Dusk Guitar

Glistening ambience by Canada-based Valiska

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

“From a Height” is nearly four minutes of gentle, guitar-infused ambience, all just-before-dusk gleams breaking through thick hovering clouds. Layers of glistening chords and picked patterns shimmer in a slow swell of lush stasis. It is by **Valiska**, who notes in his brief accompanying note that the track is something from a compilation that never saw the light of day.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/valiska](https://soundcloud.com/valiska/from-a-height-1). More from Valiska — that is, from **Krzysztof Sujata** of Calgary, Canada — at [valiska.com](http://valiska.com).

The Central Nervous System in the Machine

Quality noise from the "no-input mixer" approach

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The sound of the no-input mixer is not so much the ghost in the machine as it is the machine’s central nervous system. That’s part of what John Cage claimed to have heard in his famous encounter with an anechoic chamber: the sound that results when there is no other sound. Peter Kirn of [createdigitalmusic.com](http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/10/singing-circuits-needs-synths-input-mixer-sounds-gorgeous/) has helpfully explained the “no-input mixer” approach as utilizing [“controlled feedback rather than any other source of sound”](http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/10/singing-circuits-needs-synths-input-mixer-sounds-gorgeous/) and he has quoted Canadian composer Christian Carrière as called it [“the sound of the circuits inside the mixer singing.”](http://createdigitalmusic.com/2013/10/singing-circuits-needs-synths-input-mixer-sounds-gorgeous/) In the hands of Philadelphia”“based **Joo Won Park**, the “no-input mixer” is less a matter of singing than full-on, tantrum-level glossolalia, a heavy gurgle of electric fissues. Up above is Park’s “October 1402 (for no-input mixer and computer),” which at times sounds like an arcade game on its last legs, and at others like freakazoid hardcore free jazz improvisation.

The track was originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/joowon](https://soundcloud.com/joowon/october). More on Park at [joowonpark.net](http://www.joowonpark.net/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0094: Naturalist Trio

The Project: Record an unlikely vocal trio with the sound of a bird, a kitten, and a pig.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20131017-naturalisttrio

*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, October 17, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, October 21, 2013, as the deadline.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at [tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto](tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto)):

>Disquiet Junto Project 0094: Naturalist Trio
>
>Combine the following three field recordings of animals into an unlikely vocal trio:
>
>Bird:
>
>http://www.freesound.org/people/keweldog/sounds/184870/
>
>Kitten:
>
>http://www.freesound.org/people/Kyster/sounds/82274/
>
>Pig:
>
>http://www.freesound.org/people/confusion_music/sounds/103421/
>
>You can manipulate the sounds as you see fit, but at some point in the finished piece each sound should be recognizable by its source material. You may not add external sound sources.
>
>Deadline: Monday, October 21, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track should have a duration of between one 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 “disquiet0094-naturalisttrio”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 94th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sound of three animals is combined into an unlikely vocal trio, at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/10/17/disquiet0094-naturalisttrio/
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Photo via Flickr:

http://goo.gl/DGfTeQ

Win a 33 1/3 “Sampler Galley” Paperback (with Aphex Twin Chapter)

Just subscribe to the Disquiet.com email newsletter for a chance

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

9781623568900 is the ISBN number of the book due out February 13, 2014, that I wrote about Aphex Twin’s 1994 album [Selected Ambient Works Volume II](amazon.com/Aphex-Twins-Selected-Ambient-Volume/dp/1623568900/) for the 33 1/3 series. It also feels like the number of days since I posted regularly at Disquiet.com, but I am slowly digging myself out of post-book exhaustion and gearing up to get back at it. Also gearing up for next-book planning, a key part of which is factoring in a diminished exhaustion component. Here’s another number: the book with be the 90th in the 33 1/3 series.

20130925-333galley

Pictured above is a “sampler galley” of the next six books due out from 33 1/3. I have a spare copy, which will be given away as part of a contest in the next issue of the Disquiet.com email newsletter, which you can subscribe to at [tinyletter.com/disquiet](https://tinyletter.com/disquiet). Also included are segments of forthcoming books by Serge Gainsbourg, They Might Be Giants, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Andrew W.K., and Gang of Four.

Disquiet Junto Project 0093: Netlabel Hybrid

The Project: combine music from three different netlabels to create one track.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

*20131010-hybrid*

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, October 10, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, October 14, 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 0093: Netlabel Hybrid
>
>This is a shared-sample project. Create a single new piece of music by employing the selected material of each the following three tracks. See below.
>
>All three of these tracks were initially posted to the Internet with a Creative Commons license encouraging derivative reworking. This project — one in an ongoing series of netlabel remixes undertaken by the Disquiet Junto — is intended to address the unfortunate popularity of “ND”(i.e., “no derivatives”) licenses among netlabels.
>
>Please only use the following material in your piece; you can transform in any way you choose, but do not introduce any new source material. The music originated on these three netlabels: Birdsong, Inoquo, and Qunabu.
>
>1: Use the first 10 seconds of “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain.
>
>MP3: http://goo.gl/MXDTJv
>
>2: Use the second 10 seconds (i.e., from :11 to :20) of “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel.
>
>MP3: http://goo.gl/ysydcH
>
>3: Use the third 10 seconds (i.e., from :21 to :30) of “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in GdaÅ„sk, Poland.
>
>MP3: http://goo.gl/pM9AqI
>
>Deadline: Monday, October 14, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track should have a duration of between one 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 “disquiet0093-netlabelhybrid”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
>
>Download: Due to the nature of these releases, you must employ 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 93rd Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/10/10/disquiet0093-netlabelhybrid/
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
>
>This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain; “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel; and “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in GdaÅ„sk, Poland.

Image up top via:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grafting