Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 243
April 6, 2020
Portrait of an Inbox from Artists
I listen continuously. I write about what I’m drawn to write about. I can’t reply to every email I receive.
Megaphone
. . .
Many thanks to illustrator Hannes Pasqualini (horizontalpitch.com, papernoise.net) for the collaboration.
April 5, 2020
Have MIDI, Will Travel
If you watched the excellent new Why We Bleep Podcast (video) interview with Tom Whitwell of Music Thing Modular, you may, right at the 50-minute mark, have heard Tom talk about a little MIDI device he prototyped with me in mind. I thought I’d share some images and some context, by way of saying thanks to Tom.
I’d been asking online (via Twitter and Facebook mostly) for some time as to why there isn’t a super small, portable MIDI device that has faders, pots, and endless knobs. I’d located various DIY projects with varying degrees of clarity in their instructions, and fixated for awhile on one, the k4b4, that I found on a Japanese website (picture below in case the site ever goes dead), but it appeared to be sold out; nothing else seemed to come close to what I had imagined. And even this one lacks faders:
Height wasn’t of particular concern, but I figured something roughly the length and width of a credit card or small mobile phone would be perfect. I wanted something I could keep in my backpack without ever having to consider its volume or heft.
Then Tom got in touch. Let’s start with the finished object, before getting to some process materials. This is the top and bottom view.
The length is just under 4 inches, and the width is just over 1.75 inches.
And this is it fit snug in one of the smallest Pelican cases, along with a USB cable:
Tom ran a few PCB (printed circuit board) designs by me in rapid succession, with different combinations and permutations of controls. Ultimately, I decided that the pairing of pots and endless knobs was more important than buttons, since I’d often be using it with something like a laptop. Keyboards have more than enough buttons.
As it came together, he shared images:
And, of course, there is a unique — and for me brand new — experience of seeing one’s name on a printed circuit board. The “PSM” stands for “phone-sized MIDI.”
Here’s the full interview (originally on YouTube) with Tom:
More from Tom Whitwell and Music Thing at musicthing.co.uk.
April 4, 2020
The Last Concert I Saw Live in Person
In retrospect, various factors show how my preparation for the current health crisis began earlier than I was fully conscious of. I think the most recent live performance I attended may have been way back on January 30, 2020, at the Luggage Store, here in San Francisco, where the weekly series occurs each Thursday night. Well, did happen, before all live in-person concerts stopped happening. (Two days later I posted a photo of the graffiti-covered stairwell at the Luggage Store, which is an art gallery, not a luggage store.) I was due to attend several other shows after that, and bowed out, most recently on March 7, judging by my calendar. Along the lines of my “last night” experience in Manhattan a week prior, that’s another moment when things seemed to speed up — in this case, to cascade. Barely 48 hours later, the following Monday, March 9, all classes at the school where I teach once a year were announced to be transitioning online, and well before the end of the work week the local public school district had done the same.
And so, these are two shots from the last time I saw music live in the flesh. That’s the duo Mit Darm (Edward Shocker, left, and Suki O’Kane), and sharing the bill with them were Steve Adams, left, and John Hanes. I’d sat next to O’Kane one evening at the most recent San Francisco Tape Music Festival, and was looking forward to hearing her perform. Adams is a member of the Rova Saxophone Quartet, of whom I’m a longtime admirer. I was excited to hear what he was up to when he put his sax aside in favor of a laptop.
After the Luggage Store show was over, I started to head home, and passed, barely a block away, the Center for New Music, where another Rova member, Jon Raskin, had just finished a separate performance. Such nights, where lives and artistic pursuits overlap and intersect on the street and in venues, are on hold for an extended moment. And for the moment, live performances are flourishing online. I’m hopeful, for the musicians’ sake, that virtual attendees are putting some money in the tip jars, and signing up for online shows where there’s a proper ticket fee.
Speaking of which, I noticed something this morning at bayimproviser.com, an excellent concert listing service that has been essentially my local social calendar for as long as I can remember. It’s one of a few dozen sites I have bookmarked to look at each morning over coffee. For weeks, it had become a list of cancelled and postponed performances, but that seems to have changed, at least a little. Now it’s also listing some live online events by local musicians. I had been depressed each morning seeing all the non-events, and now look forward to what starts popping up.
April 3, 2020
Personal-Space Age Music
Accompanied by archival footage from the height of the Space Age, the track “Quanta Skylab” by the Polish musician Grzegorz Bojanek is the background music you’re looking for right now. We’re all aboard a spacecraft at the moment, Starship Earth. We’re hurtling around the sun in our individual or shared cabins, waiting for our respective captains to give the all-clear alert. None of us expect that message to appear anytime soon. We’re balancing work and family, privacy and community, aspirations and needs, responsibilities and desires, and making the best of a bad, worldwide situation. Bojanek’s music is the proper room tone for such a scenario — for our Personal-Space Age — especially the more solitary moments. Its shifting drones match the way time feels fluid and confusing. It embraces the newfound quiet without presenting a challenge. And it introduces melodic fragments but never expects your full attention.
Video originally posted at Bojanek’s YouTube channel. More from him at bojanek.bandcamp.com
April 2, 2020
Disquiet Junto Project 0431: Solitary Ensembles x 3
This isn’t the new normal, but we’re again breaking a core Disquiet Junto rule this week. (The rule is that in the Junto, musicians should only contribute one track per project.) Again, due to the extraordinary output last week (106 tracks from musicians originating around the world), we’re going to allow multiple tracks this week (up to 3 per participant). However, where one rule is cast by the wayside, another rule rears its head: For your first track for this project, you can use whichever source audio you’d like from the previous project (Disquiet Junto Project 0430: Solitary Ensembles x 2). For your second and third, however, you must choose randomly, with some qualifications. Details below:
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 Monday, April 6, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 2, 2020.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0431: Solitary Ensembles x 3
The Assignment: Complete a trio by adding a track to an existing duet by two other musicians.
Step 1: This week’s Disquiet Junto project is the third in a sequence that encourages and rewards asynchronous collaboration. This week you will be adding music to a pre-existing track, which you will source from the previous week’s Junto project (disquiet.com/0430). Note that you are finishing a trio — you’re creating the third part of what two previous musicians created. Keep this in mind.
Step 2: The plan is for you to record an original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice, as a complement to a pre-existing track. First, however, you must select the piece of music to which you will be adding your own music. There are well over 100 tracks in all to choose from, 103 as part of this playlist:
https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0430
And then three others. Two from Bassling (aka Jason Richardson). Consider the first 104 and the second 105:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0430-solitary-ensembles-x-2/30579/2/
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0430-solitary-ensembles-x-2/30579/65/
And the 106th is from Samarobryn:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0430-solitary-ensembles-x-2/30579/132/
To select a track, you can listen through all that (warning: that’s well over five hours of music) and choose one, or you can use a random number generator to select a number from 1 to 106, the first 103 being numbered in the above SoundCloud playlist, and the three other numbered as described above. (Note: it’s fine if more than one person uses the same original track as the basis for their piece.)
Step 3: Record a piece of music, roughly the length of the piece of music you selected in Step 2. Your track should complement the piece from Step 2, and it should be placed dead center between the left and right stereo channels. When composing and recording your part, do not alter the original piece of music at all. To be clear: the track you upload won’t be your piece of music alone; it will be a combination of the track from Step 2 and yours.
Step 4: Also be sure, when done, to make the finished track downloadable, because it may be used by someone else in a subsequent Junto project.
Step 5: As with last week, you can contribute more than one track this week. You can do up to three total. Unlike with your first track, you should choose your second and third randomly. However, if you end up with something you really don’t enjoy working on, then you can roll again. And alternately, you can choose to use a track no one else has used yet (by looking at the project’s post on Lines, linked to in these instructions, or to the project playlist, which will be posted here once tracks start coming in). The goal is for many as people as possible to benefit from the experience of being part of an asynchronous collaboration. After a lot of detailed instruction, that is the spirit of this project.
Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0431” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your track.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0431” (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 track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0431-solitary-ensembles-x-3/
Step 5: Annotate your track 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 Monday, April 6, 2020, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, April 2, 2020.
Length: The length should be essentially the same length as the track you are adding to. Yours might be a little longer, if you choose to begin earlier or end later than the source audio.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0431” in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and 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: Given the nature of this particular project sequence, it is 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:
Be sure to name and link to the source track you’re collaborating with, and credit the musicians who recorded it.
More on this 41st weekly Disquiet Junto project, Disquiet Junto Project 0431: Solitary Ensembles x 3 — The Assignment: Complete a trio by adding a track to an existing duet by two other musicians — at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0431-solitary-ensembles-x-3/
There’s also a Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this track is by Abby, used thanks to a Creative Commons license and Flickr. The image has been cropped, colors shifted, and text added.
April 1, 2020
Drone Étude
A little over a year ago, a simple live performance video made a strong impression. Using just two synthesizer modules, Peter Speer took brief moments from “Om Shanti” by Alice Coltrane and pulled them like one might Silly Putty, bending and stretching the audio until it was mere strands of its original state. In the process, he yielded something both utterly transformed and yet true, in tone and effect, to the source material. Speer’s latest video, posted two days ago, on March 30, has no familiar origin, but also delights with its simplicity. It’s a fairly compact and well-circumscribed synthesizer setup, the Serge Animal, played throughout, his hand guiding voltages and volume, and from them coaxing a drone étude, a gaseous cloud of arching textures.
Video originally posted at vimeo.com. More from Speer, who is based in Asheville, North Carolina, at diode-ring.com and instagram.com/peter.speer.
March 31, 2020
Jasmine Guffond Gets the Drop on the Mic
Microphone Permission by Jasmine Guffond
Both the album title, Microphone Permission, and the title of its lead track, “Forever Listening,” get at Jasmine Guffond’s interest in surveillance culture. The former is something we grant devices and apps without giving the decision, such as it is, much thought. The latter describes the state of tools, such as smart speakers, we allow so that they can seem to anticipate our needs. These concepts feed, in “Forever Listening,” a droning piece lace with muffled voices and occasionally riddled with something like a shot from a video game.
An accompanying video, by Ilan Katin, uses what appears to be dated footage from a security camera from a store to make its point: we’re being watched at the most mundane moments. If this tense area of study suggests a sense of alarm, Guffond meets that with the sound of one just before the track comes to a quietly vibrating close.
Get the full album at jasmineguffond.bandcamp.com. Video originally posted a the YouTube channel of Ilan Katin. More from Guffond, an Australian based in Berlin, Germany, at jasmineguffond.com.
Bit of a Milestone
Yow, what a showing in the latest Disquiet Junto. Each of these is one person creating a duet based on another person’s solo track. The number is more like 104, due to two tracks not on SoundCloud plus another two added later in the day. And that is, indeed, over five hours of music. This is from the 430th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project: Solitary Ensembles x 2. (To be clear, this was an unusual Junto project, in that people were invited to produce up to three tracks, but it’s still a lot of collaboration.)
March 30, 2020
Two Observations
Two observations: First, YouTube definitely doesn’t count repeat plays by individual accounts in its “views” for a video, because this archived live stream from the musician Junklight (aka Mark John Williamson) was on repeat here all day, filling the home office from before work on to after, and it’s still registering under 20 plays, despite being not even 10 minutes in length. Second, if there’s a piece of seemingly quiet but actually quite layered and bountiful music that can run all day, at varying volumes, and serve both as not just background music but domestic sound design and, when turned up, as it is now that the day has begun to close, as something to dive into and study, then it is the very definition of ambient: loops of granular synthesis played like a futuristic pipe organ.
This is the latest video added to my ongoing YouTube playlist of live performances of ambient music. Video originally posted to YouTube. More from Junklight at junklight.bandcamp.com and twitter.com/junklight.
