Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 439
October 20, 2013
Dusk Guitar
“From a Height” is nearly four minutes of gentle, guitar-infused ambience, all just-before-dusk gleams breaking through thick hovering clouds. Layers of glistening chords and picked patterns shimmer in a slow swell of lush stasis. It is by Valiska, who notes in his brief accompanying note that the track is something from a compilation that never saw the light of day.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/valiska. More from Valiska — that is, from Krzysztof Sujata of Calgary, Canada — at valiska.com.
October 19, 2013
The Central Nervous System in the Machine
The sound of the no-input mixer is not so much the ghost in the machine as it is the machine’s central nervous system. That’s part of what John Cage claimed to have heard in his famous encounter with an anechoic chamber: the sound that results when there is no other sound. Peter Kirn of createdigitalmusic.com has helpfully explained the “no-input mixer” approach as utilizing “controlled feedback rather than any other source of sound” and he has quoted Canadian composer Christian Carrière as called it “the sound of the circuits inside the mixer singing.” In the hands of Philadelphia–based Joo Won Park, the “no-input mixer” is less a matter of singing than full-on, tantrum-level glossolalia, a heavy gurgle of electric fissues. Up above is Park’s “October 1402 (for no-input mixer and computer),” which at times sounds like an arcade game on its last legs, and at others like freakazoid hardcore free jazz improvisation.
The track was originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/joowon. More on Park at joowonpark.net.
October 17, 2013
Disquiet Junto Project 0094: Naturalist Trio
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 assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, October 17, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, October 21, 2013, as the deadline.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0094: Naturalist Trio
Combine the following three field recordings of animals into an unlikely vocal trio:
Bird:
http://www.freesound.org/people/kewel...
Kitten:
http://www.freesound.org/people/Kyste...
Pig:
http://www.freesound.org/people/confu...
You can manipulate the sounds as you see fit, but at some point in the finished piece each sound should be recognizable by its source material. You may not add external sound sources.
Deadline: Monday, October 21, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your track should have a duration of between one and five minutes.
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: Include the term “disquiet0094-naturalisttrio” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free 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 94th Disquiet Junto project, in which the sound of three animals is combined into an unlikely vocal trio, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/10/17/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...
Photo via Flickr:
October 15, 2013
Win a 33 1/3 “Sampler Galley” Paperback (with Aphex Twin Chapter)
9781623568900 is the ISBN number of the book due out February 13, 2014, that I wrote about Aphex Twin’s 1994 album Selected Ambient Works Volume II for the 33 1/3 series. It also feels like the number of days since I posted regularly at Disquiet.com, but I am slowly digging myself out of post-book exhaustion and gearing up to get back at it. Also gearing up for next-book planning, a key part of which is factoring in a diminished exhaustion component. Here’s another number: the book with be the 90th in the 33 1/3 series.
Pictured above is a “sampler galley” of the next six books due out from 33 1/3. I have a spare copy, which will be given away as part of a contest in the next issue of the Disquiet.com email newsletter, which you can subscribe to at tinyletter.com/disquiet. Also included are segments of forthcoming books by Serge Gainsbourg, They Might Be Giants, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, Andrew W.K., and Gang of Four.
October 10, 2013
Disquiet Junto Project 0093: Netlabel Hybrid
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 assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, October 10, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, October 14, 2013, as the deadline.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0093: Netlabel Hybrid
This is a shared-sample project. Create a single new piece of music by employing the selected material of each the following three tracks. See below.
All three of these tracks were initially posted to the Internet with a Creative Commons license encouraging derivative reworking. This project — one in an ongoing series of netlabel remixes undertaken by the Disquiet Junto — is intended to address the unfortunate popularity of “ND” (i.e., “no derivatives”) licenses among netlabels.
Please only use the following material in your piece; you can transform in any way you choose, but do not introduce any new source material. The music originated on these three netlabels: Birdsong, Inoquo, and Qunabu.
1: Use the first 10 seconds of “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain.
MP3: http://goo.gl/MXDTJv
2: Use the second 10 seconds (i.e., from :11 to :20) of “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel.
MP3: http://goo.gl/ysydcH
3: Use the third 10 seconds (i.e., from :21 to :30) of “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in Gdańsk, Poland.
MP3: http://goo.gl/pM9AqI
Deadline: Monday, October 14, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your track should have a duration of between one and five minutes.
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: Include the term “disquiet0093-netlabelhybrid” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: Due to the nature of these releases, you must employ a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free 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 93rd Disquiet Junto project, in which the music from three different netlabels was combined to create one track, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/10/10/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...
This track is composed from material extracted from three pre-existing tracks: “Dark City” by Marc Pastco off the 12AX7 album, released by inoquo.com, based in Barcelona, Spain; “Zamenhof Blues” by Digital_Me (Shay Librowski) off the The Accordion E.P., released by birdsong.co.il, based in Israel; and “Archean” by PlotKA off the Circulation of Deposits EP, released by netlabel.qunabu.com, based in Gdańsk, Poland.
Image up top via:
October 3, 2013
Disquiet Junto Project 0092: Room Tone Suite
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 assignment was made in the evening, California time, on Thursday, October 3, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, October 7, 2013, as the deadline.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0092: Room Tone Suite
This week’s project explores the role a room takes in shaping sound. The instructions are as follows:
Step 1: Choose a recent piece of music that you have recorded. Locate a 30-second section that is fairly static and repetitive.
Step 2: Choose three rooms that have different acoustics, perhaps all in the same place, such as your home.
Step 3: Play back the piece of music loudly in each room and record it. This will result in three 30-second clips.
Step 4: Stitch the clips together.
Step 5: Upload the track and annotate with a description of the rooms and your process. Also, if available, include a link to the original version of your track, for the listener’s reference.
Deadline: Monday, October 7, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your track should have a duration of 90 seconds.
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: Include the term “disquiet0092-roomtonesuite” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free 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 92nd Disquiet Junto project, in which room tone is used to shape a three-part suite, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/10/03/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...
Image via
October 1, 2013
En Route to Timbuktu
SoundCloud has gotten so massive, it can be forgiven that accounts as fascinating as ShortWaveMusic manage to have as few as 253 followers, as was its count this morning. ShortWaveMusic, as the name suggests, is a collection of recordings of regional music from around the world. Its self-description is as follows:
ShortWaveMusic is a global sound project dedicated to preserving the world’s musical traditions and folklore as heard on local, regional, and international radio. I started the project in 2005 from a basement in Cambridge, MA, and it has since grown into an annual expedition to various far-flung parts of the globe. Previous installments of ShortWaveMusic have been recorded in Socotra, Mali, Bulgaria, Ibiza, and the United Arab Emirates, and will continue in Somaliland in 2014.
Recordings are made “on location” and then serialized over the course of 8-10 months at my Web site. My long-term goal is to tell the story of international broadcasting in the 21st century by capturing the extraordinary and varied ways in which people continue to communicate by radio, despite the advent of newer technologies. All recordings are archived and catalogued for permanent preservation, so that this living library of radiophonic sound will be available to future generations.
This “living library of radiophonic sound” has over 170 track so far, including this one, “recorded en route to Timbuktu”:
To say that it is well beyond the recognition databases of Shazam is an understatement. The audio is presented as a freeform medley of snatches of sound recorded around the world, like someone spinning a radio dial, albeit from the vantage of a rapidly moving satellite. The pleasure is as much in the texture of degraded signals as it is in the music itself.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/shortwavemusic. The project is by Myke Dodge Weiskopf, more from whom at myke.me.
September 27, 2013
ASCII Twin
With the Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works Volume II book’s writing behind me, the book’s release as part of the great 33 1/3 series is now itself a project. I’m sleuthing about for interested parties who might appreciate an advance galley — I think “influential readers” is the term the publicist employed — as well as for speaking opportunities. When I first started the writing of the manuscript, I thought I would be posting updates on Disquiet.com regularly about the process, but it turned out to be a far more insular exercise than I had expected — not that the book contains only my voice. No, I interviewed a heap of people for the book, and I also drew from interviews I did way back in the mid-1990s with Richard D. James and his fellow Cornwall native, Luke Vibert. In any case, a lot of ephemera surfaced during the research, and I’ll probably share bits of it as the February 13, 2014, date nears. Here are two ASCII depictions of the Aphex Twin logo, which appears on the cover of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, among numerous other Aphex endeavors. Up top is one that accompanied a long-running Aphex Twin FAQ, and here below is the signature file for Alan Parry, as it appeared on the IDM email list that was housed at hyperreal.org. Parry maintained both an Aphex Twin FAQ and a detailed discography. The IDM list began just a year before the Aphex Twin album was released. Next year marks the 20th anniversary of Selected Ambient Works Volume II, and this year, 2013, marks the 20th anniversary of the Mosaic browser, which for all intents and purposes made the World Wide Web easily and publicly accessible, although at the time only a small percentage of the public was taking advantage of it, among them university students with a keen interest not just in computers but in music made with computers and other electronics.
The book is pre-order-able at amazon.com, which seems like a kind of science fiction since it’s still in early stages of copyediting.
More on the 33 1/3 series at 333sound.com.
September 26, 2013
Disquiet Junto Project 0091: Walking Music
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 assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, September 26, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 30, 2013, as the deadline.
These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0091: Walking Music
This week’s project takes as its source material that most natural and quotidian of rhythms: the sound of walking.
The instructions are simple. You will make four recordings of yourself walking. You will then combine those recordings as you see fit into a single original piece of music. You will add nothing to the four recordings. You can cut up and otherwise transform the source audio as you see fit, but it should always be recognizable as the sound of walking. The resulting track will explore various themes, including texture, rhythm, percussion, momentum, and the inherent musical qualities of field recordings.
Deadline: Monday, September 30, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your track should have a duration of between one and five minutes.
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: Include the term “disquiet0091-walkingmusic” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free 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 91st Disquiet Junto project, which explores the musical qualities of footsteps, at:
http://disquiet.com/2013/09/26/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...
Associated image found via Flickr:
September 25, 2013
Aphex Twin Book Status
It’s been a little quiet around here at Disquiet.com because on September 16 I submitted the final (pre-copyedit) draft of my book on Aphex Twin’s album Selected Ambient Works Volume II. The book will be published on February 13, 2014, as part of the 33 1/3 series, which is part of the Bloomsbury family. That book’s completion — again, with several rounds of copyediting to go — means I was wiped out, but I am now pretty much back at it. Above is an image from a tweet made from my publisher’s Twitter account earlier today of what appears to be an advance galley sampler promoting the six forthcoming titles in the 33 1/3 series. You can see the Aphex Twin book cover in the lower lefthand corner. If you tweet back at them — that is, at @333books — the title of which of the six books you are most interested in, this makes you eligible to win a copy of the sampler. Or as the tweet read: “Look what just came in: our new sampler galley. To win a copy, tweet us which title you are most excited about!”
And, er, the book is available for pre-order on Amazon, among other places.
In related news, I am @disquiet on Twitter.
