Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 208
January 1, 2021
A Moment of Venn
The graphic displayed immediately below is, as we all know, a Venn diagram. Yes, yes, you’ve seen enough of these, either at work or in memes, but do give this one a moment, and see how it develops. In Venn terms, recognize first that it is referred to as a “3-Venn diagram,” each of its individual circles being a Venn:
Venn diagrams are named for John Venn, the British mathematician who developed them. Venn lived from 1834 to 1923. Venn diagrams often have two, three, or four circles, but they don’t end there. This next image, via Nathan Ho (as are all the images in this post), is a 5-Venn diagram, displayed in all its Spirographic glory:
When you witness the 5-Venn in contrast with the 3-Venn, you might think, “Oh, I see. So … what comes next?” Here we level up to the 7-Venn diagram, also via Ho. It’s … a little more complex, right?
The above 7-Venn diagram is credited to mathematician Branko Grünbaum. It’s “the first simple symmetric 7-Venn diagram,” per Ho, and dates from 1992. (Grünbaum died in 2018 at age 88, same round number as Venn.) The single digits in the outermost appendages are keys to decoding which of the 7 Venns comprise each of the interior intersections: “14” is the intersection of 1 and 4; “1457” the intersection of 1, 4, 5, and 7; and so on.
When we look at Grünbaum’s incredible image, we might think: starfish, or amoeba, or nebula, or I missed the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery. But when Ho looks at it, what apparently came to mind was: 7 Venns = 7 notes. Actually, it was Ho’s friend, Nathan Turczan. Turczan pointed out to Ho “that the curves of a 7-fold Venn diagram can be mapped to a diatonic scale.” Ho went with that, making a web app that let’s you play chords by clicking overlapping regions, resulting in this beauty, which resembles a piece of op art:
Here, for example, is what it looks like when three notes constituting a simple chord are played, as identified by a shade depicting three overlapping Venns out of the total seven:
Nathan Ho’s web app is called, simply, Venn 7. It’s super cool. Check it out at . Click the arrows on the interface to experience different sounds (and colors), and the “?” to learn more about Ho’s development of the idea (that’s the document from which the above images are selected). There’s a lot more to Ho’s Venn 7 than initially meets the eye and ear, in particular decisions he made to uses Shepard tones (those illusions of sound moving constantly up or down) for each layer of the diagrams.
December 31, 2020
RIP, MF Doom (1971-2020)
Back in 2014, I edited a series of lightly animated comics for Red Bull Music Academy on the occasion of a big festival it was putting on in Japan. Among the pieces was one by writer Gabe Soria, illustrator Dean Haspiel, colorist Allen Passalaqua, and letterer Vito Delsante. The subject was MF Doom, the larger-than-life rapper whose death was reported today. Here’s the comic, minus the animation:
Here’s a little more background on the comic: “MF Doom + DJ Krush + Comics + Manga”, plus bleedingcool.com had some beautiful behind-the-scenes images of Haspiel working at the time.
2020’s Most Read Disquiet.com Posts
Being shut in for the majority of 2020 had some benefits, one of them being that for the first time since I founded this website at the tail end of 1996, I managed to write a post every single day. On some days I posted more than once, yielding a total of 478 posts over the course of the leap year’s 366 days (479 posts counting this one, come to think of it). The months of March and May were my most prolific, with 52 posts each, and July was my least (with 32).
Using Google Analytics, I sorted out the 10 most read posts of the year:
The Fjærlett, a beautiful audio feedback instrument designed by Oslo-based Kristoffer Gard Osen.
A highly sensitive microphone called the Geofón: “designed for seismic measurements, it can be used with regular field recording equipment to capture very faint vibrations in various materials and even soil.”
This post is only half a month old, but was clearly popular based on the subject: guitar adaptations of Aphex Twin’s music.
Visual code (in this case Pure Data) as a form of graphic notation, with a focus on the work of Fahmi Mursyid, who is based in Indonesia.
A small MIDI controller that Tom Whitwell of Music Thing Modular (based in London) prototyped with me in mind.
Portland, Oregon-based Patricia Wolf’s Cellular Chorus.
My advice when sharing your music via email in the hopes of getting press attention.
A short video I shot of the hum whose emanation from the Golden Gate Bridge has gained worldwide notoriety.
Video of a live ambient performance by Orbital Patterns (aka Michigan-based Abdul Allums)
Commemorating 2,000 days of Virginia-based cartoonist Todd Webb’s Daily Bleeps:
And as a side note, the most popular post associated with the Disquiet Junto music community (besides the FAQ, which isn’t new) was related to the Solitary Ensembles project, which teams up trios of geographically dispersed collaborators.
Disquiet Junto Project 0470: Calendar View
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 4, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, December 31, 2020.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0470: Calendar View
The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments.
As is the tradition at the end of each calendar year, this week’s project is a sound journal, a selective audio history of your past twelve months.
Step 1: You will select a different audio element to represent each of the past 12 months of 2020 — or you might opt for even more elements, choosing a segment for each week, or each day, for example. These audio elements will most likely be of music that you have yourself composed and recorded, but they might also consist of phone messages, field recordings, or other source material. These items should be somehow personal in nature, suitable to the autobiographical intention of the project; they should be of your own making, your own devising, and not drawn from third-party sources.
Step 2: You will then select one segment from each of these (most likely) dozen audio elements. If you’re doing a dozen items, one for each month, then five-second segments are recommended, for a total of one minute. Ultimately, though, the length of the segments and of the overall finished track are up to you.
Step 3: Then you will stitch these segments together in chronological order to form one single track. There should be no overlap or gap between segments; they should simply proceed from one to the next.
Step 4: In the notes field accompanying the track, identify each of the audio segments.
Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0470” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0470” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0470-calendar-view/
Step 5: Annotate your tracks with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #disquietjunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Additional Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, January 4, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, December 31, 2020.
Length: The length is up to you. Did time pass quickly, or slowly?
Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0470” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 470th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Calendar View / The Assignment: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen (or more) super-brief segments — at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0470-calendar-view/
There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is by Dan Allison, and used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license allowing editing (cropped with text added) for non-commercial purposes:
December 30, 2020
First Track from Forthcoming A Winged Victory for the Sullen Album
Invisible Cities by A Winged Victory for the Sullen
It’s almost exactly two months until Invisible Cities, the new album by A Winged Victory for the Sullen, arrives. But the first public track, “Desires Are Already Memories,” is already up on its Bandcamp page.
The music is the score composed by AWVftS’s Dustin O’Halloran and Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie for a theater production by Leo Warner (see Warner ‘s 59productions.co.uk for details). The title comes, clearly, from the Italo Calvino novel, of which the Warner production is an adaptation.
“Desires Are Already Memories” is classic Winged Victory, which is to say it’s post-classical: all stirring, minimalist chamber-ensemble undergirding, an angelic choir component, and touches of modernity in the form of artful maudlin-techno pulsing and what sounds like a Jew’s harp emulating rave-era Underworld. More than enough reason to get excited about for what’s to come when the full record is released.
Album originally posted at awvfts.bandcamp.com.
December 29, 2020
Ambient Gets More Trombones
Oscillations by Benjamin Louis Brody
This brooding, speedily hypnotic track combines two trombones, played by Alaina Alster and Max Sholl, with synths performed by the piece’s composer, Benjamin Louis Brody. The title, “Oscillations,” is spot on for the heavily vibrating opening, a volatile drone that slowly recedes (though only partially) as more immediately recognizable horn playing begins to surface. The track was released back in mid-2018, but I first learned of it only last night when Brody replied to a tweet I had made about how “Ambient music needs more trombones.” This is further proof of the truth of that statement.
Track originally posted at benbrodymusic.bandcamp.com. More from Brody (raised in New Jersey, based in Brooklyn, New York) at benbrodymusic.com.
December 28, 2020
Lofi Trombone Loops
The abundance of reverberating droning heard in this video is the result of layer upon layer of loops accumulating, all soured from live trombone playing, and then treated live in an iOS app that doesn’t merely simulate but also sensualizes the effect of old reel-to-reel tape. The result, especially when the octave leaps and glitches kick in, sounds inspired by Jon Hassell: futuristic atmospheres hinting at tribal ceremonies, high technology mined for its textures, its inaccuracies, its shortcomings. This is the music of Quiet Horn. The YouTube account only has 150 subscribers as of this writing, but that’s sure to increase soon, based on the beauty of this piece.
This is the latest video I’ve added to my ongoing YouTube playlist of fine live performance of ambient music. Video originally posted at Quiet Horn’s YouTube account.
December 27, 2020
10 Favorite Ambient/Electronic Albums of 2020
This is a list of my 10 favorite ambient/electronic albums of 2020, plus some extras. These are the ones I returned to again and again as the terrible year persisted. As I’m not much of a list-maker, I need to note that the concept of a top 10 list becomes ever less meaningful to me as time progresses. The fact is, much of the music I enjoy takes other forms: one-offs on Bandcamp and SoundCloud, videos on YouTube and Instagram, live sessions on Twitch and elsewhere, not to mention in-context music as a part of television series, movies, and video games. Much as rock, which once upon a time largely defined popular music, is now just one small genre among others, the LP itself is just one format among myriad. Many years I don’t even make a list of favorite albums, but this year I did. There was too much music, and I recognize that whittling it to a list of favorites is of use to people trying to make sense of the embarrassment of riches (cultural if not economic) that is the post-Bandcamp recording industry. The first two records below are my favorites of the 2020, and the other eight appear in alphabetical order by artist, and then there’s a list of other albums that were highlights of the year, and then some scores (TV and film). And I may add a few additional favorites before the clock strikes midnight on December 31.
▰ Snow Catches on her Eyelashes by Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang. What could be the film score to a slow-burn science-fiction noir, all otherworldly tonalities transmuted through digital processing. Nils Petter Molvær (trumpet) is among the guests.
▰ Drift by Underworld and the Necks. Available as a standalone album, this deep, subtle groove of a set was a highlight of Underworld’s recent Drift box, and of the expansive YouTube video series from which it originated.
▰ Cantus, Descant by Sarah Davachi. A collection of experimental, atmospheric music for organs, recorded on a variety of them in Amsterdam, Chicago, Vancouver, Copenhagen, and Los Angeles.
▰ Third Album by Markus Floats. There is a propensity for joy on Floats’ Third Album that is absolutely intoxicating, notably on the the bubbly “Always.” What makes such moments all the more striking is the mass-like seriousness that comprises the majority of this rich, wide-ranging, deeply rewarding collection.
▰ Harbors by Ellen Fullman and Theresa Wong. With roughly 50 strings between them, Wong (cello) and Fullman (Long String Instrument, accounting for the remaining lion’s share) make resonant music together.
▰ Seeing Through Sound (Pentimento Volume Two) by Jon Hassell. The Fourth World master returned with his unique blend of sensuously digital set pieces, a sequel to 2018’s Listening to Pictures (Pentimento Volume One).
▰ Silver Ladders by Mary Lattimore. At once lush and austere, fragile and full-bodied. Such are the wondrous contradictions in her hypermodern (improvisational and digitally enhanced) employment of the harp, an instrument generally associated with dusty antiquity.
▰ Double Bind by Geneva Skeen. Rather than intimate drones for their own sake, this album uses them as the foundation for often orchestral-scale pieces that explore anxious minimalism, urban tension, and intergalactic exploration.
▰ Stolen Car by Carl Stone. The master sampler rips source material to shreds and then reformats the ribbons of the originals into entirely new, ecstatic works.
▰ We Have Amnesia Sometimes by Yo La Tengo. The long-running indie-rock band dug its way out of quarantine with a series of instrumental explorations.
▰ Other favorite albums from 2020 included: Loraine James’ Hmm. ▰ Ana Roxanne’s Because of a Flower. ▰ r beny’s Natural Fiction. ▰ Scanner’s Warp & Weft, made with sounds from Jogging House’s Reel Feels sound pack. ▰ Jeannine Schulz released a lot of ambient music this year, and it’s hard to single out one set in particular. There’s a bunch at jeannineschulz.bandcamp.com, plus Ground . The Gentle, on the Stereoscenic Record label. ▰ Lloyd Cole’s Dunst. ▰ Thys and Amon Tobin’s Ithaca. ▰ Nils Frahm’s Empty.
▰ And there were a lot great scores this year, key among them: Devs (credited to Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow, and the Insects, aka the duo of Bob Locke and Tim Norfolk, and benefiting from pre-existing tracks by Steve Reich, as well as Jan Garbarek in collaboration with the Hilliard Ensemble). ▰ Rutger Hoedemaekers’ No Man’s Land (he’s best known, perhaps, for his work with Jóhann Jóhannsson and Hildur Guðnadóttir on Trapped, and definitely check out The Last Berliner from 2019). ▰ Warren Ellis’ This Train I Ride (the rare film he’s scored solo, rather than in collaboration with Nick Cave). ▰ Ammonite by Dustin O’Halloran and Volker Bertelmann (they also collaborated on The Old Guard). ▰ ZeroZeroZero by Mogwai. ▰ Industry by Nathan Micay.
December 26, 2020
twitter.com/disquiet: Caption Culture
I do this manually each week, collating the tweets I made at twitter.com/disquiet that I want to keep track of. For the most part, this means ones I initiated, not ones in which I directly responded to someone. I sometimes tweak them a bit here.
▰ Backing up a track 10 seconds to see if that siren was part of it or if an emergency services vehicle had just passed by.
▰ The TV caption reads “[melancholy music plays]” but it’s clearly a main character playing Satie, which is clearly a cultural signal of the education, bearing, and mindset of the individual. Seems like “[melancholy music plays]” doesn’t quite cut it. Of course, if this tweet were itself a movie, the correct caption would, indeed, be “[melancholy music plays]”
▰ WW84 sure doesn’t have much going for it, but at least someone on the production crew thought to hang a Minor Threat concert poster on an exterior wall in Washington, D.C.
▰ [overly heartbreaking farewell music]
[everything is a bit buzzy right now]
[distant screaming]
[angry ant noises]
[holiday music]
Those are some of the hypothetical captions being explored for their sonic content in this week’s Disquiet Junto music community project.
December 25, 2020
A Gnostic Winter Solstice
Tehn, aka Brian Crabtree, released a new album just as the year was coming to an end, right on the Winter Solstice. Titled Gnostics, it’s a collection of varied electronically mediated pieces, ranging from syrupy drones (“Sleep”) to introspective beats (“The Second Circle”) to a dense, and seemingly unmolested, field recording (“Silence as Antimatter,” the album’s closing track).
There’s a looseness to the set, in part due to the different approaches all heard in one setting, and also within them, like how the slow chords of “Wide Awake” are interspersed with joyous shouts, as if people were playing frisbee right outside Crabtree’s recording studio and he’d left the window open. Similarly, “The Second Circle” breaks midway through for an unexpected burst of unexpected white noise.
In a brief liner note, Crabtree explains that Gnostics, the title taken from a book by French writer Jacques Lacarrière, is drawn from “a body of unfinished recordings.” Fortunately, there’s additional information in a dedicated discussion thread at the llllllll.co boards, maintained in coordination with monome.org, the musical technology company he founded with Kelli Cain.
Album originally posted at tehn.bandcamp.com. Crabtree lives in Delhi, New York. More at nnnnnnnn.co.
