Disquiet – Page 652 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

What Sound Looks Like

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

January 20, 2018January 20, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

A doorbell button sends a variety of signals. It’s an instruction, an invitation, a place-marker. When lit at night, it can suggest habitation, even when no one is home. Often, especially in dense urban settings, the doorbell’s inherent messages aren’t sufficient to the task, however. There may be numbers and letters to clarify the association of address and interface. There may be arrows directing the visitor’s eye and finger. There may be redirects for postal services. There may be cameras that, intentionally or not, create an interactional moat, a digitally mediated divide between visitor and host — the host in such circumstances has an access to, a vantage on, a control over the visitor before the visitor has ever stepped foot inside. There’s lore of the vampire, who in some tellings must have permission before crossing such a threshold; digital vampires of the opposite persuasion — the ones on the recording end of the camera — have no significant restraints on their ability to capture, to collect and collate. They need not even cross the divide to have a presence.

Sometimes the additional message is simply a bit of text, like here, where the instruction to “push hard” is neatly appended below the button. This modest device has no internet-era or even multi-functional connectivity, but it does speak messages, even beyond its literal one. For context, understand that there is also an array of buttons hung on that perpendicular metal gate. This button is an add-on, perhaps a replacement for one of the earlier ones. There is personality to the writing, in particular the swirl in the numeral 2 and the playful vitality of that “a” in “hard,” its schoolbook charm somehow both youthful and old-fashioned. This writing wasn’t done quickly, or haphazardly, or out of anger. It doesn’t appear to contain a subtext of antipathy toward a landlord, or toward technology for that matter. The writing is welcoming, reducing any emotional strain that such an instruction might have introduced in other circumstances.

Still, the button itself shows little wear, which can be read generously as the resilience of something well-constructed, or more likely as evidence of it having been pushed with limited frequency over the years. The genteel stroke of the pen, upon reflection, takes on a kind of neediness, the entreating smile of an urban entity that knows the loneliness of the crowd all too well.

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

Building on “Fever Pitch”

Joseph Branciforte has created a duet by adding to a track I recorded.

January 19, 2018May 13, 2020 / By Marc Weidenbaum

The Disquiet Junto has been going on since the first week of January 2012, and though I have moderated the Junto from the start, and we’re currently on the 316th consecutive weekly project, and the [mailing list](https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto) has over 1,200 subscribers from around the world, I myself have participated less than a handful of times, most recently this past week, for project 0315.

I hadn’t recorded the piece of music, [“Fever Pitch,”](https://disquiet.com/2018/01/14/fever-pitch/) as part of Junto 0315 initially. I recorded “Fever Pitch,” in fact, for an entirely different weekly music project series, one called [Weekly Beats](https://weeklybeats.com/disquiet/music/fever-pitch). When I subsequently recognized that the simple track, just a guitar line filtered by a modular synthesizer, fit the constraints of Junto project 0315, I posted it for that as well. There is a lot of cross-pollination among only compositional series. For example, I wrote a poem for the great Naviar Haiku series on the occasion of its [40th weekly project](https://disquiet.com/2014/10/09/disquiet0145-theresalifetimein/), and some people have cross-posted pieces of music between Naviar and Junto, which share a bit of the same roster in general, and we have collaborated [once](https://disquiet.com/2017/08/24/disquiet-junto-project-0295-disregard-echoes/) or [twice](https://disquiet.com/2014/03/27/disquiet0117-naviarjunto/).

In any case, the point of project 0315, “First Chair,” was for musicians to make short pieces of music that would serve as one third of a trio, with the idea that in the following weeks other musicians would, in turn, flesh out the trio. It’s an exercise in asynchronous collaboration, which is a central theme of all Junto projects. The sequence originating with Junto 0315 is simply a reinforcement through emphais of that concept.

Well, as part of Junto 0316, which is currently ongoing and will close at 11:59pm on Monday night, a Brooklyn-based musician named Joseph Branciforte did me a great honor. He added a second part to “Fever Pitch,” which he simply titled after the day he recorded it, “January 18, 2018.” It’s a marvel of simpatico consideration, his Fender Rhodes, coaxed by some [effects pedals](https://www.instagram.com/p/BdlvXDxFvz1/), filling in the blanks left by my guitar. I’ve been fiddling with a modular synthesizer since 2014, when I started to assemble one after marveling at a performance by Marcus Fischer at Powell’s Books in Portland at an event for my then just published book on Aphex Twin’s album *Selected Ambient Works Volume II*, part of the Bloomsbury 33 1/3 series. Since last July, when I started taking guitar lessons weekly, my synthesizer has gotten less attention, but I recently got into using the synth as an oversized effects pedal, which is how this piece came about.

All of which is to say, I’m writing this evening to thank Branciforte for the great pleasure his piece — that is, his piece and my piece in tandem — has brought me. There is a misunderstanding that music critics are frustrated musicians. I’m in no way a frustrated musician. I have such low expectations for what I might accomplish musically, that learning guitar and synthesizer is just as sequence of pleasurable discoveries fed by curiosity and reinforced by the steady pace of practice.

As I write this, there are already 21 tracks by almost as many musicians in the [0316 Junto, “El Segundo,”](https://disquiet.com/2018/01/18/disquiet-junto-project-0316-el-segundo/) some others of which have also built on my “Fever Pitch.” I’m just beginning to work my way through the accumulating duets, and listening for the space they leave for what will soon be trios.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/joseph-branciforte](https://soundcloud.com/joseph-branciforte/january-18-2018-disquiet0316?). More from Joseph Branciforte, who is based in Brooklyn, New York, at [josephbranciforte.com](http://www.josephbranciforte.com/), [twitter.com/josbranciforte](https://twitter.com/josbranciforte), [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCRLfR5Cwt6i3PaLawqJdsQ), and [instagram.com/josephbranciforte](https://www.instagram.com/josephbranciforte/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0316: El Segundo

The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio, adding to a pre-existing track.

January 18, 2018January 19, 2018 / 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-0316-el) for the duration of the project.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, January 22, 2018. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, January 18, 2018.

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 0316: El Segundo**

The Assignment: Record the second third of a trio, adding to a pre-existing track.

Step 1: This week’s Disquiet Junto project is the second in a sequence that explores and encourages asynchronous collaboration. This week you will be adding music to a pre-existing track, which you will source from the previous week’s Junto project ([disquiet.com/0315](http://disquiet.com/0315)). Note that you aren’t creating a duet — you’re creating the second third of what will eventually be a trio. Keep this in mind.

Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice, as a complement to the pre-existing track. First, however, you must select the piece of music to which you will be adding your own music. There are 50 tracks in all to choose from, 49 as part of this playlist:

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0315

And then the 50th was a video by Bassling (aka Jason Richardson), also available as an audio track download here:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0315-first-chair/11022/34?u=disquiet

To select a track, you can listen through all that and choose one, or you can use a random number generator to select a number from 1 to 50, the first 49 being numbered in the above SoundCloud playlist, and 50 being Bassling’s track. (Note: it’s fine if more than one person uses the same original track as the basis for their piece.)

Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly the length of the piece of music you selected in Step 2. Your track should complement the piece from Step 2, and leave room for an eventual third piece of music. When composing and recording your part, do not alter the original piece of music at all, except to pan the original fully to the left. In your finished audio track, your part should be panned fully to the right. To be clear: the track you upload won’t be your piece of music alone; it will be a combination of the track from Step 2 and yours.

Step 4: Also be sure, when done, to make the finished track downloadable, because it will be used by someone else in a subsequent Junto project.

Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0316” (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 “disquiet0316” (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: Please consider posting your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0316-el-segundo/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process. Be sure to name the track to which you’ve added music and the name of the musician who recorded it, and include a link to it.

Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Other Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on Monday, January 22, 2018. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, January 18, 2018.

Length: The length of your track will be roughly the length of the track to which you are adding something.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0316” 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: It is essential for this specific project that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).

Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 316th weekly Disquiet Junto project (El Segundo: Record the second third of a trio, adding to a pre-existing track.) at:

https://disquiet.com/0316/

Maximal Ambient

A track from Michiru Aoyama of Kamakura, Japan

January 17, 2018January 17, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

According to Google Translate, the title of Michiru Aoyama’s new track means “To Become Distant,” a fitting phrase to associate with something that sounds like the swan song of some giant ship disappearing over the horizon. It is an orchestra of orchestras tuning up. It is the sonification of birds migrating in vast numbers. It is a dense, magnificent font of activity, slowing occasionally to catch its breath, or to let the listener do so. This is maximal ambient music, the tools and textures of quiet music — the suggestion of stasis, the emphasis on layers, the fractal tonality — put into effect for boisterous rather than sedate purposes.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/michiru-aoyama](https://soundcloud.com/michiru-aoyama/zbofftnyxidz). Aoyama is based in Kamakura, Japan. More at [michiruaoyama.jimdo.com](https://michiruaoyama.jimdo.com/) and [michiruaoyama.bandcamp.com](https://michiruaoyama.bandcamp.com/).

Ann Annie Makes Tape Loops Blossom

In this new performance video

January 16, 2018 / By Marc Weidenbaum

If you follow Ann Annie’s music, then you may recognize the little tape cassette to the left of the deck in the new performance video “Blossom.” Just over a week ago, a couple dismembered Maxell tape cassettes — also pink in accent color — were visible in [one of Annie’s Instagram photos](https://www.instagram.com/p/BdqK8DrAPkq/), with a “feelin loopy” caption. Today the music that resulted has appeared.

feelin loopy /

A post shared by ann annie (@annnannie) on Jan 7, 2018 at 10:50am PST

The product of that whimsy is now evident in this footage, almost seven minutes of exceptional sonic transformation, as the tape loop is mixed with dense oscillations, all of which is shifted, looped, glitched, and warped. There are terse bell tones and effluent white noise, lens-flare grace notes and ecstatic birdsong to “Blossom,” which true to its name expands as it proceeds — what starts as loose and gentle gets more chaotic and rambunctious as time passes. The beauty of the video isn’t merely the color and framing, but how active Annie’s left hand is, adjusting settings on various synthesizer modules, tweaking the balance of the tape deck, and lending a conductor-like visual narration to the piece.

This is the latest video I’ve added to [my YouTube playlist of recommended live performances of ambient music](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgCxRbmR1MJxihgJkCPEnehAPvjoF71-). Video originally posted on Ann Annie’s [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Pi5E2w28jU&t=0s). More from Ann Annie at [instagram.com/annnannie](https://www.instagram.com/annnannie/), [facebook.com/modularanne](https://www.facebook.com/modularanne), and [annannie.bandcamp.com](https://annannie.bandcamp.com/).