Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 441

Happenstance Ambience (MP3)

There are many things that might keep a freely downloadable piece of music from getting on radar. The hosting site may lack an RSS feed, which means the music doesn’t come to you: You need to remember to go to it. When there are 500-plus netlabels out there, not to mention countless MP3 sites and SoundCloud-hosted accounts, that is a tall order. The hosting site may, as well, post the music as, say, a FLAC file — a lossless format that is great for audio quality, less so for making it easily streamable.

Both of these matters are the case with the excellent Impulsive Habitat netlabel. The label’s most recent release is Corredor norte by Pablo Reche. A mix of rumbling drones and occasional bits of everyday happenstance, like moments of creek ambience, the single-track release is nearly 20 minutes of distant background listening. The source audio was recorded in Buenos Aires, Argentina, along the Tigre River, but the transformed sound is not intended as documentation so much as figment: “it is not the idea to represent the original sound or landscape of the place,” writes the Reche in a brief liner note.

Track/album originally posted for free download at impulsivehabitat.com.

Reworking Britten Reworking Purcell

Not all stretching is mere stretching. There is plenty of stretched music out there, key works in the public ear being Justin Bieber exposed as a slomo angel and the Inception theme making a nod to an actress’ prior role, but some stretching takes more effort than simply reducing a pace and, perhaps, maintaining a key. Tuonela’s “The Purcell Theme” adapts an adaptation by Benjamin Britten of music by Purcell, and not just attenuating it for interior exploration. As he writes in the accompanying note: “Not just a simple stretch, this is a twelve-track mix.” But more importantly, he writes, “It’s how the Theme always sounded in my head.” The core message being that while the phenomenon of people slowing down music has gained currency in recent years, and has been abetted by technological progress, the listening inherent in stretching is considerably older, and independent from the digital technique. I recently participated in a discussion (it will appear online soon) about Internet-based music communities, and I clarified that some forms of sound exploration are perhaps more akin to “active listening” than to the making of music, and this seems like a striking example. I’m not stating those as two points at opposite ends of a lengthy continuum so much as different approaches that, certainly, allow for considerable overlap.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/tuonela-1. More from Tuonela at tuonela.bandcamp.com.

Disquiet Junto Project 0088: 3D

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, September 5, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 9, 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 0088: 3D

This week’s project focuses on the spatial aspect of sound. The instructions are as follows:

Part 1: Your track will consist of three simultaneous segments: a drone, a beat, and a melodic fragment.

Part 2: Each of those three segments will repeat consistently for the length of the finished track.

Part 3: The only thing that will change is that you will manipulate them to simulate three-dimensional motion for someone listening to the track on headphones. You can do this by using stereo effects, volume shifts, filters, or any other technological means.

Part 4: Your track will last one minute and thirty seconds. For the first 30 seconds, the drone and the beat will remain consistent, but the melodic fragment will move around in 3D. For the second 30 seconds, only the beat will move around, and for the final 30 seconds, only the drone will move around.

Deadline: Monday, September 9, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your track should have a duration of one minute and thirty 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 “disquiet0088-3d” 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 88th Disquiet Junto project, which explores 3D sound, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/09/05/disqui...

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...

Post-Singularity Dawn

Clarke Robinson’s “Tonal Experiment #1″ is a restrained swell of low-level feedback. It proceeds like a post-Singularity dawn, the slow-build of sound as an open circuit is gently nudged from its slumber.

More from Robinson at clarkerobinson.com.

Disquiet Junto Project 0087: Entry 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 evening, California time, on Thursday, August 29, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, September 2, 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 0087: Entry Music

This week’s project focuses on functional music. You will compose and record five different doorbell sounds, or sounds that might serve as the equivalent of a doorbell.

The concept is that the home’s resident has the option to alter the doorbell at the click of a button, and can choose between five doorbell options: (1) Daytime, (2) Evening, (3) Slumber, (4) Delicate, (5) Party. The resident also has the option to turn off the doorbell entirely, so none of your settings should be silent.

You will compose and record a suite of five sounds, one for each of those settings. You will then create a single track consisting of each ring/bell/tone playing for roughly five seconds. Your finished track should be approximately 25 seconds long.

Additional Background: The (1) Daytime tone is the default sound you intend for the doorbell. The (2) Evening tone is the one that would play from roughly dinner time on until bedtime. The (3) Slumber tone is one that would ring out while you are sleeping. The (4) Delicate tone is one that would play for someone who, say, has a baby at home, or who is ill, or is in a period of mourning or grief. And the (5) Party mode is a tone that would be heard even if a raucous party were going on.

Deadline: Monday, September 2, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your track should have a duration of approximately 25 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 “disquiet0087-entrymusic” 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 87th Disquiet Junto project, which consists of five varied doorbell rings, at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/08/29/disqui...

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...

“How Love,” How Hip-Hop? (MP3)

The extent to which the uploaded standalone singles by SoundCloud regular Patrick Ellis count as instrumental hip-hop might be gauged according to their content. Much of his work has a delectable downtempo quality. Some is downright ambient thanks to an emphasis on tonal material and surface noise. Others, like the recently posted “How Love / Blue Sky Sprites,” venture more solidly into hip-hop swagger. The track has Ellis’ trademark interest in minimal impact, select source audio, and a hazy, afternoon vibe. Here it is produced with such elements as two soulful vocal samples (one a sped-up melisma), sentimental chimes, and a rhythm just far enough off the beat to arguably register as funky. And at just 1:12, “How Love / Blue Sky Sprites” is suitable for setting on repeat.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/patrick.

Hush, Tone, Whine (MP3)

With no more than a title (“Color Block”) and a tag (“experimental electronic”), Gaapiiiii‘s recently posted track is a highly recommended eight-minute sound excursion. The main components are a wash of white noise and a synthetically tinged choral hush, along with the peaked-out whine of a sine tone that overlaps with each, as they alternate back and forth. The result is a kind of story-less narrative, these compelling but distinctly complementary aspects (one beyond tone, one richly harmonic) suggesting contrasting viewpoints.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/gaapiiiii. Gaapiiiii, who only otherwise identifies himself as G P on SoundCloud, is based in Japan.

Up Your Alley (MP3)

Each of the silhouettes in the above image portrays a different narrow, alley-like place in Amsterdam. The term for such places in Dutch is “tussen-ruimte,” which means a “between-space.”

The term also serves as the title for a month-long series of events and exhibits, including walking tours and installations and films, in Amsterdam, put together by the Castrum Peregrini cultural organization. The Tussen-ruimte program runs from yesterday, August 22, through September 22. Among the films, naturally, will be work by the late Gordon Matta-Clark, whose split houses set a precedent for this sort of investigative operation, as did, more specifically, his purchase in the early 1970s of dozens of tiny plots of land around Manhattan. The latter project he called “Reality Properties: Fake Estates.” Here is an image of his sketches of some of those plots:

Also participating in Tussen-ruimte is Rutger Zuydervelt, the musician and sound artist better known as Machinefabriek. His “Grachtengroeven” installation explores the between spaces of vinyl records, better known as grooves. Here is a recording of one of his locked grooves. The repetition has the sense of someone pacing in circles, as if trapped in a confined area, and resulting audio presents a claustrophobic sound design, all pneumatic thudding and electrical whir. It could easily be a minimal techno single from the Chain Reaction record label, circa 1995.

A brief description accompanying the Machinefabriek track explains a bit more about “Grachtengroeven”:

The empty grooves of a vinyl record form the space between the previous and the next song. Like the alleys between the Amsterdam canal houses they might seem empty and useless, but on closer inspection they are worlds in themselves. ‘Grachtengroeven’ (Canal grooves) positions the needle of a pick-up in a between space of a record and makes the void audible in a rhythmic soundtrack for the ‘Tussen-ruimte’ exhibition.

And this is a shot of it as it appears in the gallery space:

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/machinefabriek. More from Machinefabriek at machinefabriek.nu. More on the exhibits and events at tussen-ruimte.com. More on the sponsoring organization at castrumperegrini.org. Gordon Matta-Clark drawing via queensmuseum.org.

Disquiet Junto Project 0086: Hyperloop

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, August 22, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, August 26, 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 0086: Hyperloop

This week’s project may have the simplest, and broadest, instruction in all of the 86 consecutive weeks that the Disquiet Junto has been running. Thanks to the musician Cinchel of Chicago, Illinois, for helping to prompt this idea. The project has just one instruction:

The title of your next single is “Hyperloop.” Now, record that single

Deadline: Monday, August 26, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your track should have a duration of between 1 and 5 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 “disquiet0086-hyperloop” 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 86th Disquiet Junto project, in which a song was made based on its assigned title (“Hyperloop”), at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/08/22/disqui...

More on the Tesla Hyperloop at:

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/hyper...

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet...

Above image via telegraph.co.uk.

The 3D Melody (MP3)

Another short piece, under a minute, following yesterday’s bit of flute-based looping. Today it is a plucky, downtempo melody on what has the playful insouciance of a toy piano. Best listened to on headphones, which allow for the use of stereophonic spatialization to become apparent. A lot of times the phrase “headphone music” suggests something spacey and proggy, but here each note moves back and forth, its placement as much a part of the melodic development as its relative pitch. The track is credited to Brooklyn-based Sharp Hands:

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/sharphands.