Under the Hood in Caracas

Open-source code (in Pure Data) from Venezuela, courtesy of Joaquín Mendoza Sebastián

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130116-pd

Some musicians make public the scores for their work, while others share the source audio for their mixes. And some post the code from which their music springs. Count among this last group **Joaquín Mendoza Sebastián** of Caracas, Venezuela. His four etudes for the software program Pure Data — a graphical environment for sound, among other things — are elegant explorations of ever-warping tones. In addition to posting the tracks for download (“PD Etude 01,” “PD Etude 02 a,” “PD Etude 02 b,” and “PD Etude 03”), he has made available the Pure Data “object” that allows those warpings to take place. For illustration purposes, up above is a screenshot of the first of these.

https://soundcloud.com/joaquin-mendoza/sets/pd-etudes-so-far/

Here are links to Zip files containing the three Pure Data objects in which these etudes were performed and recorded: [01](http://www.joaquinmendoza.net/archivos/JM_estudio01.pd.zip), [02](http://www.joaquinmendoza.net/archivos/JM_estudio02.pd.zip), [03](http://www.joaquinmendoza.net/archivos/JM_estudio03.pd.zip).

Tracks originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/joaquin-mendoza](https://soundcloud.com/joaquin-mendoza/sets/pd-etudes-so-far/). More on Sebastián at [joaquinmendoza.net](http://www.joaquinmendoza.net/). More on Pure Data, aka Pd, at [puredata.info](http://puredata.info/).

What I’m Up To

A bit of autobiography as part of the SoundCloud Heroes program

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

I was invited to participate in the SoundCloud Heroes project, which SoundCloud has described as a collection of individuals “who bring people together around sound by cultivating and engaging unique communities.” It’s an honor to be included.

I’ve created this little introduction at the request of the folks in the SoundCloud Community department. The audio provides a bit of autobiography — who I am, where I am, what I’m up to — and I’ve embedded related links:

Full disclosure: for participating in the SoundCloud Heroes program, I’ve been gifted the top-level account, Pro Plus, which among other things allows for unlimited storage of sounds and unlimited downloads. This capacity has excited me about a variety of projects I’ve been thinking of exploring, including a podcast, as well as more commissioned compilations like [*Instagr/am/bient*](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/instagr-am-bient) and [*LX(RMX)*](https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/lx-rmx). I trust it will also gain addition attention to, and participants in, the [Disquiet Junto group](http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/), which from the beginning has been housed on SoundCloud.

I recorded this audio on Sunday, January 13, 2013, and it went live on January 15.

Live from Auckland (MP3)

Richard Francis, Rosy Parlane, and Rachel Shearer in performance

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130114-Radio89

In the middle of last year, **Richard Francis**, **Rosy Parlane**, and **Rachel Shearer** performed at the Audio Foundation in Auckland, New Zealand, in support of the publication of the book *Erewhon Calling: Experimental Sound in New Zealand*. Their concert has now surfaced as an extended, static-laden MP3 on the great [touchradio.org.uk](http://www.touchradio.org.uk/touch_radio_89.html) site ([MP3](http://www.touchshop.org/touchradio/Radio89.mp3)). It plays like the signal of some errant radio broadcast heard several continents away from its point of origin, having skipped around the globe by chance geothermal conditions. The core white noise occasionally is interrupted by modulations, brief asides, jagged sounds, and additional layers of hum and drone.

[audio:http://www.touchshop.org/touchradio/Radio89.mp3|titles=”Live at The Audio Foundation 2012 August 11″|artists=Richard Francis and Rosy Parlane and Rachel Shearer]

Track originally posted for free download at [touchradio.org.uk](http://www.touchradio.org.uk/touch_radio_89.html), where the above picture (by Zoe Drayton) appeared. More on the Audio Foundation at [audiofoundation.org.nz](http://audiofoundation.org.nz/).

The Dark Lull

The structure of a glitchy haze from Mark Ward

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

**Mark Ward** does his best to underplay his track, but it’s a wonderfully glitchy bit of atmospheric play, and shouldn’t be missed. In his post, he mentions trimming it down (but it’s still over five minutes long), and he limits his description to the following: “Electronic babble, guitar drones and stretched voices.” That doesn’t get to the way the pitter patter, pixel-thin, razor-sharp beats prick at the light, ethereal drone of haze that he’s created. Nor does it begin to touch on the track’s structure, the way a deep lull intrudes midway through, tricking the listener into a dark space by suggesting the newfound quiet initially as a luxurious pause, when in fact it’s a tonal shift that flirts with willful, if artful, discomfort.

https://soundcloud.com/mark-ward/the-voices-abridged

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/mark-ward](https://soundcloud.com/mark-ward/the-voices-abridged). More from Ward at [mark-ward.org](http://mark-ward.org/).

6 Videos from the NYC Disquiet Junto Concert (Nov. 2012)

Music for and from large-scale retail spaces, after Émile Zola

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Screen Shot 2012-12-26 at 10.25.30 PM copy

This past November, on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the fourth Disquiet Junto concert of 2012 was held at the gallery apexart in Manhattan. (The previous three were in Chicago in April, Denver in August, and then San Francisco the week after the apexart show.) Six musicians each performed two works. They did a piece they wanted to share with the audience and each other, and they did a piece that correlated with the apexart exhibit “As Real As It Gets,” which was organized by Rob Walker. Walker had invited the Disquiet Junto to provide the installation score to the exhibit, a vast expanse of sound that came about over the course of several Junto projects.

The musicians at the apexart event were **Arcka** (**Shawn Kelly**), **Brian Biggs**, **Ethan Hein**, **Kenneth Kirschner**, **Tom Moody**, and **Roddy Schrock** (Schrock was joined for his non-Junto piece by **Joon Oluchi Lee**). Videos of the five of the six performances, as well as of my rambling introductory comments (I was in town from San Francisco), are streaming and downloadable at [apexart.org](http://apexart.org/events/disquiet-junto.php). Moody, whose video isn’t available, has posted at [tommoody.us](http://www.tommoody.us/archives/2012/11/28/my-set-last-night-incl-ladies-paradise-i-who-let-him-out-new-wavs-fork-it-over-remix/) audio that was featured in his set.

The project for the evening involved making music made from the sound of field recordings of large-scale retail spaces, and that music was intended to approximate the mechanistic fury inherent in Zola’s novel *Au Bonheur des Dames* (1883), which was a touchstone for the overall exhibit. More on the exhibit and event at Walker’s [designobserver.com](http://observatory.designobserver.com/robwalker/feature/listening-to-retail/36628/) column
and [here](https://disquiet.com/2012/11/13/as-real-as-it-gets-apexart-robwalker/), and at [apexart.org](http://apexart.org/events/disquiet-junto.php). Over at [bldgblog.blogspot.com](http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/drawing-building-hearing.html), Geoff Manaugh wrote some kind words in advance of the concert.