Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 310
March 21, 2017
The Patzr Radio Podcast
Podcasts aren’t radio, but in many cases they might as well be. When someone says, “I don’t watch TV,” yet is up to date on lots of shows by virtue of a Hulu or Netflix account, there’s a disconnect at work that’s difficult to address politely, one that seems to have more with identity flag-waving than with anything technologically persuasive.
Podcasts may align with radio, but they’re something else entirely — or, more to the point, they’re capable of being something else entirely. Many, nonetheless, still feel like radio, from the structure to the content to the intonation. Not, as they say, that there’s anything wrong with that. The podcast mode has been on my mind a lot as I’ve been planning my own, titled Disquietude. Now that it’s out, I hear other podcasts through a different … well, not lens, but through instinctively analytical earbuds. When amid a hastily recorded bit of timely tech news, for example, the word “Googleable” sounds oddly close to “giggle-able,” I can relate to the anxiety in regard to whether you really want to do one more take. There’s at least one grammatical error in my first Disquitude podcast episode that kills me, a simple plural/singular misalignment, but I just couldn’t face the mic one more time.
I did radio twice for long stretches, first on WYBC on the East Coast during college, and then on KDVS on the West Coast after moving to California. Reviewing plays during college is how I learned the concept — if not the fully adopted practice — of whittling one’s discussion points to a select few, and hanging them on some semblance of narrative. Both stations encouraged relatively freeform approaches for its DJs, and that’s what I took pleasure in. Disquietude, as I plot episode two, is still very much a work in progress. I have aspirations to “play with the form,” as my friend Erik Davis (of the Expanding Mind podcast) encouraged me recently. It’ll come in stages.
If there’s a podcast that gets at the orthogonal-to-professional notion of the medium, the other-than-radio aspect, it is the excellent Patzr Radio series, which is helmed by Jimmy Kipple, who (employing a brief vocal element by Paula Daunt) did the theme for my Disquietude podcast. His Patzr consists of collections of #cheap-concrete, to employ Kipple/Kpple’s favorite tag. It’s snatches of everyday sound, rendered into “listening material” courtesy of nothing other than the mere fact of the podcast’s existence.
There are 72 Patzr episodes to date, all the same one minute and forty seconds in length, the latest a mix of unintelligible passing voices, and rough noises against subterranean leakages, doppler-effect motoring, and exquisitely banal footsteps that are not in the least bit threatening — except to the extent that the assemblage threatens the tidy conception of a podcast. When a format is merely a feed and a file, a few lines of RSS code and a fixed audio document, there’s a lot you can do with it, and sometimes doing very little, doing something explicitly contained, is the best reminder of the potential therein.
Check out the full series at soundcloud.com/patzr-radio.
March 20, 2017
What Sound Looks Like
The day last week I played hooky. The photo that doubles as an IFTTT test.
An ongoing series cross-posted from instagram.com/dsqt.
March 18, 2017
Disquietude Podcast Episode 0001
This is the first episode of the Disquietude podcast of ambient electronic music. All six tracks of music are featured with the permission of the individual artists. The first episode just went online at SoundCloud and Mixcloud and I’ll get it into proper channels (iTunes, Stitcher, etc.) in the coming week. Below is the structure of the episode with time codes for the tracks:
00:00 theme and intro
02:05 Brian Hendricksen’s “2.10.2017″
04:32 Carl Mikael Björk’s “Live Looping Improv w/ Piano and Erica Synths Varishape & Wavetable”
18:08 Erika Nesse’s “Circle”
21:30 Marcus Fischer’s “170211 – Dual Deck Piano Loop (RRR)”
28:56 Sarah Davachi’s “Ghosts and All”
37:21 Mark Rushton’s “Severe Thunderstorm Warning Sirens”
43:50 notes
53:34 end
What follows is a rough transcript of the spoken material in the podcast, as well as links to the artists whose work is included:
00:00 theme and intro
Welcome to the Disquietude podcast.
This is the first episode, and thus it’s something of an experiment.
The goal of the Disquietude podcast is to collect adventurous work in the field of ambient electronic music, music that explores the intersection of sound, art, and technology. This is all music that captured my imagination, and I hope that it appeals to your imagination as well.
What follows are six ambient electronic recordings by six different musicians.
They are all reproduced here with the permission of the individual artists.
The sequence begins with a short drone by Brian Hendricksen, followed by an extended piece, approximately 13 minutes long, for piano by Carl Mikael Björk. Björk modifies the piano with his modular synthesizer as the performance unfolds. Then comes another short, drone-like piece, though a bit more antic than was the Henricksen; this one is by Erika Nesse, and it is constructed from fragments of her own voice. Her drone is followed by another piece for modified piano, in this case a new track by Marcus Fischer using dual reel-to-reel tape recorders. Then comes “Ghosts and All” by Sarah Davachi; the song is from her album Vergers, which was released in November 2016. And the sequence of six pieces closes with a field recording by Mark Rushton, more on which after the music has all played. With the exception of Davachi’s piece, none of these have been released commercially.
All the music heard here is instrumental, which is to say there is no prominent vocal part, and thus it’s suitable for background listening. It’s all ambient, which is to say it’s also suitable for close, concentrated listening. That dual sense of potential uses, both inattentive and attentive, both background and foreground, is the hallmark of fine ambient music.
My name is Marc Weidenbaum, and I’m the host of the podcast.
And now, on to the music — after which I’ll explore the sounds in a bit more detail, with information on the musicians and observations about their recordings. Thank you.
43:50 notes
Thanks for having listened to the six tracks in this episode of the Disquietude podcast. If you just wanted 40 minutes or so of background music, you might want to stop listening now. However, if you’re interested in learning a bit more about the tracks and the musicians who recorded them, I’m going to talk about it all for a little while. Of course, if you’re just here for the music, feel free to hit stop and wait for the next Disquietude podcast, which should appear in about a month. You can also learn more about the material in this episode of the Disquietude podcast at disquiet.com/podcast0001.
I’m going to work through the tracks in the sequence they were played.
Brian Hendricksen’s piece is titled “2.10.2017,” presumably the date it was recorded. The track is a useful reminder that ambient music isn’t inherently gaseous by nature, even if ambient music’s reputation is generally hazy, ephemeral, misty. As his elegant recording exemplifies, ambient music can be just as textural as it might be ethereal. His track is a smidgen under two and a half minutes in length, and throughout it rotates sandpaper particulates this way and that. The volume swells to bring sounds into the foreground. Tiny rattles suggest the workings of myriad infinitesimal gears. It’s the sonic evidence of dust being produced. It’s the noise pollution of Whoville. Hendricksen is based in Cincinnati, Ohio, and he originally posted this track to his SoundCloud account.
Brian Hendricksen’s track was originally posted at
soundcloud.com/bhendricksen.
The piano piece by Carl Mikael Björk is from his superb YouTube channel, which is called Cabinet of Curiosities. He’s based in Malmö, Sweden. The video shows him at his piano, a modular synth to the side, and a laptop visible just beyond that. He begins at the piano, mic’d closely so the physicality of the instrument’s mechanism is almost as present as the intended notes themselves. Especially when listened to through headphones, the sound is very much caught within the piano, deep in its wooden cavern. Shortly thereafter, the external tools, that array of patched synthesizer modules and the software running on his laptop, is heard echoing, looping, and transforming the piano, gentle chords fading softly as they go. As the loops come to the fore, he then returns to the piano, adding notes, sometimes as accompaniment, sometimes as a source of subsequent looping. Rhythms, albeit gentle ones, are introduced. There’s a mechanized beat early on, and later, near the five-minute mark, he taps on the piano to get a wooden percussion sensation. Later still he knocks a glass bottle against the device. There’s a formidable mastery to his performance, how he moves back and forth between the old and new music-making tools, as well as the makeshift ones. I keep a running YouTube playlist of fine live performances of ambient music. This is one of the best examples I’ve come upon, in that it shows almost all the equipment he uses; you can learn a lot just watching his face as he makes decisions, as well as his hands as he makes his way back and forth from one device to another.
Carl Mikael Björk’s video was originally posted at YouTube.
The “circle” that serves as the title to Erika Nesse’s piece is extracted from a classic hymn, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” The track is the sound of her voice broken into tiny pieces and run through her unique fractal processing software. Fractals are often associated with visual imagery, like the lizard chains of M.C. Escher or the structure of snowflakes as exposed under a microscope. Her software, which she calls the Fractal Music Machine, applies fractal thinking to a time-based media — to music.
As listeners we aren’t as conscious of the fractal patterns in a track like “Circle” as we are in, say, the fractal aspects of an MC Escher etching, or, to borrow one of Nesse’s favorite examples, how the branch of a fern shares a structural similarity with the fern’s leaf. That doesn’t really matter, though: Fractals aren’t useful simply because they are recognizable. They’re useful because they provide a means toward Nesse’s end; their utilization explains why a track like “Circle” can feel both repetitive and organic at the same time. // This isn’t the only time Nesse has used “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” as the root material for one of her fractal endeavors. On her SoundCloud page there’s another piece, titled “Broken,” in which the source recording of her singing the song is more self-evident; she wills the classic to be broken, and then challenges it to reassemble itself. How much of that reassembly takes place in the music and how much takes place in the listener’s imagination is the question that lingers. Nesse is based in Boston, Massachusetts.
Erika Nesse’s track originally posted at soundcloud.com/conversationswithrocks. More from her at fractalmusicmachine.com.
Marcus Fischer, who is based in Portland, Oregon, recorded his piano piece while in Florida this past month as part of the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation artists in residence program on Captiva Island. For his six-week stay he worked in a massive, white, brightly lit studio. He had with him many of his musical tools, including a synthesizer, guitar, and a pair of ancient Nagra reel-to-reel tape machines — as well as a grand piano. On his Instagram page throughout his stay he posted numerous images, many featuring lengthy tape loops that were as much acts of minimalist sculpture as they were musical actions. Often the loops reached high up the ceiling. He also posted elegant stagings of Rauschenberg’s own objects, from the foundation’s collection. // One of the most striking images was of Fischer’s two reel-to-reel machines laying on the floor with a single tape loop running between them, like two simple robots playing a sonic Jacob’s Ladder. As it turned out, when I asked if he had a segment from his stay to include in this podcast, Fischer shared with me the audio of that very same piece. He explained that he recorded the piano to tape and then played it back on the two decks, creating what he described as “a kind of duet.” The piece is beautiful in its plaintive, sedate way — the room’s spacious, stately, ghostly echo as much a part of it as the piano. He mentioned that it might get a proper commercial release some day, in a slightly different form.
A post shared by marcus fischer (@marcusfischer) on Feb 11, 2017 at 3:14pm PST
More from Marcus Fischer at mapmap.ch and instagram.com/marcusfischer.
Sarah Davachi’s track, Ghosts and All, is from her album Vergers, which was released in late November 2016. The entire album was recorded using an antique synthesizer, the EMS Synthi 100, which dates from the early 1970s. In addition, violin and her own voice are layered into the work. Davachi has explained in interviews that the first time she ever used the Synthi 100, it was was a particularly storied machine: the very same one that Russian composer Eduard Artemyev used when recording the score to Stalker, the classic 1979 science fiction film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. The Synthi heard here is a different machine, but the same make and model as in Stalker. One of the beautiful things about Davachi’s work is how she doesn’t use devices to the ends that they are associated with. A lot of archival electronic equipment is used to evoke the sounds of their original era. Davachi explores this instrument with her own aesthetic, emphasizing a tonal, droning quality. The piece gains heft and density and volume as it proceeds, but it’s a slow boil. Only when listening through a second time does it become clear how much the seemingly static piece actually develops as it goes. Davachi is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The album Vergers is available at sarahdavachi.bandcamp.com. More from her at sarahdavachi.com.
Mark Rushton’s track is the one piece in this episode of the Disquietude podcast that is not music, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. It’s an field recording, a document of everyday sound, which he taped from his porch in Iowa City. He told me via email that it was recorded on March 6, 2017, during severe thunderstorms, which were anticipated by public warning sirens we’re hearing here. If you’re admire the ambient music of Brian Eno or Loscil or William Basinski, you can be forgiven for having thought this was in fact a formal composition. It bears significant resemblance to Brian Eno’s album Thursday Afternoon, which I think of as a high watermark for ambient music. I was transfixed when I first listened to Rushton’s piece, how the layering of sirens heard from various distances mingle and merge into this elegant tonal … well, not composition, per se, not necessarily in the musical sense of the term, but an assemblage, or a composition in the photographic sense of the word: selected and framed.
More from Mark Rushton at markrushton.com.
And this brings to an end this first episode of the Disquietude podcast. I want to thank all the musicians who approved the inclusion of their recordings. Thanks as well the many Disquiet Junto participants who provided input, in particular Mark Rushton and Jimmy Kipple, and to Erik Davis, of the Expanding Mind podcast, who promised me that as I progressed with my own podcast I’d have fun playing with the format. Thanks to Brian Scott of Boon Design for help designing the logo, and to Max La Rivière-Hedrick of Futureprüf for technical support. (Thanks as well to Lee Rosevere, who weighed in after the voiceover was recorded.)
The opening and closing theme music of the Disquietude podcast is by Jimmy Kipple, who’s based in England, acting on some vague directions I provided. Kipple has his own podcast, which is called “patzr radio.” The voice heard in the theme is that of the musician Paula Daunt, who is currently living in Japan. She’s saying the word “disquiet” in Portuguese. I won’t mangle it by trying to say it myself here. Her speech is a nod to the late Futurist poet Fernando Pessoa, whose Book of Disquiet provided the name of my long-running website, Disquiet.com, back in 1996 when I first launched it.
You can learn more about the material in this episode of the Disquietude podcast at disquiet.com/podcast0001.
Thanks for listening.
March 17, 2017
March 16, 2017
Disquiet Junto Project 0272: Exoplanetary Intervals
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.
This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 20, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, March 16, 2017.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0272: Exoplanetary Intervals
The Assignment: Use music to express the relationships between planets.
Recently, scientists announced the discovery of a nearby star system, TRAPPIST-1. Orbiting its ultra-cool dwarf star are seven planets, three in the habitable zone. Remarkably, six of the planets form the longest known chain where each orbits at a resonant frequency of it’s neighbor. From the slowest, the planets orbit at: 1x, 4/3x 2x, 3x, 5x, 8x. If you think of those as vibrating strings, they form a chord or scale: the slowest planet is the root, then fourth, octave, octave and fifth, two octaves and major third, three octaves. Major thanks to Junto participant Mark Lentczner for having taken the lead in proposing and developing this project.
Step 1: You’re going to record a composition employing these ratios, as a scale or chord — or a polyrhythm for that matter — as a means to express a sense of these newly discovered planets. Keep this in mind.
Step 2: Consider those intervals, play with them a bit, and think about how they can be employed to represent independent yet interdependent bodies in motion.
Step 3: Review the information on the relative orbits of the TRAPPIST-1 planets here:
http://www.ozonehouse.com/mark/dj/tra...
Step 4: Create an original musical composition that explores the exoplanets’ relationships based on Steps 1, 2, and 3.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0272″ (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:
http://llllllll.co/t/exoplanetary-int...
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 20, 2017. This project was posted in the morning, California time, on Thursday, March 16, 2017.
Length: The length of the finished piece is up to you. Three to five minutes feels about right.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0272″ 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: It is preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information, as well as the identity of the source track that yours accompanies:
More on this 272nd weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Exoplanetary Intervals: Use music to express the relationships between planets” — at:
Major thanks to Junto participant Mark Lentczner for having taken the lead in proposing and developing this project.
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/exoplanetary-interv-dis...
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is from NASA/JPL-Caltech/R. Hurt, T. Pyle (IPAC):
March 9, 2017
Disquiet Junto Project 0271: Prison Sky
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.
This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 13, 2017. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 9, 2017.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0271: Prison Sky
Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil’s detention.
Step 1: Familiarize yourself with Bassel Khartabil. This coming Wednesday, March 15, 2017, will mark the fifth anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel’s March 15, 2012, detention in Syria. It’s been more than a year since anyone has heard from him. Three times in the past the Disquiet Junto has done projects to raise consciousness about his predicament. We did the first one in January 2014, creating a soundscape to go with Bassel’s CGI reproduction of the ancient city of Palmyra:
disquiet.com/2014/01/23/disquiet0108-freebassel/
We did a second one, “Placid Cell,” in March 2015, marking the third anniversary of his incarceration:
disquiet.com/2015/03/12/disquiet0167-freebassel/
And in November 2015 we created audiobook chapters from a book, Cost of Freedom: A Collective Inquiry, written in Bassel’s honor:
disquiet.com/2015/11/12/disquiet0202-costoffreedom/
Read more at http://freebassel.org/.
Step 2: On January 31, 2014, Bassel wrote to his friend Jon Phillips from the Damascus Central Jail in response to Phillips’ suggestion that people might make a record album inspired by his ongoing incarceration. Bassel replied in part:
The Noura mentioned in the letter is Bassel’s wife. See the full letter and information about actions to mark the fifth anniversary at:
http://freebassel.org/campaign/events/freebasselday/2017/03/09/freebassel5years/
Step 3: Take that section of a “square sky” to heart, about being able “to see the blue sky for six hours each day.”
Step 4: Create a short piece of music in response to that image, that scenario, that mix of hope amid hopelessness.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0271″ (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:
http://llllllll.co/t/prison-sky-disqu...
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 13, 2017. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 9, 2017.
Length: The length of the finished piece is up to you. Three to five minutes feels about right.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0271″ 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 set your track for download and with a license that allows for attributed reworking (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution). That’s in accordance with the “share alike” aspect of the first stage of this project.
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information, as well as the identity of the source track that yours accompanies:
More on this 271st weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Prison Sky: Mark the 5th anniversary of open-source software engineer Bassel Khartabil’s detention” — at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/prison-sky-disquiet-jun...
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is a detail that Bassel Khartabil wrote to Jon Phillips on January 31, 2014, from the Damascus Central Jail. More on Bassell’s detention at freebassel.org. Major thanks to Christopher Adams, Niki Korth, Jon Phillips, and Barry Threw. See the full letter and information about actions to mark the fifth anniversary at:
March 8, 2017
Canada’s Finest Electronics
When Daniel Lanois released Goodbye to Language last year, he brought background to foreground. He made a full-length album flush with the gentle, rootsy, sing-song ambience that had informed decades of high-profile production work he’d done for the likes of Bob Dylan and U2, among others, and in turn connected that work back to his early ambient recordings with Brian Eno, notably Ambient 4: On Land and Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.
Goodbye to Language was easily one of the finest electronic albums of 2016, and also of Lanois’ extensive career. The mix of guitar, pedal steel, and various electronic processing techniques yielded a classic ambient record, which is to say one that is just as beautiful played loud as it is at low, wallpaper-music levels.
The resulting question was, what comes next? Because what comes next will further define what Goodbye to Language was all about. On the one hand, the album can be read as a standalone recording, like Lou Reed’s Hudson River Wind Meditations or Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works, records that (to varying degrees) bear little resemblance to the majority of the artists’ broader catalog of work. On the other, it could be considered a formal statement of where Lanois is headed.
The videos that surfaced with Goodbye to Language put Lanois front and center in a way that he’s not always presented himself. He’s often been more comfortable as an éminence grise, the figure behind the curtain, or when on stage quite close to the curtain. Take for example Black Dub, the band he put together with Daryl Johnson on bass, Trixie Whitley on vocals, and Brian Blade on drums. Anyone unfamiliar with Lanois wouldn’t necessarily get his centrality to the band’s existence while watching them play; in the video for the band’s “Nomad,” the camera spends considerable time on Blade’s drumming during Lanois’ understated guitar solo. Which isn’t to say he hasn’t had his share of singer-songwriter outings over the years. However, what makes Goodbye to Language so powerful is how he puts himself out there without saying a word. There’s no lead-singer swagger, no folk-circuit storytelling. There’s simply gorgeous sound.
Over the past few weeks, it’s become clear that Lanois has no plans to leave that gorgeous sound behind. Three weeks ago he posted a pair of live videos of alternate versions of two tracks off Goodbye to Language, intimate fish-eye “basement mix” takes recorded in his Toronto studio. They’re the first two tracks off the album, “Low Sudden” and “Time On,” so perhaps he’s going to revisit the full set. Better yet, today he posted “Night,” a murky live performance video of him in collaboration with a fellow plugged-in Canadian, the electronica figure Venetian Snares (aka Aaron Funk), an old-school drum’n’bass character with an extensive discography of albums, EPs, and remixes. The video begins with nearly three minutes of Lanois piping his guitar into looping, glistening fragments. And then the beat arrives.
The video provides premonitions as Funk’s role, as he begins fiddling with his battery of synth equipment. He appears with a mid-tempo barrage of rhythmic exertion. On the one hand it’s everything Lanois’ music isn’t; on the other, Funk’s focus on beat for beat’s sake closely parallels Lanois’ own attention to tone. They are both polar opposites and consummate peers. Funk’s beats proceed to fill Lanois’ space, and to frame it, at time dropping out to lend focus to the guitarist’s presence. Here’s to hoping there are more such collaborations to come. If Lanois is sticking to Canadians, I’ll put my vote in for Loscil, Kid Koala, and Sarah Davachi. (According to the Venetian Snares account on Twitter, this is an outtake from an album they’re making together.)
“Night” video originally posted on Daniel Lanois’ YouTube channel. Be sure to check out the channel of the label Anti-, which released Goodbye to Language, for additional Lanois material. Thanks to Steve Ashby for having brought this to my attention. It was filmed by Sébastien Leblant.
March 2, 2017
Disquiet Junto Project 0270: Just Duet
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.
This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 6, 2017. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 2, 2017.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0270: Just Duet
Record the second half of a duet.
Step 1: This week’s project builds on last week’s. Last week 40 musicians each recorded one half of a duet live. This week you will record (again, live) the other half of the duet for one of those pre-existing tracks. It’s preferable that you come upon the selection by random. You can generate a random number any way you choose, from 1 to 40. This link will give you a random integer within that range:
Step 2: Locate the track assigned you as follows. Numbers 1 to 39 are in this playlist. If you click through to the SoundCloud playlist you’ll see numbers next to each track:
If you get number 40, then this video is the subject of your attention:
Step 3: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music that complements the assigned track from Step 2, on any instrumentation of your choice, live, with no post-production edits or overdubbing. You can do as many takes as you’d like, but the final recording should be a document of a wholly live performance.
Step 4: Record a short piece of music as described in Step 3. If possible, it would be great if you could make a video of your live performance as well. The length of your piece is determined by the length of the piece you are assigned. The finished audio should combine the original track and yours together.
Step 5: Also be sure, when complete, to make the track downloadable, because it will be used by someone else in a future Junto project.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0270″ (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:
http://llllllll.co/t/completed-a-duet...
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, March 6, 2017. This project was posted in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, March 2, 2017.
Length: The length is determined by the track assigned to you.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0270″ 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 set your track for download and with a license that allows for attributed reworking (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution). That’s in accordance with the “share alike” aspect of the first stage of this project.
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information, as well as the identity of the source track that yours accompanies:
More on this 270th weekly Disquiet Junto project, “Just Duet: Record the second half of a duet live” at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/completed-a-duet-disqui...
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is by Jimmy Baikovicius. It’s used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
February 27, 2017
Cinchel Plays His Audience
When the musician who goes by Cinchel steps away from his instruments three minutes into this live video of a recent Chicago concert, it isn’t much of a surprise. Electronic instruments often perform, in essence, by themselves. Often they are more nudged that played. They are tools set in motion, coaxed and cajoled rather than strummed or plucked or bowed. But when Cinchel makes his move elsewhere in the room, it isn’t simply because his equipment can manage without him. It’s because there are more instruments to be attended to. Already a rich tonal drone has filled the room, and now he’s using a mallet to eke out notes on what might very well be a child’s metal xylophone. Soon after he’s elsewhere in the space, ringing a bell. Each time he returns to the central equipment, adjusting the encompassing ringing sound that is the main component of the piece. Then he’s back off, with a spring instrument, more bells, and that xylophone again. And, naturally, the audience eventually joins in, taking the cue that these various tools can be employed by others when Cinchel is too busy. In just 15 minutes, he goes from playing to the audience to playing with the audience. By the time they join in, they’re under his spell. They have been, themselves, coaxed and cajoled.
This is the latest video I’ve added to my YouTube playlist of recommended live performances of ambient music. Video originally posted at youtube.com. More from Cincel, aka Jason Shanley, at twitter.com/cinchel and cinchel.com.
February 23, 2017
Disquiet Junto Project 0269: Duet Portion
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.
This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, February 27, 2017. This project was posted in the late morning, California time, on Thursday, February 23, 2017.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0269: Duet Portion
Record half of a live duet.
Step 1: This week’s Junto will be the first in an occasional series allowing for asynchronous collaboration. You will be recording something with the understanding that it will be unfinished.
Step 2: The plan is for you to record a short and original piece of music, on any instrumentation of your choice, live, with no post-production edits or overdubbing. You can do as many takes as you’d like, but the final recording should be a document of a wholly live performance. Conceive it as something that leaves room for something else — another instrument, performed by another person — to join in.
Step 3: Record a short piece of music, roughly two to three minutes in length, as described in Step 2. If possible, it would be great if you could make a video of your live performance as well.
Step 4: Also be sure, when complete, to make the track downloadable, because it will be used by someone else in a future Junto project.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: If you hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0269″ (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In the following discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track:
http://llllllll.co/t/record-half-a-du...
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, February 27, 2017. This project was posted in the late morning, California time, on Thursday, February 23, 2017.
Length: The length is up to you, though about two to three minutes feel about right.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0269″ 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 set your track for download and with a license that allows for attributed reworking (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:
More on this 269th weekly Disquiet Junto project, “Duet Portion: Record half of a live duet” at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/in-tribute-to-jiro-tani...
There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Image associated with this project is by Tony Tsang. It’s used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
