Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 281
September 25, 2018
Module Learning: Spectral (Rhythmic Bands)
An experiment with another recent module acquisition: a spectral filter. It’s like my previous filterbank, the one that this rainbow-colored module (from the 4MS Company) replaced, in that it divides the incoming audio signal across the spectrum and helps you focus in on one narrow band or sliver of that sound, but it has many additional superpowers I’m only just beginning to learn.
Heard here is a little melody produced by the sequencer, the Monome Grid in the foreground, which is directing the notes played by a triangle wave via a module called Ansible. A trigger module (the Trigger Man) is setting the pace of the Grid, and also correlating some short sharp square waves from an LFO (the Batumi module) that are, in turn, creating little blips in the triangle wave (emanating from a Dixie II oscillator).
This is sort of the third stage of this experiment. Earlier in this process I was using other devices to add more variables to the sound, but I whittled back some of that spaghetti to settle on what I posted a short video of to Instagram last night. And then this morning I built it back up again:
The three main things this has that the Instagram didn’t have are: (1) the rhythm from the Trigger Man is a little more complex now, giving the melody a bit more of a herky-jerky beat; (2) the melody itself has some randomization going on (more like probability: will a note play or will it not); and (3) there’s a heavily subdued version of the audio that plays at the open and close (it’s running through a low-pass filter). There’s a bit of noise in this recording, and I’m not sure why.
September 23, 2018
Stasis Report: Loscil ✚ Grouper ✚ More
The latest update to my Stasis Report ambient-music playlist. It started out just on Spotify. It’s now also on Google Play Music. The following five tracks were added on Sunday, September 23. Four of the tracks are fairly new, with the exception of one from 2012:
✚ “Quiet Midnight” off Spring by ioflow (aka Joshua Saddler of San Diego, California): ioflow.bandcamp.com. Released on the Gohan Tapes label.
✚ “Laramie” off Ghost Box (Expanded) by SUSS, whose members are Bob Holmes, Gary Leib, Pat Irwin, Jonathan Gregg, and William Garrett: suss.bandcamp.com. Interview at brooklynvegan.com. Album on the Northern Spy label.
✚ “Imprints,” a single by Loscil, working with Field Works, aka Stuart Hyatt, based on Hyatt’s own field recordings. It’s from a new collection, Born in the Ear, also featuring Paul de Jong, Eluvium, Forrest Lewinger, the Album Leaf, Greg Davis, Juana Molina, and Hyatt: fieldworks.bandcamp.com. Released on the Temporary Residence label.
✚ “Blouse” from Grid of Points by Grouper, aka Liz Harris: grouper.bandcamp.com. Released on the Yellow Electric label.
✚ “Brûlez ce coeur,” the title track off a 2012 album by Les Momies de Palerme (on Constellation Records), aka Xarah Dion and Marie Davidson: cstrecords.com, soundcloud.com/constellation-records. It’s also on Bandcamp, though minus a few tracks: lesmomiesdepalerme.bandcamp.com. Davidson has a new album, Working Class Woman, due out October 5 on Ninja Tune.
Some previous Stasis Report tracks were removed to make room for these, keeping the playlist length to roughly two hours. Those retired tracks (Leila Abdul-Rauf, Lucrecia Dalt, M. Geddes Gengres, and Jake Muir, as well as Kara-Lis Coverdale remixing Úlfur) are now in the Stasis Archives playlist (currently only on Spotify).
“Module Learning: Swoop (Bounds Parameters)”
I recently reworked about half my modular synthesizer, with some key priorities in mind, among them (1) introducing some modules with their own strong personalities, notably the 4MS Spectral Multiband Resonator and the Ieaskul F. Mobenthey Swoop, and (2) having a means to be always recording. I added an Expert Sleepers Disting MK4 between the mixer and the output to use as an always-on recorder. This track is a first attempt I made at using the IFM Swoop. Here the Swoop is producing a triangle wave, bounds of which are changing as the track proceeds (among other variables I’m just beginning to wrap my head around). It’s secondarily being sent through a low-pass filter, to take the upper edge off.
The attached photo shows the patch, though some of the knobs were fiddled with as it ran. (Perhaps the main thing I learned today was that it’s sort of a hassle to get the SD card in and out of the Disting. The always-on recording was nice, though. This is the end of a longer segment, the opening part of which was even lower on the learning curve. When I was done, I just edited off the opening half and introduced a fade-in. The fade-out was done manually with my in-rack mixer.)
September 20, 2018
Disquiet Junto Project 0351: Selected Insomniac Works Volume II
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, September 24, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted just before noon, California time, on Thursday, September 20, 2018.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0351: Selected Insomniac Works Volume II
The Assignment: Rework some very quiet music by making it even more sedate.
Step 1: Last week, about 60 members of the Disquiet Junto recorded ambient music for the middle of the night. The specific request was to “Make very quiet music for very late at night for very fragile psyches.” This week, we’ll each select a track from last week and proceed to dial it down even further.
Step 2: Listen through the tracks from last week’s project, and choose the one whose ambience you want to employ in your track:
https://soundcloud.com/disquiet/sets/disquiet-junto-project-0350
In addition, there may be some other tracks from the project in the Lines discussions, here:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0350-selected-insomniac-works/
Step 3: Having chosen a track in Step 2 above, confirm that your chosen track is downloadable. If it isn’t, either get in touch with the musician who made it, or choose another track.
Step 4: Listen closely to the track you selected in Step 3. Consider what edges it has that might be smoothed out, what drama it has that might be subsumed. Consider how you might do such things while retaining something that is inherently listenable, should someone choose to turn up the volume and focus on it.
Step 5: Rework the track you selected in Steps 2 and 3 to achieve the goals that arose from Step 4.
Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0351” (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 “disquiet0351” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation 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-0351-selected-insomniac-works-volume-ii/
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Other Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, September 24, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted just before noon, California time, on Thursday, September 20, 2018.
Length: The length of your track is up to you.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0351” 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: Please consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information — as well as the name of the individual whose original track you’re reworking, and a link to that source track:
More on this 351st weekly Disquiet Junto project (Selected Insomniac Works Volume II / The Assignment: Rework some very quiet music by making it even more sedate) 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-0351-selected-insomniac-works-volume-ii/
There’s also a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet to join in.
Image associated with this project is by Chris, used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license:
September 17, 2018
Taking Mount Vision by Strategy
Mount Vision by Emily A. Sprague
The musician Emily A. Sprague has shifted her topographic imagination. At the very end of 2017, she released Water Memory, a widely praised collection of five modular-synthesizer tracks, the origins of which were likened in the album’s liner notes to “floating through the natural world around us.” Now, just shy of a year later, Sprague returns with Mount Vision, due out this coming Saturday, September 22 — barely a week after the reported two-day recording session that yielded the music. However rapid the production and delivery, a pre-release cut, “Piano 2 (Mount Vision),” suggests Mount Vision to be just as sedate and reflective as the best of Water Memory.
The one Mount Vision track available for streaming now, while the album racks up its cassette and download pre-preorders, is “Piano 2 (Mount Vision).” It opens with a brief acoustic piano chord — reminiscent of Aphex Twin’s “Avril 14th” — that repeats for the full length of the track. Initially the apparent automation of that repetition strikes a contrast with the chord’s natural composure. It is closely mic’d, like a Nils Frahm solo — you can almost picture the inner workings of the keyboard. Field recordings of room tone and birdsong lend a naturalism the piano might lack otherwise.
And as the piece moves forward, a wafting synthesizer line comes if not to the fore then to the slow-burn middle ground. The development of that line adds to the Celtic lilt of the piano part, and brings to mind the Evening Star collaborations between Robert Fripp and Brian Eno — the synth akin to Fripp’s infinite-hold guitar, and the piano to Eno’s swaying ambient groove. All that quiet beauty notwithstanding, the real marvel of “Piano 2 (Mount Vision)” is how that synth line reveals subtle harmonic and rhythmic components of the piano part. It’s a small miracle of a piece.
The map up above is a detail of Mount Vision just north of San Francisco. There are several Mount Visions on this planet, but judging by the album’s liner notes, which list Northern California as where the recordings took place in mid-September, this spot is likely where it was titled after. For further reading, here’s a bit about a podcast interview with Sprague: “The Self-Education of Synthesist Emily Sprague.” And here’s a bit about her previous album: “The Water Memory of Emily A. Sprague.”
Album available at mlesprg.bandcamp.com. More from Sprague, who is originally from the Catskills and now lives in Los Angeles, at mlesprg.info.
September 16, 2018
Stasis Report: Less Bells ✚ Distant Fires Burning ✚ More
The latest update to my Stasis Report ambient-music playlist. It started out just on Spotify. As of three weeks ago, it’s also on Google Play Music. The following five tracks were added on Sunday, September 16. All the tracks are fairly new, with the exception of one from a recent reissue.
✚ “Seashore Story” from Ambient Hamlet
by Eashwar Subramanian, of Bangalore, India: bandcamp.com.
✚ “Golden Storm” from Solifuge by Less Bells (aka Julie Carpenter) of Joshua Tree, California, on the Kranky label: bandcamp.com.
✚ “Rosalie” from the score to Green Days by the River, composed by Laura Karpman, who is based in Los Angeles: cdbaby.com
✚ “Any” For the Love of… by Distant Fires Burning (aka Gert De Meester of Mechelen, Belgium), on the Audiobulb label: bandcamp.com.
✚ “Second Lens” from A Turn of Breath – Extended by Ian William Craig of Vancouver, British Columbia, on the Recital Program label: recitalprogram.com. It’s an recently expanded reissue of an earlier record.
Some previous Stasis Report tracks were removed to make room for these, keeping the playlist length to roughly two hours (up from what was originally an hour and a half, when the playlist first launched). Those retired tracks (Goldmund, Pariah, C. Diab, and Meg Bowles) are now in the Stasis Archives playlist (currently only on Spotify).
September 13, 2018
Disquiet Junto Project 0350: Selected Insomniac Works
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, September 17, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted just before noon, California time, on Thursday, September 13, 2018.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0350: Selected Insomniac Works
The Assignment: Make very quiet music for very late at night for very fragile psyches.
Step 1: It’s the middle of the night, long past dusk and long before dawn. You can’t sleep.
Step 2: Think about what kind of music you’d want to hear right now — super quiet, super subtle, unlikely to wake you, potentially to ease you back to the comfort of your pillow, or at least to calm your mind.
Step 3: Record the sort of music that Step 2 made you imagine.
Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0350” (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 “disquiet0350” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation 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-0350-selected-insomniac-works/
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Other Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, September 17, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted just before noon, California time, on Thursday, September 13, 2018.
Length: The length of your track is up to you.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0350” 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: Please consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 350th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Selected Insomniac Works / The Assignment: Make very quiet music for very late at night for very fragile psyches) 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-0350-selected-insomniac-works/
There’s also a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet to join in.
Image associated with this project is by Helen Cassidy, used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license:
September 11, 2018
What Sound Looks Like
I pushed this button. Nothing happened. I wondered what I did wrong.
An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.
September 9, 2018
Stasis Report: Christina Vantzou ✚ H.Takahashi ✚ More
The latest update to my Stasis Report ambient-music playlist. It started out just on Spotify. As of three weeks ago, it’s also on Google Play Music. The following five tracks were added on Sunday, September 9. All the tracks are fairly new.
✚ “Sky Could Undress” is a remix by Christina Vantzou from Clear Language: Reworked of music originally by Balmorhea (aka Austin, Texas-based Rob Lowe and Michael Muller): balmorhea.bandcamp.com. Vantzou is based in Brussels, Belgium.
✚ “Part 3” is from The Great Lake Swallows by
Julia Kent on cello and Jean D.L (“guitarist/tape machine manipulator”), with field recordings by
Sandrine Verstraete, on the Gizeh label: gizehrecords.bandcamp.com. Kent is Canadian, and Jean D.L. is Belgian.
✚ “Circulation” from Low Power from H.Takahashi on the White Paddy Mountain label: chiheihatakeyama.bandcamp.com. Takahashi is based in Tokyo, Japan.
✚ “Good Intentions I” from Departures, Vol. 2 by North Atlantic Drift (Mike Abercrimbie, Brad Deschamps), based in Toronto, on the Greek label Sounds in Silence: soundinsilencerecords.bandcamp.com
✚ “Maish” is from Salted Garden by Mark Rushton, who is based in Iowa City, Iowa: markrushton.bandcamp.com
Some previous Stasis Report tracks were removed to make room for these, keeping the playlist length to roughly two hours (up from what was originally an hour and a half, when the playlist first launched). Those retired tracks (by Masayoshi Fujita, Forma, Peter Gabriel, Abul Mogard, and Hiroshi Yoshimura) are now in the Stasis Archives playlist (currently only on Spotify).
September 6, 2018
Disquiet Junto Project 0349: Got Glitch?
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, September 10, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted in the early evening, Oregon time, on Thursday, September 6, 2018.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0349: Got Glitch?
The Assignment: Help define “glitch” by glitching something, and explaining what you did.
Major thanks to Sevenisn, Mark Lentczner, and other folks in the Junto Slack for pitching in on this project’s development.
Step 1: Consider what “glitch” means in music/sound.
Step 2: Make a piece of music employing a glitch that arose from your thinking in Step 1.
Six More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0349” (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 “disquiet0349” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation 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-0349-got-glitch/
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Other Details:
Deadline: This project’s deadline is Monday, September 10, 2018, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are on. It was posted in the early evening, Oregon time, on Thursday, September 6, 2018.
Length: The length of your track is up to you.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0349” 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: Please consider setting your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 349th weekly Disquiet Junto project (Got Glitch? / The Assignment: Help define “glitch” by glitching something, and explaining what you did) at:
Major thanks to Sevenisn, Mark Lentczner, and other folks in the Junto Slack for pitching in on this project’s development.
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-0349-got-glitch/
There’s also a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet to join in.
Image associated with this project is by Roland Gesthuizen, used thanks to Flickr and a Creative Commons license:
