Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 430
January 18, 2014
Disquiet: 15, 10 & 5 Years Ago This Week (2014.03)
This would be roughly the week of January 13 through January 19.
5 Years Ago (2009): I wrote about videos by Lauren Lavitt and Sara Blaylock shown as part of a group exhibit at the Michael Rosenthal gallery in San Francisco. (The above image is Blaylock’s.) … The quote of the week (“Everybody wanted to be a DJ, now everybody is a DJ and wants to be a curator”) was from a lecture-in-the-works by Digiki, born Antonin Gaultier, who’s French but lives in Japan. The images of the week were interfaces from audio tools announced at NAMM. … I had a brief entry about social networks I participated in — apparently I still did MySpace at the time. … Downstream entries (free, legal downloads) included a Mark Pritchard track, some Finnish remixes of the Buddha Machine, the duo of Hiroshi Kumakiri and Jessica Rylan, a landmark 1985 album, and 11 MP3s in search of Ingmar Bergman.
10 Years Ago (2004): The quote of the week was Gavin Bryars talking about his cellphone going off during a concert. … Downstream entries included a video interview with Brian Eno, music by 400 Lonely Things, a jazz-electronic hybrid by Pino the Frog, and some Warp downloads and video.
15 Years Ago (1999): Nothing this week (but stuff this coming week).
Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet
Skype UI note: "The largest bar in the volume icon is an exclamation mark." http://t.co/Hl32qyRra9 (via @littlebigdetail) ->
Belated RIP, Leland Smith (88), computer-music pioneer: http://t.co/5NQMA0ANLE. (Via @G3NtR0pH08ik + @tedgioia) ->
There's only one song by Souled American on Rdio. ->
LPs that melted your brain upon release and, decades later, you play on repeat while cooking all Sunday long: Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. ->
The revolution will become a TV mini-series. RT @vuzhmusic: @disquiet the most difficult to assimilate becomes the most comfortable ->
And my Aphex Twin book for 33 1/3 (on the album Selected Ambient Works Volume II) comes out one month from today. ->
Thanks, @citylightsbooks, for hosting the March 20 reading/concert in San Francisco for my Aphex Twin 33 1/3 book: http://t.co/rcc4SRjBAW ->
2,991 tracks in Disquiet Junto in past 2 years and 2 weeks. Wonder if we'll hit 3K when current project ends tonite: https://t.co/RG5yL7CI2z ->
I'm interviewing Prefuse 73 in half an hour. If you have questions for him, lemme know. ->
Prefuse 73 says it refers to the sound of fusion jazz prior to 1973 (starting around 1968). RT @nynexrepublic: @disquiet why that number? ->
Judging by my Twitter page, staff got back from lunch and posted a redesign of the website, which it is now slowly tweaking in real time. ->
Helix: You come for the science fiction; you stay for the Arctic research-station room tones. ->
Still likes to think that the new version of WordPress is named after the Donald Westlake / Richard Stark character. ->
On Almost Human, it seems like the suspects are always listening to ambient music and the cops are always listening to EDM in their cars. ->
MOMA and SFMOMA are expanding at the same time and they'll join somewhere in the midwest at a golden spike made by Jeff Koons. ->
RIP, jazz guitarist Ronny Jordan (51): http://t.co/OnYlRX3tNo. Here's one of his team-ups with DJ Krush: http://t.co/LqYiO3jcBu ->
Tuesday noon siren in San Francisco: http://t.co/FrVmKgO1Mx ->
Of course Bruce Springsteen's music was in a Good Wife episode this past weekend about an ethically challenged (albeit Illinois) governor. ->
Hopeful that @SoundCloud technical issues are solved by tomorrow, but pondering stopgap @djunto options (e.g., Disquiet-post comment links). ->
I love my Nexus 7 but Google must get the accessories gears churning. There's nothing for the N7 close to Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Folio. ->
If you participate in the Disquiet Junto, try the SoundCloud URL ( http://t.co/3Vl0MYqdZd ) and lemme know if it's coming up for you. Thanks. ->
If SoundCloud's tech issues continue tomorrow we may experiment with posting the next project as embeds/links in comments on a Disquiet post ->
Thanks for the quick replies folks. On my Mac the SoundCloud URL works OK on Safari, just not my default browser (Chrome). #patience ->
"This webpage has a redirect loop." Been getting major conflicts between Google accounts lately. ->
"It is an auditory 3-D sculpture." That description of pop-music recording isn't from Brian Eno. It's Sandra Boynton: http://t.co/TPqOQR4ZGc ->
Amazon's market-bots are quite insistent that I purchase a copy of my own 33 1/3 book. ->
Even more depressing than the Professor dying is the radio broadcasters feeling the need to explain what Gilligan's Island was. ->
Aeolian metrics. That's the theme of this week's @djunto project. ->
Tomorrow is January 17, the 308th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, whose Junto club, formed when he was 21, lent its name to the @djunto. ->
I vote they make 10 spinoffs of Arrow and rename the network the DCW. ->
Happy birthday, Benjamin Franklin. You weren't a model father, but I can't think of a founding father more relevant or inspiring today. ->
Hopeful. I set up that four-digit project numbering for a reason. RT @jonautry: @disquiet #junto4evr in reply to jonautry ->
Mail.app (OS X) now in doghouse. Was so good until Mavericks. Giving MailMate a try. ->
Super cool. Time Out Dubai (@TimeOutDubai) on that sound art exhibit I participated in: http://t.co/5Ve5gNdtun ->
Whoa, that massive Amon Tobin box set sold out. Glad I got a copy. ->
Berg + Vitiello: Virginia via Japan
Molly Berg contributes varied breathy, glottal vocalizations in her collaborations with Stephen Vitiello. There is the sound she emits from her vocal cords, and the sound that she makes with her clarinet. Both can veer into an etheral, heavenly zone, or can settle in a more tactile, percussive space. The combination with Vitiello’s equally untraditional guitar playing — at times his pizzicato becomes the sonic equivalent of a lense flare — and his rich employment of digital transformations makes for listening that keeps your ears alert even as it provides a sense of relaxation. The first track off their second album together, the recently released Between You and the Shapes You Take (12k), is titled “From Here,” and it gets a second round of digital nudging in a remix by Tokyo-based musician Yui Onodera. It opens with the same averbal intonartion as the original, and moments of that beading guitar remain pure as it proceeds, but by and large this is the original as heard through a semi-opaque scrim of computer-enabled processing, the sharper edges turned into approximative clouds.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/stephenvitiello. Berg and Vitiello are based in Richmond, Virginia. More on the record at 12k.com. More from Vitiello at stephenvitiello.com. More from Ondera at soundcloud.com/yui_onodera and critical-path.info. (If you’re aware of a web site or social network account for Berg, please let me know.)
January 17, 2014
Gestural Sound, Gestural Drawing
Warren Craghead is a master of the casual artistic action. There are the field recordings (as housed at his soundcloud.com/craghead account), such as those of a playdate, an ice storm, a shirt being ironed, and an office. And there are the gestural drawings that comprise his primary activity. He lives a life of seeming constant production, often in the form of slips of paper and Post-it notes he leaves in the homes of friends and the packed school lunches of his children. He’s part of a group show at the Winkleman Gallery in Manhattan, “The Fire to Say: Comics as Poetry,” that begins tonight, January 17, and closes on February 14. Here’s a shot he posted to Instagram, and noted on his blog, of some of his work on display:
And here’s one of a characteristic action (he left a piece in a hotel stairwell):
As part of this diary-like accumulation of work he has posted the audio he describes as “Sound of walking to the gallery in NYC (The Fire To Say).” It is very much that, the sound of someone walking: the sound of feet, and the sound of the world those feet are navigating. Certainly there are distinctions to be noted between gestural drawing and gestural sound, but there are parallels as well. For example, at times in the audio a whistler can be heard, and the whistle is akin to the personalized Post-it imposed on an otherwise external environment:
Track originally posted for free download to soundcloud.com/craghead. Craghead lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, and makes his home on the web at craghead.com.
January 16, 2014
Disquiet Junto Project 0107: Aeolian Metrics
Note: The SoundCloud.com site is experiencing some connectivity issues as of this project’s starting. If you have difficulty accessing the Disquiet Junto page, try another browser. If that doesn’t work, then when posting your track add it to this page as a comment, and I’ll add it manually to the project set. Sorry for the hassle.
Each Thursday at the Disquiet Junto group on SoundCloud.com 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.
This project was published in the evening, California time, on Thursday, January 16, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, January 20, 2014, as the deadline.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0107: Aeolian Metrics
For this week’s project, use the sound of a wind chime as the rhythmic foundation for a track. (You can record the wind chime yourself, or use a pre-existing one, such as the recordings at freesound.org.)
Deadline: Monday, January 20, 2014, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, 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.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0107-aeolianmetrics” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
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, be sure to include this information:
More on this 107th Disquiet Junto project (“Use a wind chime as the rhythmic foundation for a track.”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2014/01/16/disqui...
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...
Photo associated with this project by Nik Stage, used via Creative Commons license from:
January 15, 2014
Beats & Tones
Another fine track that sounds like ambient music but travels at several times the speed generally associated with the often reserved form of music, “Tout ce qui pousse (vraiment)” by Arbeemonkey mixes a droning effervescence with a pulsing momentum. Bleepy synthesized tones shuffle beneath extended notes that seem to spend much of their existence in a state of decay. It’s beautiful stuff.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/arbeemonkey. It’s from his recent collaboration album with Emmanuel Toledo. Arbeemonkey is Mathieu Lamontagne of Québec City, Canada. More from him at arbee.bandcamp.com and twitter.com/arbeemonkey.
January 14, 2014
Muddy Loops
It’s just two or three phrases on repeat. They are brief bits of sound, like a few keys on a piano recorded, the tape then left in a sink for a long weekend, then wiped off with a musty towel, left in the sun for days to dry, eaten at by insects, and only then played back. The sound is muddy and muffled, somehow both remote and warm. This is “contemplation i” by Black Thread. It’s a loop set on repeat, and then allowed to fade into another loop. There’s a lovely tension between the decaying sound and the rote mechanical nature of the repetition. Somewhere in between these two loops there is a backward-masked moment of transition, like the sound goes through a mirror and gets a glimpse of itself inside out. This is loop music meant to be listened to on repeat — loops to be looped.
Tracks originally posted for free download to soundcloud.com/blackthread. Black Thread is based in San Francisco and has a new release, Corpus, on the Tumeric Magnitudes label.
Aphex Twin 33 1/3: March 20 Talk at City Lights
The first scheduled reading for my forthcoming book on Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II for the 33 1/3 series will be at the storied City Lights bookstore in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. Several musicians will be joining me for this event. More details on them as the date nears. It’s scheduled for 7:00pm. on March 20, 2014. City Lights Bookstore is located at 261 Columbus Avenue. Here’s the description of the event from the citylights.com website:
Discussion / Concert exploring themes from Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II
with Marc Weidenbaum & Friends
Marc Weidenbaum is the author of a new book on the British electronic musician Aphex Twin’s landmark 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Volume II. The book was published this February, 2014, on the album’s 20th anniversary by the estimable 33 1/3 series. In addition to reading from the book and taking questions about his research and writing, Weidenbaum has invited several musicians to City Lights to perform explorations of themes — not melodies so much as ideas — from the Aphex Twin album.
Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous — Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning. Faithful to Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music, Selected Ambient Works Volume II was intentionally functional: it furnished chill out rooms, the sanctuaries amid intense raves. Choreographers and film directors began to employ it to their own ends, and in the intervening decades this background music came to the fore, adapted by classical composers who reverse-engineer its fragile textures for performance on acoustic instruments. This book contends that despite a reputation for being beat-less, the album exudes percussive curiosity, providing a sonic metaphor for our technologically mediated era of countless synchronized nanosecond metronomes.
Marc Weidenbaum founded Disquiet.com, which is focused on the intersection of sound, art, and technology, in 1996. A former editor of Tower Records’ Pulse! magazine, he’s written for Nature, Boing Boing, and the website of The Atlantic. He’s commissioned compositions from such musicians as Scanner, Steve Roden, and Stephen Vitiello, and lectures on the role of sound in the media landscape. He lives in San Francisco.
The book is due out on February 13, 2014.
Photo by Steve Rhodes via Creative Commons and flickr.com.
January 13, 2014
Past and Future Ambient
Ambient music has never been much improved upon by veering too far from Brian Eno’s initial conception of it — that is, of a music that serves equally well as both foreground and background. But there are more vectors to ambient than merely its relative prominence in the listening experience. Even as ambient music has retained, to a large degree, that initial modus operandi, it has changed over time. There are ebbs and flows to each successive generation of sound, swells and receding approaches, because — of course — for a music to appear in the background, it must to some extent align with the music of its time. It must be able to hide in plain aural sight. Thus, what was ambient in the 1970s and the early 2000s and today would have varying characteristics. It isn’t to say there is only one ambient music during any such period, but that there are strains that sound more prominent in the present than they might, say, have when first introduced. And yet just because a particular kind of music — the Fourth World of Jon Hassell, the turntable surface noise of Kid Koala, the dank minimal techno of early Monolake — may be rooted in a particular moment doesn’t mean it doesn’t have adherents in the present, not just among listeners but among performers. And thus, to listen to a track like “Nebula Divide | Somnolence” by Matt Borghi and Michael Teager, from their 2014 release Awaken the Electric – Live from Star’s End, is in part to hear welcome vestiges of Hassell’s tried and true Fourth World, from the plaintive melodic line to the slow-motion tribal pace, but it is also to hear those same sounds seeking to make peace with the current era. The result is a fascinating aesthetic feedback loop: something from the past taking root in and attempting to sound of the present. And on those terms, the music succeeds.
The piece was recorded in October 2013 on WXPN’s Star’s End, Chuck van Zyl’s broadcast. Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/mattborghi. More from Borghi at mattborghi.com. More from Teager at michaelteager.com. More from the duo at borghi-teager.com. Album available via kunaki.com.
January 11, 2014
Disquiet: 15, 10 & 5 Years Ago This Week (2014.02)
This would be roughly the week of January 6 through January 12.
5 Years Ago (2009): I wrote about the 246 and Counting exhbit, which had closed the previous Sunday at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. By my rough estimate, exactly one of those 246 pieces had sound. It was by Diller + Scofidio. … I wrote about my experience at a Richie Hawtin concert in Chiba outside Tokyo the month prior, and I reflected on how cellphones had changed raves. (The photo here was shot at an outdoor mall near the Makuhari Messe, where the concert was held.) … I made a list of 11 things I wished at the time that my fifth-generation (“classic”) iPod could do. It’s kinda sad how few of them were ever implemented. … There was a review of Monolake’s Atom/Document album. … The image of the week was of a “recording studio as art installation” by Robert Kusmirowski. … The quote of the week was RZA talking about the late Isaac Hayes: “One Isaac Hayes song has made over 20 hip-hop songs. Look at ‘Walk On By.’ It’s a nice three-minute song by Dionne Warwick, but when Isaac got ahold of it, it became soulful, pimp-daddy, ride-in-your-car, lean-back, 12-minute song, restructured with organs and a flute.” … And the Downstream entries for the week included one-song hip-hop/r&b mash-ups by Y?Arcka, funk hidden by Hiroshi Kumakiri in squelchy noise, cello-tronic wonderment by Ted Laderas (aka the Ooray), material from Taylor Deupree’s “one sound each day” project, and quiet noise from Baraclough.
10 Years Ago (2004): This week I posted a lengthy interview (“The Organization Musician”) with Robert Henke, aka Monolake. I posted the transcript along with the profile article, written for the magazine e|i, that had resulted from it. … The quote of the week was from a lyric sung-spoke by Cake’s John McCrea on “The Headphonist,” a song off the Mexican rock band Kinky’s then new album, Atlas:
At this moment, I’m listening to a very, very quiet song / I’m walking alone again, with my headphones on again … sometimes it seems like everything I see has a sound and if it does — what is the shape of silence?
And these were the Downstream entries of the week: music on guitar for film shot out train windows by Keith Fullerton Whitman (aka Hrvatski), a lovely reworked Parisian field recording by Soundvial (aka Ken Reisman and Matt Simon — if anyone knows what came of them, please let me know), video of Brian Eno talking about the Long Now Foundation (which marks its 10th anniversary in 2014), Robert Willim (aka Selko) making much of noises from a sugar refinery in Sweden, and electronica from Alexander Wendt.
15 Years Ago (1999): Nothing this week.
