What Sound Looks Like

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

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A post shared by Marc Weidenbaum (@dsqt) on

Most of my doorbell photographs are taken outside of buildings. This one was taken inside a friend’s house. When I rang the bell by pressing a button outside his front door, there was an unfamiliar delay before the bell was audible. The bell wasn’t so quiet as to suggest it was ringing from deep in the house. There was simply first a decidedly extended pause, two beats passing in silence before there was a response. After being let in, I took off my shoes in the foyer, and I saw on the floor three long, narrow metal tubes of varying lengths. The doorbell itself was attached high on the wall, its innards exposed: just one tube, hanging off center. I asked my friend what was going on. He explained that the doorbell was loud, very loud, regal in its fancy grandfather-clock mode. His housemates had decided to remove the three loudest of the four chimes. The result is that the first two chimes are triggered, but since there’s no tube on either, we don’t hear anything. Only when the third bell rings does the person who pushes the doorbell button get confirmation that the inhabitant has been alerted to their arrival.

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

What Sound Looks Like

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

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Someday there will be doorbells where these wires hang. Someday soon. I’ve lost track of where I shot this, so it’s unlikely I’ll be able to compare the wired building to the current wire-y one. Will it be a multi-button, multi-unit device? Will it include a surveillance camera? Will the camera just be for show? Will the tones it emits be regal or modest, and will the packaging announce a variety of sonic options, and will the inhabitants make use of those options, and if the inhabitants are renters will they be allowed to change the doorbell tone, and how many times will the residents change before the instructions are lost? How long before the pushbuttons are rubbed hollow? How long before the small plastic windows over the inhabitants’ names fog over? How long before the apartments are subdivided and new buttons must be added?

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0181: Instrumental Dream

Imagine your favorite instrument is dreaming while it sleeps – what does it sound like?

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20150618-guitardream

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group on [SoundCloud.com](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/) and at [Disquiet.com](https://disquiet.com/2012/01/27/the-disquiet-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.

Tracks will be added to this playlist for the duration of the project:

This assignment was made in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, June 18, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, June 22, 2015.

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 0181: Instrumental Dream

Imagine your favorite instrument is dreaming while it sleeps — what does it sound like?

Step 1: Focus on your favorite instrument.

Step 2: Imagine that your instrument sleeps.

Step 3: Imagine that your instrument dreams.

Step 4: What does it sound in your instrument’s dreams?

Step 5: Record what it sounds like.

Step 6: Upload your completed track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Deadline: This assignment was made in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, June 18, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, June 22, 2015.

Length: The length of your finished work is up to you, but between one minute and four minutes is probably best in this context.

Upload: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, only upload one track for this assignment, and 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.

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0181-instrumentaldream”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Download: It is preferable 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, please be sure to include this information:

More on this 181st Disquiet Junto project (“Imagine your favorite instrument is dreaming while it sleeps — what does it sound like?”) at:

Disquiet Junto Project 0181: Instrumental Dream

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Join the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:

https://disquiet.com/forums/

Image associated with this project by Tim Patterson used thanks to a Creative Commons license:

Strat

Sonic Color and Post-Drone Music

An exemplary track by Darren McClure

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

There are more than enough drone composers at work that we can begin to really appreciate post-drone music. Drone composers have opened our ears to works of ecstatic stasis, in which micro-shifts in texture and tone take center stage. In post-drone music, as exemplified by the exceptional “Yellow” from Darren McClure, those same elements are brought back into a more traditional compositional format, with a structure of give and take, in which thematic development plays a substantive role. The track is from McClure’s album *Primary Locations*, which was released earlier this month on Dragon’s Eye Recordings. Each of the tracks on *Primary Locations* investigates the sonic equivalent of the visual spectrum, and also comprises field recordings consistent with the theme. “Yellow,” for example, includes audio recorded on a “metal overpass supporting train lines.” This explains the rough shudder and brief snippets of bird song, among other facets of the piece.

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/dragonseyerecordings](https://soundcloud.com/dragonseyerecordings/darren-mcclure-yellow-36233173-137963209). More from McClure at [darrenmcclure.bandcamp.com](https://darrenmcclure.bandcamp.com/) and [soundcloud.com/darrenmcclure](https://soundcloud.com/darrenmcclure/).

What Sound Looks Like

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

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

It’s quite common that doorbell devices installed on multi-unit buildings have more buttons than there are apartments or offices. Still, why this place opted for a six-button item when there are four addresses is a mystery — even-number doorbells are easy enough to come by. Kudos, in any case, to whoever thought it best to vertically center the fourth buzzer, even if the choice inadvertently suggests two towers, one of which has been merged into a single home. The real mystery is the button above number four: Why has an unassigned button seen so much use?

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