RIP, Drocsid

A tribute-in-sound to a recently deceased musician

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

RIP, Drocsid, an electronic musician whose death from cardiac arrest was announced on [his SoundCloud.com page](https://soundcloud.com/drocsid), where tribute recordings are piling up. Among them is this three-part affair, opening with field recordings of bird song. Those nature sounds slowly glitch their way into a remote piano piece, which about halfway through the track’s four-plus minute running time kicks up to a nonetheless still quite downtempo procession: spare percussion, synthetic woodwind with celtic aura, and, at times, a rousing if sonically sublimated cry. It is a touching piece, all the more so for the way it is part of a collective act of public grieving that has resulted in the production of these audio hommages.

https://soundcloud.com/doesnotmatter/only-your-memory-remains

Track originally posted at [soundcloud.com/doesnotmatter](https://soundcloud.com/doesnotmatter/only-your-memory-remains).

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Disquiet Junto Project 0099: In the Key of X

The project: Compose an 8-bit melody based on the "E G D" startup sound of the Xbox One.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131122-xbox

*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 assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, November 21, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, November 25, 2013, as the deadline.

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 0099: In the Key of X
>
>This project investigates video game sound — not the sound of video games, but the sound of game consoles themselves. The newly released Xbox One has its own distinct startup melody of just three notes: first an E, then a G, then a D. The project this week is to imagine those notes being the core of an original piece of music: What if the theme of the Xbox One were a song, and a lo-fi one at that?
>
>The project instruction is as follows: Record a piece of music with an 8-bit flavor. It should begin with a replication of that same three-note Xbox One pattern (E G D), repeated several times, and then veer off into whatever direction you desire. As the track goes along, feel free to add common video game sounds like explosions, karate chops, crowd noises, engines revving and so forth. Try to keep the whole thing under 90 seconds.
>
>Deadline: Monday, November 25, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track’s length should be between 30 seconds and 90 seconds.
>
>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 “disquiet0099-EthenGthenD”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 99th Disquiet Junto project (Compose an 8-bit melody based on the “E G D” startup sound of the Xbox One) at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/11/21/disquiet0099-EthenGthenD/
>
>Background: This project was informed by a post on Kotaku.com by Kirk Hamilton:
>
>http://goo.gl/OpjWSg
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Associated image found via:

http://goo.gl/OpjWSg

Music from Airports

A sonic portrait by Monolake

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131120-monolake

Writes Monolake: “This is a stereo mix down of a ‘sonic postcard’ of the Airport in Rennes, France, created for an eight channel multichannel diffusion at that airport on October 8 2012 as a commissioned work for Electroni(k) Festival. All sounds captured at that (quite small) airport, with some layering and processing applied and real time mixing and filtering during the concert.” The track, uploaded to [Monolake’s SoundCloud account](https://soundcloud.com/monolake/rennesairportedit), begins with everyday travel noises, from multilingual spoken announcements to the ringing of alerts to the tense buzz of baggage checks, and slowly navigates the airport. As time progresses, source audio gives way to transformation: the sound of a carousel stretched like a rubber band, an electronic signal tweaked by a light glitch, a pre-recorded voice forced into a slight stutter.

20131120-mono2

While the work lacks the trenchant rhythmic grid of Monolake’s minimal techno, it has a familiar flavor. The sounds become both ominous in a claustrophobic sense, and yet enticing in the level of ingenious detail brought to bear on them.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/monolake](https://soundcloud.com/monolake/rennesairportedit). More on the Elektroni[k] undertaking at [electroni-k.org](http://blog.electroni-k.org/1350/les-dessous-de-la-creativite-robert-henke/). More from Henke/Monolake at [monolake.de](http://www.monolake.de/).

Drone Chorus in Search of a Verse

A work-in-progress from Austin, Texas' Darius Greene

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Darius Greene recognizes the brevity and simplicity of “Dreamskin,” his recently uploaded track on SoundCloud. After a short burst of crowd noise, a gently plinking keyboard and drone combination proceed. In their tandem shimmer, those elements never quite veer from their steady pace. It’s like a chorus in search of a song, set on repeat in the hopes that someone might swoop in and provides a verse. The crowd noise never quite goes away, either. It lingers in the background, lightly nudged toward white noise. Greene describes it as being “meant as a short passing freebie. Also free as kind of a stem for anyone to remix or use in some other creative way.”

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/dariusgreene](https://soundcloud.com/dariusgreene/dreamskin). More from Greene, who is based in Austin, Texas, at [dariusgreene.com](http://www.dariusgreene.com/).