Emiliano Pennisi’s Visions

An instance of Envion

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Italian sound artist Emiliano Pennisi (aka Avenir) develops software instruments that range from complex drum machines (Assembly-7) to geographically determined environment generators (Interfera) to “unstable” noise sources (Vortessa). This example video features an instance of Envion, another Pennisi project, which he describes as an “ecosystem … designed for algorithmic and procedural composition, musique concrète, and experimental sound processing.” The Envion system allows for numerous opportunities to select presets and work on freely available internet-based audio samples. The example here explores “lowercase” music, in the spirit of the late Steve Roden, with an emphasis on extremely quiet and subtle sonic signatures. A hallmark of Pennisi’s work is that it is as visually striking as it is sonically. To get a sense of Envion’s potential, here’s another piece composed with it, an homage to Autechre:

On Repeat: Lanois, TKB, F32.0

Home/office playlist

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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.

▰ This track, “Steel Mill,” is a taste of the forthcoming Daniel Lanois album, Belladonna Nocturne, due out June 19. The core band is Lanois (piano, pedal steel, and “dub orchestration”), D’Angelo veteran Jermaine Holmes, and bassist Jim Wilson, of Rollins Band. In addition to drummer Brian Blade, Emmylou Harris is listed among the guests, so presumably it won’t be entirely an instrumental album, but this glitchy soulful ambience is certainly appreciated.

▰ Track one is super murky aquatic ambience. Track two has a rusty pulse that is quietly alarming. Track three sounds like someone struggling to be heard. It’s dark, rich, encompassing. That’s Lo on the Ilm by TKB, released by Burgan Triangle Tapes. Embed isn’t working, so check it at the label’s Bandcamp page. Follows up last year’s Relentless Ambience.

▰ Been spending a lot of time with trackers. Amazing what can be done on the modern equivalent of an old Game Boy, or on a Game Boy itself. This is Ukraine-based F32.0 doing some dub techno.

Scratch Pad: STT, Dumplings, Interfaces

From the past week

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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 tag on what books I may have finished reading. Knowing I’ll revisit my social media posts, I’ve found, serves as a positive and mellowing influence on my online 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.

▰ My go-to speech-to-text app transcribed “Disquiet Junto” as “Disquatento” and I’m like, “Do you even know me?”

▰ Dan dan noodles for lunch. Also, dumplings and a bao, but offscreen. Also, experimenting with filters.

▰ May the Force be with Bru’

▰ The appropriate way to celebrate May the 4th is to play the Mos Eisley Cantina music in 5/4

▰ Was discussing a new and still quite inexplicable piece of music gear with friends, and we were flummoxed by the contrast between its reported capabilities and its exceedingly minimal input interface. I found myself replying, “My money’s on neural chip implant or plant-based telepathy,” which is the most it’s-Friday thing I’ve said since … well, maybe last Friday. In any case, I took it as a sign to log off social media for the weekend. (Also, I think the input answer is that the screen is a touchscreen, and likely most of the scripting happens on a laptop, to be ported over.)