Billows, Curtailed (MP3)

From Utrecht-based Olaf Wisselink

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130908-olafw

**Olaf Wisselink** is based in Utrecht, Netherlands. His short track “Nageur” sounds more like premonition than event. It comes in waves, a mix of anticipation and memory, both lighter than air and weighed down with experience, even a tinge of portent. The waves come pitched higher, then lower, then higher again. They are gracious reveries whose loveliness is curtailed, intentionally it seems, by the track’s all too brief running time, just 2:20. At an hour, this might have been a luxurious cushion. At barely two minutes, it ends soon enough to leave the listener with a sense of loss.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/olafwie](https://soundcloud.com/olafwie/nageur). More from Wisselink at [olaf.bandcamp.com](http://olaf.bandcamp.com/).

Happenstance Ambience (MP3)

Part Buenos Aires document, part sonic figment

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130907-iihab076

There are many things that might keep a freely downloadable piece of music from getting on radar. The hosting site may lack an RSS feed, which means the music doesn’t come to you: You need to remember to go to it. When there are 500-plus netlabels out there, not to mention countless MP3 sites and SoundCloud-hosted accounts, that is a tall order. The hosting site may, as well, post the music as, say, a FLAC file — a lossless format that is great for audio quality, less so for making it easily streamable.

Both of these matters are the case with the excellent Impulsive Habitat netlabel. The label’s most recent release is *Corredor norte* by **Pablo Reche**. A mix of rumbling drones and occasional bits of everyday happenstance, like moments of creek ambience, the single-track release is nearly 20 minutes of distant background listening. The source audio was recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, along the Tigre River, but the transformed sound is not intended as documentation so much as figment: “it is not the idea to represent the original sound or landscape of the place,” writes the Reche in a brief liner note.

Track/album originally posted for free download at [impulsivehabitat.com](http://impulsivehabitat.com/releases/ihab076.htm).

Reworking Britten Reworking Purcell

A slomo mix by Tuonela

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130906-purcell

Not all stretching is mere stretching. There is plenty of stretched music out there, key works in the public ear being [Justin Bieber exposed as a slomo angel](https://soundcloud.com/frantisek-1/justin-bieber-u-smile-ambient-800-slower) and [the *Inception* theme making a nod to an actress’ prior role](https://disquiet.com/2010/12/10/inception-app-ios-rjdj/), but some stretching takes more effort than simply reducing a pace and, perhaps, maintaining a key. **Tuonela**’s “The Purcell Theme” adapts an adaptation by Benjamin Britten of music by Purcell, and not just attenuating it for interior exploration. As he writes in the accompanying note: “Not just a simple stretch, this is a twelve-track mix.” But more importantly, he writes, “It’s how the Theme always sounded in my head.” The core message being that while the phenomenon of people slowing down music has gained currency in recent years, and has been abetted by technological progress, the listening inherent in stretching is considerably older, and independent from the digital technique. I recently participated in a discussion (it will appear online soon) about Internet-based music communities, and I clarified that some forms of sound exploration are perhaps more akin to “active listening” than to the making of music, and this seems like a striking example. I’m not stating those as two points at opposite ends of a lengthy continuum so much as different approaches that, certainly, allow for considerable overlap.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/tuonela-1](https://soundcloud.com/tuonela-1/the-purcell-theme). More from Tuonela at [tuonela.bandcamp.com](http://tuonela.bandcamp.com/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0088: 3D

The Project: Make a track simulating 3D sound.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130905-3d

*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 evening, California time, on Thursday, September 5, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 9, 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 0088: 3D
>
>This week’s project focuses on the spatial aspect of sound. The instructions are as follows:
>
>Part 1: Your track will consist of three simultaneous segments: a drone, a beat, and a melodic fragment.
>
>Part 2: Each of those three segments will repeat consistently for the length of the finished track.
>
>Part 3: The only thing that will change is that you will manipulate them to simulate three-dimensional motion for someone listening to the track on headphones. You can do this by using stereo effects, volume shifts, filters, or any other technological means.
>
>Part 4: Your track will last one minute and thirty seconds. For the first 30 seconds, the drone and the beat will remain consistent, but the melodic fragment will move around in 3D. For the second 30 seconds, only the beat will move around, and for the final 30 seconds, only the drone will move around.
>
>Deadline: Monday, September 9, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track should have a duration of one minute and thirty 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 “disquiet0088-3d”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 88th Disquiet Junto project, which explores 3D sound, at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/09/05/disquiet0088-3d/
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Post-Singularity Dawn

A tonal experiment by Clarke Robinson

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

**Clarke Robinson**’s “Tonal Experiment #1” is a restrained swell of low-level feedback. It proceeds like a post-Singularity dawn, the slow-build of sound as an open circuit is gently nudged from its slumber.

More from Robinson at [clarkerobinson.com](http://clarkerobinson.com/).