Disquiet

There is no instrument quite like a no-input mixer, which to say: a mixer with no instrument going into it. That may sound like the end of the story, but it’s really just the beginning. By building sounds from feedback loops — that is, patching the mixer’s outputs back into itself — a no-input mixer, as in this extended live performance by Phonets, can create something from what might mistakenly be thought of as nothing.

In Phonet’s hands, it’s a carefully balanced progression of noise swells that edge slowly toward the abrasive, and combing discernible layers. Phonets says the results “are loosely inspired by plate tectonics, slow development, and the sense of being in a landscape,” and that the plan was “to play around with resonance and picking out harmonics from an underlying pitch set.”

If you’re interested in knowing more about no-input mixing, Phonets has a playlist of technique examples, including a basic overview of the process, how to use send/return, and deploying a small-size mixer.

More music from Phonets, who is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, at phonets.bandcamp.com.

Despite a lingering reputation for stasis, ambient music does not all necessarily proceed at the same pace. Even putting aside ambient recordings that engage with a pulse or a beat, there is ambient that sounds like time is standing still, and there is also ambient that sounds like time is rushing by — and everything in between. This live performance by Nick Lisher, who records as Lesjamusic, edges toward the latter. The video has an internal momentum that, in combination with a gently grating form of sonic processing, suggests the whir of countless small machines making extended and continued work of some intractable problem. A hovering drone amid the delicate noise is almost a soundtrack to the soundtrack: a shadow of the frantic sounds.

I wrote previously about Lesjamusic back in early May.

On Sundays I try to at least quickly note some of my favorite listening from the week prior — things I would later regret having not written about in more depth, so better to share here briefly than not at all.

▰ A fantastic Norwegian trio — Arve Henriksen: trumpet, piano and electronics; Eivind Aarset: guitars and electronics; Terje Isungset: drums and percussion — explore on Uncharted Waters varied territory, from mellifluous jazz (“The Drowned Beat”) to Fourth World atmospherics (“Echoes from the Shore”) to propulsive improvisation (“Jazz for Drowned Cities”).

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▰ The two tracks of En Mi contain heightened soundscape drones from Spanish composer Susana López, part of the Fifteen Minutes of Anonymity postcard series.

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▰ Ukraine-based Fedir Tkachov processing a cello, including extruding percussive elements, for a beautiful solo performance.