Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 463

The Athletic Machine (MP3)

The pulsing synthesizer heard amid a field recording of athletic activity brings to mind, of course, Vangelis’ Chariots of Fire film score. The music in that 1981 movie located and cemented parallels between mechanical sound and the human machine — it was to running what Kraftwerk’s “Autobahn,” less than a decade earlier, had been to driving. In Ronny Nibletts’ 11-minute “Sports Hall Athletics,” the sounds of exertion are a little less exalted — he lists the source event as an ordinary “indoor athletics meet” — but the effect is vigorous, these slight variations in synthesized rhythmic tones amid huffing, motion, and the occasional whistle.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/ronny-nibblets. Ronny Nibblets is Andy Vaughan, based out of Holmfirth, Britain.

Guitar Detonation (MP3)

Peter Hamlin, aka the Holocene, is, by his own description, making music “all about super volcanoes and asteroid impact craters.” The track he’s posted thus far, “Yellowstone Caldera,” is piercing if slow-paced feedback that gives way to bluesy guitar phrases and broken radio signals. It’s all blissfully zoned-out yet surreptitiously eager to peak in a manner that would test most speaker systems.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/peterhamlin. More from Hamlin, who is based in London, at parentcore.tumblr.com, tapehissnoise.tumblr.com
theholocene.bandcamp.com.

Stems: Phone Tinkering, MRI Beatboxing, Ambient Journalism …

¶ The deadline for signing the White House petition to “Make Unlocking Cell Phones Legal” is February 23. This is a serious issue that relates to many subjects of importance to this site: creative reuse, terms of service, intellectual property, and the right to tinker, among others. Please give it a read and consider weighing in: petitions.whitehouse.gov.

¶ Fascinating if brief interview with Jeff Kolar over at rhizome.org about the correlations between radio and dance, about forms that might be thought to correspond with the disembodied and the body. The interview was done in response to a collaboration Kolar has undertaken with performer/choreographer Jennifer Monson and lighting designer Joe Levasseur. Kolar performed at the 2012 Chicago Disquiet Junto concert, and founded the Radius broadcast, a frequent source of entries in this site’s Downstream coverage.

¶ We talk a lot about sonification, the aural parallel to data visualization, but the flipside is important to: the application of big data to sound. Interesting Q&A at forbes.com about its API, with smart contrast drawn to how it compares with that of Echo Nest.

¶ Beat boxing, an MRI, and learning about the physiology of language: bbc.co.uk

¶ Not sure I’ve mentioned this. Thanks to my newly upgraded SoundCloud account (courtesy of the service’s Heroes program), both the Instagr/am/bient (with music from 25 musicians, including Marcus Fischer and Ted Laderas) and LX(RMX) (with music by Steve Roden, Scanner, and six others) compilations are available for free download.

¶ This mockup of the forthcoming HTC One mobile phone seems to suggest it has stereo speakers. Note the grill pattern on top and bottom: androidandme.com.

¶ Pitchfork is streaming the new Matmos album, The Marriage of True Minds, for the next few days: pitchfork.com.

¶ Joon Oluchi Lee was Roddy Schrock’s partner in the second of the pieces that Schrock performed at the apexart Disquiet Junto show back in November. Over at his lipstickeater.blogspot.com blog Lee talks more about his development of the piece. Video here: apexart.org.

¶ John Kannenberg has posted his first download at johnkannenberg.bandcamp.com, Live at ZKM Medienmuseum | 11​.​11​.​12, a “live site-specific performance of electronically manipulated field recordings of other museum sounds.” Two bucks.

¶ The Verge tech/gadget website has been doing some interesting things with its design of late, notably the inclusion at the top of Sam Byford’s interview with Craig Mod (“What is a book in the age of the iPad?”) of the ambient noise of the Tokyo, Japan, location where they had their conversation. Byford, in the comments, notes what he recorded the noise, and presumably the interview, on: “I got a Sony TX-50 on fire sale, which turned out to be perfect for what I need it for. Super thin and convenient.” (Via Evan Cordes, aka pheezy.com.) … In a related note, “Chronicling the Trip: From Pixels to Paper” by Stephanie Rosenbloom in the New York Times includes this observation: “No app is as foolproof as my Moleskine notebook. But they can make multimedia memories with details like miles traveled and ambient sounds heard along the way, whether they’re church bells in Florence or Pacific loons in Alaska.” Needless to say, the idea of journalists and travelers making sound recordings on a regular basis, whether professional or casual, is a welcome one.

New Discogs.com Podcast

This makes so much sense it’s strange to think it’s just starting, but the age-old Discogs.com website, a communally produced discography engine, has begun a podcast series. It inaugurates with Luke Vibert, whose Throbbing Pouch Wagon Christ album was a central text in early-1990s British electronica. Discogs reports it was recorded “February 9th, 2013 at the Vinyl Pimp record shop in Hackney Wick (London, UK) to celebrate Chinese New Year.”

And an enterprising commenter going by srael Muñoz on Facebook, where Discogs announced the mix, appears to have posted a detailed track list, which lists Vibert’s own music, plus Kraftwerk, a very early Aphex Twin track, 808 State, and much more:

Drum Machine – Drum Machine
Fearless Four – F4000
Tic & Toc – Hey Jay (Is It True What They Say?)
DJ Bass Boy – Mo Better Bass
Success-N-Effect – Roll It Up (Remix)(Bass Kickin Beats)
Masters At Work – Papa Beats
Earth Leakage Trip – No Idea
Ubik – Bass Generation
Kraftwerk – It’s More Fun To Compute
808 State – Flow Coma (Remix by AFX)
Luke Vibert – Homewerk
Meat Beat Manifesto – I Am Electro (D.H.S. Remix)
The Blapps Posse – Don’t Hold Back!
Bassix – Close Encounters
LFO – LFO
Dimensional Holofonic Sound – #9 Bad Acid
Double 99 – R.I.P. Groove
Scott Garcia – A London Thing
Zig-Zag EP
House Of Gypsies – Samba
Progetto Tribale – Bongo Midi
Blake Baxter – Fuck You Up
Nebula II – Seance
Automation – Espionage (Remix)
Urban Shakedown – Do it Now!
Urban Shakedown – Some Justice
Friends, Lovers & Family – The Lift
Televox – Poborsk
3 Phase feat. Dr. Motte – Der Klang Der Familie
L.A.M. – Hostile Bacteria
The Aphex Twin – Digeridoo (Live In Cornwall 1990)
Aphex Twin – Polynomial-C
The Brothers Grimm – Exodus (The Lion Awakes)
Rufige Kru – Terminator II
Aphex Twin – Fenix Funk 5
DJ Gunshot – Soundboy

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

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

February 10 is the birthday of both @carlstone and @robert_henke. I think this should be some sort of electronic holiday. ->



Not that anyone should look at a screen on a beautiful San Francisco day such as this, but who are Richmond District tweeters I should know? ->



Kinda missed Dilla Day due to tending to my then-semi-ailing kid, but by chance had listened to Dilla anyhow. Kids like Donuts. ->



Is there any way to get iBooks-style continuous scrolling in FBReader? ->



How perfect that the first entry in our remix project of Endless Ascent netlabel is, per chance, by @Icarus_Descent: http://t.co/lSzme8ob ->



"Aardvark—Fiction." #loc ->



Visual remnant of what Chinese New Year sounded like: http://t.co/FJCtr51p ->



Impromptu Craigslist road trip. Crate digging. http://t.co/99YiJfBB ->



I already miss looking forward to Steven Soderbergh films. ->



Scored four 12"s at Craigslist crate dig: Art of Noise's Gunn, Ice T's Rich & Famous, INXS' What You Need, Geto Boys' Mind Playing Tricks. ->



Thank you for making my week. RT @PennSound: Christian Hawkey took silences from 45 readings by Ashbery on PennSound: http://t.co/0VWV4mzZ ->



Audio recording I made today during Chinese New Year celebrations in the Tenderloin: https://t.co/eOzlnkGy ->



Realized that old Ice-T 12" I snagged today of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous" isn't the original but, better yet, a DJ Premier remix. ->



Mostly for @robsheff @christianbok @tomcomitta: The silences of John Ashbery. What the poet says when he says nothing: http://t.co/uvkXdEgV ->



Afternoon score on day I watch my 2.5-year-old: foreground is toddler's light snoring; background is neighbor's leaf blower. ->



Almost 20 tracks reworking various releases from the Endless Ascent netlabel: https://t.co/GJH0W5sv Cc @djunto ->



Thanks! MT @SoundCloud: @djunto is an open communal soundmaking group. Hear latest project celebrating Creative Commons http://t.co/yilizcp9 ->



Dear Anyone: I rarely tweet health whines but my poor little kid's pink eye is the primary reason I haven't replied to your email/post/tweet ->



Arnold Lobel's kids book Frog & Toad Are Friends works well with Frog in John Cage's voice & Toad in Morton Feldman's. #noiseparent #protip ->



Not surprised that Kraftwerk bio author pops up on a Resonance FM podcast. Just surprised it was on the cycling show: http://t.co/DaVsVZJ3 ->



Sound of the library where I'm getting some work done: https://t.co/w3J0jEf9 ->



Even more addicted to Thomas Newman's Side Effects score than I'd expected to be. "Houston Free Meds" in particular. ->



Side Effects reminds me of first time I took note of Thomas Newman's name, due to percussive classical performance in movie Men Don't Leave. ->



Not into reality TV but would watch doc about Android/Apple fanboys who battle in blog comments. Inconvenient Troll? Troll to the Dark Side? ->



Caleb Kelly (aka @caleb_k), author of Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction, has a new blog: http://t.co/DNACA4LF. ->



Theme of this week's Disquiet Junto (@djunto) project is sonic autobiography. Starts Thursday. It's #59 in the ongoing series. ->



4 hours ago I posted the sound of a room where I sat alone in the library: https://t.co/w3J0jEf9. 120 listens later, I sure feel less alone. ->



Ooh, a remix (by @happypuppyrecs) of my library HVAC drone recording: https://t.co/wPN4gtp3. #dronesofdrones ->



My Nexus 4 hasn't gotten 4.2.2 yet, no. Thanks for askin'. ->



Reading story collections by Paolo Bacigalupi and Kelly Link. Beautiful, but so florid I may read a catalog about concrete when I'm done. ->



2nd class today of my weekly @academy_of_art sound course: dead celebrities, oral history, audio ecology, listening exercise, synesthesia ->



Information flows through this: http://t.co/N6Bh8JXx ->



The autobiography @djunto project has been delayed a week. This week's involves the human voice and requires a die (i.e., singular of dice). ->



Paolo Bacigalupi's short story “The People of Sand and Slag" is not something you want to have finished reading just before lunch. ->



Same thing's happening now with Stonesthrow as with Touch Radio, where the podcast shows on RSS before the web page. Weird. ->



Google's TTS (text to speech) is radically reducing my mobile music intake in favor of blog posts and ebooks. ->



I didn't post special Valentine's Day music on Disquiet (.com) today. I just, as always, posted music that I love. ->



The 59th Disquiet Junto (@djunto) project begins momentarily. It requires a single die and your mouth. ->



The 59th @djunto project is now live at http://t.co/a4zJ5Mlw + http://t.co/XdREURGZ #vowels #choral #drone #random #dice ->



Excellent. Got access to my Twitter archive. Looking forward to digging in. Cc @lhalff ->



"Reading the Settings options." 19 Jun 07 #twitterarchive #firsttweet ->



"The air conditioning has stopped. All the better to hear my hard drive whir." 21 Jun 07 #twitterarchive ->



I have mentioned HVAC 31 times (well, now 31) on Twitter. #twitterarchive ->



I have mentioned Pink Floyd five times and pink eye once since joining Twitter. #twitterarchive ->



Based on this graph 2010 is the year I really got underway on Twitter though I joined back in mid-2007. http://t.co/lday3jRD ->



I was on Twitter 339 days before using the word "ambient." #twitterarchive ->



I was on Twitter 109 days before using the word "noise." #twitterarchive ->



Greene on Zero Hour, Carter on Falling Skies, Corday on Dr. Who and Arrow. How did ER take over TV science fiction? ->



Was reading about "secure USB debugging" in Android 4.2.2. Does this conflict at all with @idisplayapp's USB connect? http://t.co/4YkA5rgV ->



Ooh, already a work in this week's "choral drones from vowels" @djunto project: https://t.co/rXhRUfyq by @xyzr_kx ->



We should approximate holding "yay," "die." MT @Nonwrestler: @disquiet 2 dipthongs there (A, I); physically impossible to hold as "constant" ->



Current choral drone @djunto project has been, inevitably, picked up by one of those automated paper.li news aggregators on military drones. ->



Useful reminder about how to type "smart" quotes in OS X: http://t.co/5VscWMpa ->



"It’s hard to hear the words over the noise of weapons, vehicles and Marco Beltrami’s bludgeoning score" (A.O. Scott on the new Die Hard.) ->



Beautiful. MT @echosonic: New for @djunto: Miroitant de l'eau [disquiet0059-vwls] by @echosonic via @soundcloud https://t.co/Ezqz6oAh ->



Apparently "watermarked" means "so complicated to download that you never actually get to listen to it." ->



Someone will assign Jonathan Lethem to review the new Glenn Frankel book on The Searchers, right? ->

Korean Piano Solo (MP3)

This lushly yet lightly flowing solo piano piece by Sima Kim was recorded live at Nui., a hostel and bar/lounge in the Kuramae area of Tokyo, Japan. In a manner, the track seems to have been doubly improvised — not only composed while performed, but also not pre-scheduled. It was recorded on February 11, a day after Kim’s brief recent Toyko tour ended, per the flyer above.

Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/sima-kim. Kim was born in South Korea and raised in Europe. More from him (albeit in Korean, primarily) at simakim.tumblr.com and twitter.com/sima_kim.

Disquiet Junto Project 0059: Vowel Choral Drone

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 early evening, California time, on Thursday, February 14, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, February 18, 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 0059: Vowel Choral Drone

This week’s project involves the human voice. You will create a choral drone from three samples that you will create with your own voice. This project requires a single die, or the digital equivalent.

Here are the steps in the project:

Step 1: Roll a die three times (or three dice once) to determine which vowels you will use. Depending on your luck, you may end up with two or even three of the same vowel.

1 = A (“a” as in “yay”)

2 = E (“e” as in “bee”)

3 = I (“i” as in “die”)

4 = O (“o” as in “yo”)

5 = U (“u” as in “you”)

6 = Y (“y” as in “Sylvia”)

If you don’t have access to a die, you can use various digital equivalents. This link, for example, will roll three dice simultaneously:

http://www.random.org/dice/?num=3

Step 2: For each vowel that you have been assigned by the dice, record a 10-second sample of you holding that vowel as a constant tone (volume, timbre, note, etc.).

Step 3: Create a choral drone that utilizes only these three sources of audio. You can treat them with effects lightly, but they should be recognizable as the human voice throughout the duration of track.

Deadline: Monday, February 18, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 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 “disquiet0059-vwls” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Download: Consider setting your track in a manner 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 59th Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/02/14/disqui...

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

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

Image up top from phonetics.ucla.edu.

The Ghosts of Union Station

Christopher McFall’s Quivering into your blood night radio takes as its subject the movements and echoes of a Kansas City train depot called Union Station, an old landmark whose halls have long been attractive to him. The result is a deeply reverberant music that melds rhythmic drones and more recognizable field recordings, ranging from what appear to be snippets of archaic, jazz-era pop standards, to the motions of individuals within the grand hall. Writes McFall of his focus on Union Station:

I’ve often felt that the echo within the space from the musical backdrop comes across as rather haunting when combined with the sounds of visitors moving about throughout the terminal. So, this environment has served as the foundation for constructing this release.

Tracks originally posted for free download at impulsivehabitat.com, where it is available as both MP3 and FLAC.

The Library Drone

There’s an underlying drone to most large buildings, especially to those that prize a relative approximation of hermetic enclosure. Libraries, hospitals, factories — they all produce noises as a result of their activity, but they also have at their core a root drone, the building’s equivalent of something located somewhere between room tone and soundscape, between the intimacy of a truly confined space and the largely unintended sonic component of the overall location.

The following audio is the HVAC drone in a self-contained study room at a library that I frequent, up at Sonoma State in California, about an hour north of San Francisco, where I live. In person, this drone can have a sheer rush to it, a sense of energy that this recording doesn’t quite capture. It can project the sense of wind, even though this particular room, a small one, like the rest of the library, is entirely still. The result is a matter of disorientation: being alone in a placid space while the sounds suggest you’re at the top of a perilous shaft.

There are some flubs in this audio document, some shifting of a finger on the recording device, and later another finger on a key on a laptop. I could have re-recorded it, but consciousness of the avoided errors would have just had the ear listening for further desecrations. If anything, the odd flub can aid in a field recording of background noise by helping the ear keep the subject in relative focus.

This was recorded directly to the MP3 format on an Olympus VN-8100PC. Photo take on a Nexus 4 and filtered for contrast and affect in the app Pixlr Express.

Track posted for free download at soundcloud.com/disquiet.

The Art of Audio Arts

The Tate Modern has posted almost six hours of discussion from a series of panels about the classic sound art publication Audio Arts, the cassette-based magazine that ran from 1973 to 2006. The panel tracks were originally posted for free download as parts 1, 2, and 3 at tate.org.uk, which is also housing digitized recordings from Audio Arts. The archives include interviews with R. Buckminster Fuller, Lawrence Weiner, Nam June Paik, and Tacita Dean. It’s several months worth of listening. Dive in and please report back.