Disquiet Junto Project 0090: Between Stations

The Project: Explore the sound of a radio caught between stations.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130919-dsqtjunto

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

This assignment was made late in the evening, California time, on Thursday, September 19, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 23, 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 0090: Between Stations
>
> This week’s project is about the place on the FM radio dial between stations. The steps are as follows:
>
> Step 1: Choose two pieces of your own music that are fairly different from each nother. Label them track A and track B.
>
> Step 2: Play five seconds of track A and then fade into track B, simulating the sound that occurs when a radio dial moves from one station to the next. Linger for a moment at the space between the stations, which should be a kind of white noise.
>
> Step 3: Once you have transitioned fully to track B, play it for five full seconds.
>
> Step 4: Once track B has played for five full seconds, simulate the radio dial being moved back in the opposite direction, toward track A. Stop in the middle of the white noise, in a space where the white noise along with some of track A and some of track B are still evident, simultaneously.
>
> Step 5: For the remainder of your track, track A and track B will continue to play along with the white noise that simulates the sound of a radio dial caught between stations. As the piece proceeds, begin to transform the white noise, so that it becomes, in its own way, an active part of the music. Do not manipulate either track A or track B, just the white noise.
>
> Deadline: Monday, September 23, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
> Length: Your track should have a duration of of between one and three 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 “disquiet0090-betweenstations”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 90th Disquiet Junto project, which explores the sound of a radio caught between stations, at:
>
> https://disquiet.com/2013/09/19/disquiet0090-betweenstations/
>
> More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
> http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
>
> Associated image found via http://goo.gl/nM4pOz

A Solo on a Trio of iPad Apps (MP3)

By Birmingham's noimspartacus

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Described by the musician as “noodling,” what it is is the sound of an iPad in the service of sonic exploration, from ominous footsteps through pulsating synthesis to dispersed beats. It was apparently recorded on a trio of apps: the multitrack tool [Auria](http://auriaapp.com/Products/auria), the synthesizer [Alchemy](http://www.camelaudio.com/AlchemyMobile.php), and one named Sequence. Here’s to more noodling.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/noimspartacus](https://soundcloud.com/noimspartacus/darkness-into-light). It is by **noimspartacus**, who is from Birmingham, Great Britain, more from whom at [noimspartacus.wordpress.com](http://noimspartacus.wordpress.com/).

Piano-Enhanced Noise (MP3)

From Germany's Phyrnis and the Euphoric Hum

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

**Phyrnis** and the **Euphoric Hum**, both of whom are based in Germany, recorded this lowkey noise survey back in December 2012. The deep swells of static and the sweltering whorls of droning distortion are handled with a welcome sense of restraint. Even more welcome are the touches of piano that enter about a third of the way through, like bits of Cecil Taylor imposing from a neighboring rehearsal room. Later still comes a female voice, and then the restraint is bypassed in favor of alien-invasion cacophony.

https://soundcloud.com/floracenter/phirnis-the-euphoric-hum-leise

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/floracenter](https://soundcloud.com/floracenter/phirnis-the-euphoric-hum-leise). More from Euphoric at [theeuphorichum.bandcamp.com](http://theeuphorichum.bandcamp.com/). More from Phirnis at [phirnis.de](http://www.phirnis.de/blog/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0089: V’Ger

The Project: Use the sounds of interstellar space to make "goodbye music" for the Voyager 1 space probe.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

*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/).*

https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet0089-vger

This assignment was made in the evening, California time, on Thursday, September 12, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 16, 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 0089: V’Ger
>
>This week’s project is as follows. On its voyage beyond the bounds of our solar system, the Voyager 1 recorded two bursts of sound, which NASA has uploaded as part of the information video at the following URL:
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAZWb9_si4
>
>The musical noise can be heard in two 12-second segments, from 0:12 to 0:24 and then from 0:33 to 0:45.
>
>Those sounds will serve as the source material for your track. Now that Voyager 1 has left the solar system, you will write a short piece of goodbye music to send it on its way, using these sounds recorded in the outer space. You can add whatever you want to them, and you can transform the noise as you see fit, but you should retain elements of the original source material so that it remains recognizable to the listener. In particular, pay attention to the source audio’s melodic content.
>
>Deadline: Monday, September 16, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track should have a duration of 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 “disquiet0089-vger”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 89th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sounds of interstellar space are used to make “goodbye music” for the Voyager 1 space probe, at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/09/12/disquiet0089-vger/
>
>Source audio courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Iowa via:
>
>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIAZWb9_si4
>
>Special thanks to Mark Ward (mark-ward.org) for having suggested this material as the subject for a Disquiet Junto project.
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Voice, Guitar, Loops, Live (MP3)

Portland, Oregon's White Rainbow in concert from 2010

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130911-forkner

Over the course of the past week, the SoundCloud account of the Boulder, Colorado”“based cultural organization Communikey (aka CMKY) has been uploading a heap of recordings from its past festivals. One highlight is a nearly 40-minute performance by **White Rainbow**, aka **Adam Forkner** of Portland, Oregon, taped back in 2010 at the Black Box, which is on the University of Colorado campus. In a brief descriptive note, Communikey explains that Forkner/Rainbow “builds his sounds from the unassuming means, relying on his voice, guitar and a selection of pedals and electronics.” The result is a stuttery haze, somewhere between Meat Beat Manifesto’s low-key industrial beats, Christopher Willits’ glittering stasis, and Herbie Hancock at his most broken-funky, if such a thing could be imagined.

https://soundcloud.com/communikey/cmky-podcast-10-white-rainbow

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/communikey](https://soundcloud.com/communikey/cmky-podcast-10-white-rainbow). More on Communikey at [cmky.org](http://cmky.org/). Forkner maintains a site at [whiterainbow.tumblr.com](http://whiterainbow.tumblr.com/).