I don’t know much about Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, though I know more than I had since it became available on the PlayStation 5 earlier this month, over a year after its initial release. The game is heavy on the Iceland / Norse environs, which is why this hour-long ambience of a “frozen settlement” makes for especially grueling — intended as a compliment — white noise. The intense gusts of wind and snow are realistic, indeed: background listening with narrative intent. The video shows the game’s main character, Senua, standing there grimacing as the fierce weather does its best to knock her over. The video was uploaded to on YouTube on the Atmospheric Gaming channel, which specializes in this sort of thing.
LJ Holoman, Live
At Mr. Tipple's, Saturday, August 23, 2025
Went to Mr Tipple’s, a jazz club in San Francisco, again, a fantastic trio led by organist LJ Holoman. It was the final night of a two-week run of concerts featuring a Hammond B3 organ that, if I understand correctly, previously belonged to the defunct Club Deluxe on Haight Street. The owner of Tipple’s is now co-owner of the soon-to-be-reopened Club Deluxe. When Deluxe reopens, this organ will move back there. Holoman and band — Elijah Green on bass, Qyu Jackson on Drums — were tight as could be.
Scratch Pad: AFX, Bandcamp, Airwaves
From the past week
At the end of each week, I usually collate a lightly edited collection of recent comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I find knowing I’ll revisit my posts to be a positive and mellowing influence on my social media activity. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I generally take weekends off social media.
▰ The Polygon Window (aka Aphex Twin) album Surfing on Sine Waves, now coming out in an “expanded edition,” was the first thing I ever bought on Amazon. I was working for Tower Records at the time, and figured I should check out the budding retail competition.
▰ When did the Bandcamp collection icon change from a “heart” to a “stack”? Makes sense. I own music I don’t love. This is my browser on my laptop. The iOS app still has the heart.
▰ Fairly intense emotional response when you’re alerted that the email address of someone you’re aware has very recently died is removed from a mailing list you moderate. Means someone out there is doing some difficult digital tidying.
▰ Overheard on the street:
One dude: “The airwaves are everywhere — when you think about it.”
Other dude, after a pause: “Even when you don’t.”
▰ Reading: I read a lot, but I didn’t finish anything, which after a couple weeks of heavy duty reading is a sign that (1) I’m feeling better and (2) I’ve been getting back into photography after several years without a proper (non-phone) camera.
Stone Age Wisdom
Joachim Ernst-Berendt listens back
Second in a (perhaps temporary) series of Friday quotations, mostly designed with Instagram in mind, but shared elsewhere, as well.
Disquiet Junto Project 0712: Zebra Code
The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code?
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 0712: Zebra Code
The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code?
Step 1: Locate something you purchased or received that has a zebra code, or bar code, on the packaging.
Step 2: Interpret the bar code from Step 1 as a rhythm.
Step 3: Make music using the rhythm from Step 2.
This project was proposed thanks to Jason Richardson, who shared this Boing Boing post:
https://boingboing.net/2025/08/19/will-it-riff-turns-product-barcodes-into-heavy-metal-jams.html
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0712” (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-0712-zebra-code/
Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you.
Deadline: Monday, August 25, 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 712th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Zebra Code — The Assignment: What rhythm do you hear in a bar code? — at https://disquiet.com/0712/.