.uk/album/full-circle">Full Circle by Colorlist</a>

A new Colorlist album, *Full Circle*, was released late last year, and I somehow only just figured this out. I was trying today to recall the name of its phenomenal saxophonist, Charles Gorczynski, whose work I first came to appreciate when he was playing with the group [Spinach Prince](https://disquiet.com/2010/03/22/spinach-prince/) almost a decade back. (I’m horrible with names, but I’m very good with faces, and I’m even better with [short video clips of people inventively playing saxophone and a large Monome grid](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6leqlCjC_Jk) in a live setting.)

As luck would have it (or not, in this case), I learned in the process that I’d missed a different Gorczynski group perform by [just a few days](https://sfcmc.org/about/event/redwood-tango-ensemble-san-francisco-new-tango-night/?instance_id=559) — but until the next show, there is *Full Circle* to enjoy. Colorlist is the trio of Gorczynski working with Charles Rumback on drums and John Hughes (of Hefty Records) on “synthesizers / electronics.” This is their fourth album together. The threesome’s work draws from jazz and free improvisation, which they wield in the context of atmospheric electronic music. One highlight of the album is the sprawling-seeming yet fairly compact (under six minutes) “Electricity,” all tunnel ambience, swirling drones, emergent rhythms, and deep simpatico ensemble playing.

The album is available at [serein.co.uk](https://shop.serein.co.uk/album/full-circle).

46 Seconds in Heaven

Amid a recent Zimoun work

February 18, 2019February 19, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

A new glimpse of an installation piece by the artist Zimoun is always a cause for attention. His work often achieves a mix — a contrast, more to the point — of sizable dimensions and aesthetic intimacy. This balance is thanks to his frequent combination of inexpensive materials and the lulling repetition of speedy mechanical activities. The effect, as witnessed here, is a robot lullaby at an industrial scale.

This work, a video document of which appeared in the past week, consists of “99 prepared dc-motors, felt balls, 297 m steel wire, 2018” (such is, in effect, the title of the work — a plainness that matches the materials). The result is a mix of fierce geometry and sympathetic droning, of rapid motion amid an otherwise static field.

The vertical lines are like grid-minded painter Agnes Martin paying tribute to Richard Lippold’s wire sculptures. The base is like the structure of one of Bruce Nauman’s fluorescent bulbs — which emit their own drone byproduct — repurposed as a support mechanism. The video lasts just 46 seconds, seen from various angles. It’s intriguing to consider whether the audio perfectly matches the image, or if it even matters, given the mechanical nature of the proceedings and the extremely narrow — imperceptible, likely — range of variation therein. And then you hit repeat.

Video originally posted at [Zimoun’s Vimeo account](https://vimeo.com/316752600). More from Zimoun at [www.zimoun.net](https://www.zimoun.net/).

The Ambient Craft of Spy Dramas

Case in point: Berlin Station

February 17, 2019February 25, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The clock is nearing 11pm on a Saturday, and another episode of *Berlin Station* cycles up, following immediately on the end of the previous one. Season three of the TV series, a spy drama, is underway, set in a brightly lit, contemporary Estonia under a creeping, old-school Russian curtain — or at least so things seem. It’s still early on.

There has been a break in the week’s heavy wind and rain this evening, and the house is especially quiet, little to any sound inside or out. The show’s own audio, as a result, is all the more present in the living room. The actors’ voices are hushed, anxious. The stereo spectrum of European café scenes brings the steam of espresso machines within reach. The echoes of hospital hallways on the screen are on loan to the dimly lit room in which the TV hangs.

Spy dramas, like horror movies and romances, are filled with extended sequences containing little to no dialog. Unlike the other two, spies often never reach a climax. At their best, such thrillers are often all suspense — which is to say, all suspension: not action, but the holding off of action.

Striving honorably for a proper audience to get it to another season, *Berlin Station* has its share of fisticuffs and explosions, but it also has a lot of attenuation — the mapping of questionable territory, enough skulking to max out a Fitbit, detailed surveillance maneuvers (the above image is from the show’s opening credits: ears are everywhere). The thing built up to by the ever-heightening if still deeply sublimated drama might simply be a piece of paper folded and handed from one palm to another surreptitiously, or a fragment of chalk being used to mark a wall in an innocuous neighborhood, or a file disappearing suddenly and almost imperceptibly on a network.

And such sequences are where the show’s composers — Reinhold Heil, who first came to prominence with *Run Lola Run*, on the first two seasons, and then Joseph Trapanese (*Shimmer Lake*) on season three — are at their best. There’s only one collection of *Berlin Station* music so far, from the first season, released back in 2016. Early on in it is a track titled “Dirty Laundry,” segments of synths and strings and muffled percussion that suggest something big is about to happen — and it may, but it never sounds big. (Bizarrely for 2019, this track by Heil doesn’t appear to be on YouTube, which is why I haven’t embedded it here, but it is on all the major streaming services.)

This is all a roundabout explanation — following my own recent realization — why I so enjoy watching spy dramas and related thrillers, and why I so enjoy listening to their scores. It’s why as much as I love Cliff Martinez’s music for *Solaris*, it’s his *The Company of You Keep* and *Arbitrage* scores that I listen to most often. The sublimated intensity that these narratives call for in their soundtracks is exactly what can make for excellent ambient music. The genre is often conflated with new age or spiritual or relaxing, but it can be very tense, as well. And like a good spy, *Berlin Station*’s Heil and Trapanese do their best work in the shadows.

***Update:** A little over a week after this was posted, I learned that while Heil did the first two seasons, the show’s showrunner changed with season three, and with the new showrunner came a new composer, Joseph Trapanese. The article now reflects that.*

Aphex Twin (in Japan)

What appears to be my book's Japanese translation

February 14, 2019February 14, 2019 / By Marc Weidenbaum

I do believe this may be the cover of the upcoming Japanese translation of my 33 1/3 book on Aphex Twin’s landmark album *Selected Ambient Works Volume II*. Having spent much of the early 2000s working in manga, which is to say helping shepherd the translation into English of Japanese books, I’d say it’s nice to finally be sending a book back in the opposite direction.

Disquiet Junto Project 0372: Honeymoon Phase

The Assignment: Record a piece of music with (only) your most recently obtained instrument or music/sound tool.

February 14, 2019February 16, 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.

Tracks will be added to [the playlist](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0372) for the duration of the project.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, February 18, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted shortly after noon, California time, on Thursday, February 14, 2019.

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 0372: Honeymoon Phase**

The Assignment: Record a piece of music with (only) your most recently obtained instrument or music/sound tool.

Step 1: Locate the latest instrument, piece of music/sound software, or related technology that has come into your possession. (If there’s something inexpensive, like an app, you’ve been meaning to try out, this project might provide an impetus to do so.)

Step 2: Employ only the single thing identified in Step 1 to compose and record a short track.

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

Step 1: Include “disquiet0372” (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 “disquiet0372” (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-0372-honeymoon-phase/

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, February 18, 2019, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted shortly after noon, California time, on Thursday, February 14, 2019.

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

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0372” 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: Please for this project be sure 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 372nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — Honeymoon Phase / The Assignment: Record a piece of music with (only) your most recently obtained instrument or music/sound tool — at:

https://disquiet.com/0372/