Life After Nintendo

Shiny chiming jangles made in Nanoloop

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131206-nanoloop

There are several dozen tracks thus far in the “sound diary” credited on SoundCloud to Corruption, who gives as a residence Funabashi, Japan. Many are noisy escapades, tagged simply as “sound diary,” while the one dated “2013.11.19” and given the subtitle “like a moth to a candle” bears a second tag: Nanoloop. That’s the name of a popular piece of electronic music software that originated on the Nintendo Gameboy and has been since ported to [iOS](https://itunes.apple.com/app/nanoloop/id322700286?mt=8) and [Android](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nanoloop). What was, back in 1998, an esoteric dream of handheld music-making has become pop culture, an everyday activity. In Corruption’s hands, Nanoloop makes sequences of shiny chiming jangles that ebb and flow like a low-resolution tide. There’s a glitchy quality to it at times, lending the work a welcome complexity, a dark undercurrent to its slow pace. Corruption does not identify which edition of Nanoloop is employed.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/corrption](https://soundcloud.com/corrption/corruption-diary-2013-11-19). More on Nanoloop at [nanoloop.com](http://www.nanoloop.com/about.html). The above screenshots are from the Android version.

Disquiet Junto Project 0101: Analog Binary

The project: Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131205-analogbinary

*Each Thursday at [the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com](https://soundcloud.com/groups/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](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto).*

This project was published in the evening, California time, on Thursday, December 5, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, December 9, 2013, as the deadline.

Tracks by participants will be added to this playlist as the project proceeds:

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 0101: Analog Binary
>
>Record the audio of three objects in your home or workplace that have on/off switches. Capture the unique sound of them being turned on and off. For each of the switches, record several seconds of this on/off action so you can create loops of a steady pace. Then create an original piece of music that employs phase shifts — that is, in which the tiny distinctions between loops create noticeable patterning as time progresses. You can use some light processing, but the sense of “switch-ness” of the source audio should never be lost.
>
>Deadline: Monday, December 9, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track’s length should be between two and five minutes.
>
>Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, 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.
>
>Title/Tag: Include the term “disquiet0101-analogbinary”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
>
>Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
>
>Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
>
>More on this 101st Disquiet Junto project (Make a phase composition based on the sounds of three switches) at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/12/05/disquiet0101-analogbinary/
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Associated image found via:

http://goo.gl/vn82Dv

Sound of Commerce

John Kannenberg, our man (temporarily) in the U.K.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131204-malluk

John Kannenberg is a sound artist with a particular interest in place. Much of his work is raw or lightly edited recordings of physical environments, notably art museums. He has, in the past, reversed the idea of sound art by making sound art of places that house art. He travels with his audio recording equipment as others might with a camera or a sketch book. What follows is his audio of a shopping mall in the U.K. It is the sound of commerce, of activity and inactivity, of daily life: a barker, passing conversation, thick local accents, even the squeak of shoes against the floor. Framing lends the mundane a sense of drama. Repetition lends structure, narrative.

https://soundcloud.com/johnkannenberg/stratford-centre-mall

Track posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/johnkannenberg](https://soundcloud.com/johnkannenberg/stratford-centre-mall). More from Kannenberg at [johnkannenberg.com](http://www.johnkannenberg.com/).

Sound by Fire

A memorial from Ernest Gonzales of San Antonio, Texas

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131203-cremation

That is how Ernest Gonzales sums up his grief, and his way through grief: “Sound by fire.” He reports in the liner note to his new, 11:13-long piece “Cremation” that after the passing on a single day last month of his grandmother and of the man he describes as the closest thing he had to a grandfather, Gonzales took the electric guitar he received in fifth grade and ceremoniously burned it to ashes. The source audio of that destruction yielded this music.

He writes:

>”It was with this instrument that I learned how to make music. There’s a lot of sentimental value with that guitar … that’s what made it really difficult for me as I plugged it in and placed it on the fire. I recorded the electrical signal the guitar made as I cremated it. I recorded the ambient sounds of the fire and my backyard as well and then took all of it into Ableton for some final touches. … The song is 11 minutes and 13 seconds. 11/13 for the day both my grandparents left earth.”

The result is an extended rumination, like a bell struck once and left to ring on and on, a full-throated and yet world-weary drone that simultaneously signals sadness and fortitude. It’s a tuned thing, this drone. On first listen, it seems singular in its capacity for bleak, systemic, sonic consumption, but in fact the pitch varies as it proceeds, like a song too slow to recognize as a song.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/exprecords](https://soundcloud.com/exprecords/cremation). More from Gonzales at [twitter.com/ernestgonzales](https://twitter.com/ernestgonzales) and [whileonsaturnsrings.wordpress.com](http://whileonsaturnsrings.wordpress.com/). Gonzales, also known as Mexicans with Guns, earlier this year released the excellent [_Atonement_](http://exponential.bandcamp.com/album/atonement) album with Diego Bernal. Both men are based in San Antonio, Texas, where Bernal represents District 1 on the City Council. Here’s a stream of that *Atonement* record:

Music for (and by) Software Testers

A three-track podcast from Mark Rushton of Iowa City

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131202-crandic

“This is music I make to listen to while at work,” says Mark Rushton of Iowa City, Iowa, at the start of the 60th episode of his Ambient Podcast. For some two decades, Rushton has worked as a software tester, and in his off hours he is a prolific maker of electronic music. As he explains in the episode, “I create my own soundtracks.” The podcast episode is under a quarter of an hour in length and it features Rushton introducing three tracks from his most recent album, titled *Machines*. The pieces are all rhythmically ambiguous, including a shuddering thrum that takes its name, “Crandic,” from the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City Railway. The third, “Hello Friends,” was recorded in front of an audience and is an example of what he describes as “live hyper-micing,” about which I’m looking forward to learning more.

The full *Machines* album, from which these tracks are excerpted, is at [markrushton.bandcamp.com](https://markrushton.bandcamp.com/album/machines). More about Rushton’s podcast at [markrushton.com](http://markrushton.com/category/podcast/). Image from [flickr.com](http://www.flickr.com/photos/orinrobertjohn/4127038770/in/photolist-7hG9QS-7iHvep-7iMfQf-7jbR1r-7jjf4j-7k7XMG-7r8rxM-7w9Wyg-7wdGqj-9uTYqv-9UVrya-9UVy8V-8VpmMw-9dUgHJ-bUQy6C-c4TE6f-arMuyM-8VoiMw-8Vk75V-ecVddW-9UArMa-9UDrnE-7L2HbV-7PrMU3-7P6AjV-cdmeMU-fGo5ui-aAjDAc-ed4UDK-dZVfLV-eaXFer-eaTjcu-cdkZDN-9UR8vu-9UDy6j-7L2Byx-eb4KQu-9VDZFX-7QAy9L-7KDQCK-7L2PFk-cdkQzE-eaNW4n-eaXMD2-efb9Hu-aXmMLD-ecPpMZ-eaYo8D-ecVaAj-ecPtJp-eaUBPm/).