Test Post with Image

Hey, it worked

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

This is the current status of my small Intellijel case for Eurorack synthesizer modules. That spot on the bottom will soon be filled with a joystick. I have wanted a joystick module for a long time. As a friend joked yesterday, I’ve had joysticks in the past, but they’ve just been for video games. He was right. I just haven’t had one that works with my synthesizer.

It took me a long time to decide what joystick module I even wanted, a key decision being whether it would be one where the stick immediately returns to the center, or one where it stays where it has been positioned. I opted for the latter. We’ll see how it goes.

Racks like this, I’ve long since learned, are often in flux, so I’m under no impression that it’s gonna last forever but it feels pretty good and I’ve been having fun with it.

That spot at the top is TBD. I think I wanna put some sort of input in, but I’m having trouble locating a small module that would work well with guitar with sufficient gain, but I may be reading the specs of the various options incorrectly, so maybe there are some obvious ones I’m mistaken about. Also, my definition of “small” may be too narrow, so to speak.

Anyhow, the point of this post is primarily to see if I can actually publish a post to my site with an image from my phone, now that I’ve got the WordPress app working properly.

Disquiet Junto Project 0715: Err Apparent

The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

/ 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 0715: Err Apparent
The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it.

Step 1: Play something wrong and record it. The sequence could be a fumble at a keyboard, or a series of bum notes on a guitar, or a erroneous beat.

Step 2: Emphasize the flaws from Step 1 through repetition and variation, and in the process record a piece of music.

Tasks Upon Completion:

Label: Include “disquiet0715” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.

Upload: Post your track to a public account (SoundCloud preferred but by no means required). It’s best to focus on one track, but if you post more than one, clarify which is the “main” rendition.

Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0715-err-apparent/

Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. 

Deadline: Monday, September 15, 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 715th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Err Apparent — The Assignment: Make a mistake on purpose. Build something from it — at https://disquiet.com/0715/.

VCV x Buenos Aires

Courtesy of nzfs

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

This past week or so, the musician who goes by the name nzfs, and who is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has posted a series of elegant ambient videos, often combining guitar with software. They are striking, how they merge a color wash and background footage to evoke a sense of place, while playing music that seems less than rooted in the everyday.

In this recent slate of pieces, a central tool for nzfs has been VCV Rack, which boats a richly featured free version, and is a great entry point into synthesizers. The “VCV Rack & Guitar | nzfs Ambient #126“ video is pleasing excursion into processed guitar, here taking on a quality a bit like a muffled sitar. There is also a soaring quality to the soloing that nzfs, welcomingly, pushes down in the mix, burying it in thickets of tones and patterns.

More from nzfs at nzfs.bandcamp.com and nzfs.net.

Noémi Büchi’s Transformation

Through-composed sound design

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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Dense, thick, ever-shifting, “Liquefaction” is Noémi Büchi at work in a zone that is at once maximalist and minimalist: packed with ideas and source material, yet also singular and focused. If you listen to “In the Heat,” the first track off her Liquid Bones EP, you’ll hear the basis of this live version, which is twice the original’s length. This one takes longer to get to the pizzicato plucking — and sublimates it noticeably — and gets even more deeply orchestral as it proceeds. There is a growing terrain of music out there that I think of as through-composed sound design, and this majestic performance, recorded last October in Zürich, is a fine example.

[bandcamp width=640 height=307 album=2220132184 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 artwork=small]