Infirmity as Muse

Aphex Twin's breathing apparatus

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A photo posted by Marc Weidenbaum (@dsqt) on

As I mentioned on [instagram.com/dsqt](https://instagram.com/p/2WYJYIrInA/) last week, the first single that Aphex Twin released after his *Selected Ambient Works Volume II* album was “Ventolin.” A collection renditions of a central track, the claustrophobic intensity of “Ventolin” was, as its title and cover art suggested, a reflection of Aphex Twin’s own asthma. My Instagram photo displayed a pair of inhalers I’d just been prescribed by my doctor, due to an insane allergy season this year that had rendered me essentially mute for a week. “My life,” I whined on Instagram, although not with the intensity of the whine at the “Ventolin”‘s heart, “has imitated art.” Aphex Twin has continued to roll out archival audio to the cloud, and among the tracks yesterday was perhaps his most literal exploration of his health issues, “Asthma1,” which is constructed from modulated audio of his own constrained breathing. It’s not an easy listen, but it is revealing:

Track originally posted at Aphex Twin’s new SoundCloud account, [soundcloud.com/user18081971](https://soundcloud.com/user18081971/asthma1). The new account name is derived from his birthday, August 18, 1971.

Louche Minimalism

A new track from Japan's Corruption

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

It’s fairly clear that the individual known as Corruption is just that, an individual. However, given the sheer breadth, not to mention the amount, of material that surfaces on the Corruption SoundCloud account, it would be just as easy to assume it’s a label, or a collective. In any case, while Corruption is generally the go-to account for a mix of industrial urban noise and abstract field recordings, there are also occasional bits of louche, even pop-minded downtempo activity. Such is “when all will be forgotten and gone,” a track that went live in the past few days. The title is attributed to Hans Christian Andersen’s “Billedbog uden Billeder.” The constituent parts are a circular drum riff beneath a pattern of glistening tones, like Philip Glass or Tangerine Dream at their most hypnotic playing out on wine glasses, and then sampled within an inch of their sonic lives.

Corruption is based in Funabashi, Japan. More at [corruption-scrapbook.tumblr.com](http://corruption-scrapbook.tumblr.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0175: Rough Play

Record the composition on top of the rough draft.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20150507-geciauskasflickr

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 added to this playlist for the duration of the project:

This assignment was made in the early evening, California time, on Thursday, May 7, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, May 11, 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 0175: Rough Play

Make the composition on top of the rough draft.

Step 1: Imagine of a simple piece of music that would last for approximately one minute.

Step 2: Record audio of the following: Spend one minute roughing out the idea for that one-minute piece of music. Do this on a single sheet of paper, whether that means drawing a timeline of the piece, or roughing out patches, or listing equipment, or writing a description in advance, or some combination of those approaches.

Step 3: Record the piece of music.

Step 4: Layer the result of Step 3 on top of the result of Step 2. They should be roughly even in volume level.

Step 5: Upload your track to the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud. If possible, include an image of your sheet of paper.

Step 6: 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, May 7, 2015, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, May 11, 2015.

Length: The length of your finished work should be one minute.

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 “disquiet0175-roughplay”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 175th Disquiet Junto project — “Record the composition on top of the rough draft”— at:

Disquiet Junto Project 0175: Rough Play

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/

Photo associated with this project by Ramunas Geciauskas, used via Creative Commons license:

Lonely Pencil

Kate Carr Reports from Iceland

In sound and image

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

#Iceland #landscape

A photo posted by Kate Carr (@k8_carr_) on

Kate Carr is not only what often gets labeled a “sound explorer.” She is a more literal sort of explorer as well. Her [instagram.com/k8\_carr\_](https://instagram.com/k8_carr_/) feed is often detailing one corner of the globe or another. Originally from Sydney and now based in Belfast, Carr appears at this moment to be wandering all over Iceland. Recognizing this, I headed to her SoundCloud account, [soundcloud.com/katecarr](https://soundcloud.com/katecarr), in the hopes that her sound-artist ear would be brought to bear on the soundscape as much as her camera has been on the landscape. There was no disappointment. She’s been documenting the world with contact mics and hydrophones and other techniques, like this record of an iced fence:

And this of two trawlers:

Her recordings show not just an editor’s ear for considered framing, but also a variety of approaches. She writes of the trawler piece:

>A four channel hydrophone recording taken between two trawlers, one making a low slapping sound, the other a high leak. You can also hear a trawler being unloaded by a small fixed crane in the background, and some gulls.

And there is a little Cageian touch. The trawler track’s length is 4:33:

More from Carr at [twitter.com/flamingpines](http://twitter.com/flamingpines).