Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 492
August 1, 2012
Bradbury + Gibson: The Top 10 Posts & Searches of June 2012
Each month on the first day of the month for the past countless months a little plugin in this site’s WordPress installation has provided a list of the 10 most popular posts on the site. At some point between last month and today that plugin ceased to function. So, there will be no such post today. In its place, I’ll list 10 key posts from July 2012, during which there were 42 posts. These have nothing to do with how often they were read, and are just ones that strike me as especially of note.
(1) my interview with Christof Migone about his sound art exploration of Ray Bradbury‘s The Martian Chronicles; (2) a Disquiet Junto project that explored the sounds within silence, in honor of John Cage, who would have turned 100 this year; (3) a Disquiet Junto project that employed an observation by William Gibson as its starting point; (4) the announcement of my story about the Syfy series Alphas, which ran in the magazine Nature; (5) the announcement of the upcoming class I’ll be teaching at the Academy of Art in San Francisco; (6) the announcement of this site’s newly mobile/tablet-friendly, “responsive” design (thanks to futurepruf.com); (7) the announcement of my upcoming panel discussion at GAFFTA in San Francisco about “alternative musical interfaces”; (8) the announcement of the launch of sound.tumblr.com; (9) MP3s of a series of lectures from the Tate Modern about women and electronic music; (10) the upcoming (August 19) Disquiet Junto concert in Denver, Colorado, at which I’ll be present. Here’s the poster for the Denver event:
The other part of the monthly post is a list of the most popular searches, and that is available. They were: distinction, dome, ionizer, classical, orchestra, aaron, academy, cardboard, fluxus, flyer, gaffta, Horchata, query, savaran, sexby, African Feedback, alphas.
July 31, 2012
New Free Amon Tobin MP3
There’s free, there’s free as in “Well, you still need access to the Internet,” and there’s free as in “You need to provide your email address, but sure you can unsubscribe after the fact.” Into the latter category falls the new Amon Tobin release, the heavy-beat electro of “101 South” from his Two Fingers side project. The track is available as a free download at the bigdada.com label site. To those used to Tobin’s increasingly fractured sense of rhythm, the hip-hop flavor of this track will be an enjoyable surprise. There’s no sense of shards of noise cycling around in three-dimensional audio, just ever steady forward momentum. The full album, Stunt Rhythms, is due out October 1. More on Tobin at amontobin.com.
July 30, 2012
Digitally Enhanced Cello from Vienna (MP3)
There is much digitally enhanced cello music today, and well there should be. The world we can trace back at least to Hank Roberts and David Darling has expanded widely, deeply, and in many directions. Few musicians go as far with their instrument as the Vienna-based Alexandr Vatagin, whose laptop-enhanced playing rarely bears much resemblance to its sonorous source material. In its place are sinuous sine waves and all manner of light mechanistic experimentation (MP3). This recording, posted recently as part of the Crónica label’s excellent podcast, was recorded back on September 3, 2010. The music is drawn from Vatagin’s album Shards.
Download audio file (cronicast097.mp3)
Originally posted for free download at cronicaelectronica.org, where it is entry number 97. More on Vatagin at vatagin.klingt.org.
July 28, 2012
Mid-School Hip-Hop
The Dusted Wax netlabel remains a steady supplier of what might be termed mid-school hip-hop. This would be neither the full-on tape splicing and vinyl scratching of its earlier years, nor the codified digital beats of its attenuated present. The stuff that Dusted traffics in is deep in the era of second-generation turntablism, real and virtual, which is to say, the calisthenics we associated with DJ Krush, and the studio-heavy work of Funki Porcini, both of which drew heavily from jazz, funk, and exotica in the construction of downtempo grooves rich with atmosphere and largely uninterested in being subsumed by vocalists. That sort of instrumental activity courses through Thegntlmn’s Earbuds (Volume 1), 10 tracks of jazz-infused beats, souped up with vocal snippets and surveillance effects. The album is well represented by the track “I Was Wondering” (MP3), with its layering of muffled voices, soupy piano, and overheard conversation.
Download audio file (Thegntlmn_-_05_-_I_Was_Wondering_If.mp3)
Get the full set at dustedwax.org. More on Thegntlmn, based in Australia, at thegntlmn.blogspot.com.au.
Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet
Dear media theoretician who fears the Internet’s power to filter things that run counter to an individual’s worldview: Explain the Olympics. #
Already 5 fine tracks making music from perceived silence. This set will collate new tracks as they arrive: http://t.co/KuEalsHX #
Unintentionally surreal PR of the day: getting Jay and Silent Bob pitch from a http://t.co/p3GsgiAS email address. #
A PR person who queries me regularly has a unique message-count approach: adding an exclamation point to the subject line with each inquiry. #
View out window somewhat spoiled by sense of being viewed. http://t.co/tDtcL1rQ #
Rules for 30th @djunto project, inspired by John Cage’s concept of silence, live at http://t.co/zuFt2JQY + http://t.co/XdREURGZ #
One of the largest record companies on the planet sends out automated PR where track numbers routinely appear: 1, 10, 11, 12, 2, 3, 4, 5 … #
OK, the revised meaning of “audiophile” is on hold until @p_cers obtains his $1,000 speaker cables. Then all bets are off. in reply to p_cers #
People who are concerned with the culture of audio need to reclaim “audiophile” from conspicuous consumers. #
“No guns. No killing.” Enjoyed the new Batman very much. #
Got an email from @aQuariusrecOrds. Briefly assumed it must be Friday evening. in reply to aQuariusrecOrds #
Three o’clock bell in Chinatown. #
Mountain Lion: 2 hours to download, 20 minutes to install, then a 2-minute Java upgrade, and it’s (apparently) all set. #
Both these pages have details on the August 19 Disquiet Junto concert in Denver, CO: http://t.co/HmNTqAvU http://t.co/ocv2VKc9 #
This sample may be of use for Thursday’s Junto project, FYI. RT: @ethanhein Locked vinyl groove for remixing? Game on. http://t.co/x6xmCXc0 #
Would probably be happy if OS X Lion just cleaned up the Desktop Spaces UX and got rid of that galaxy background image. #
The excellent LA performance organization the wulf. is fundraising: http://t.co/yWMzpFy0 #
Wrote the Nature story on Syfy’s Alphas and didn’t even know about the Tuvan throat singing assassin or Rachel’s sonic claustrophobia. Cool. #
For fans of the TV series Alphas, whose second season starts tonight: my interview with its showrunner is in the current issue of Nature. #
Nearing 30 tracks in the @greatdismal-themed 29th Disquiet Junto project, running water as “one of the oldest songs”: http://t.co/lSzme8ob #
Man, the Margin Call score and sound design are splendid, especially when they meet up. #
Fences make good neighbors because the process of dealing with fence repair provides the opportunity to introduce yourself to your neighbors #
This set is collating all the @djunto music tracks in the current, @GreatDismal-themed project: http://t.co/TXY96a50 #
Fog horns this morning suggest somewhere a Wookie is getting a medal. #
July 27, 2012
Ambient Poulenc (MP3)
From Martijn Comes comes Those Who Know Do Not Speak, Those Who Speak Do Not Know, released last month on the long-running Panospria netlabel. Among an impressive variety of slow works that range from low-key rhythmic invention (the percussively erratic “Thinking Machine”) to field recordings (the lovely “A Misty Morning”) is a cover of a piece by French composer Francis Poulenc, “A Snowy Evening” (MP3). To hear the occasionally maudlin-sounding work reconfigured as a drone-like slurry brings to mind the ambient adaptation that Brian Eno performed on his Discrete Music album (Three Variations on the Canon in D Major by Johann Pachelbel).
Download audio file (pan067-martijn_comes-6-a_snowy_evening.mp3)
Get the full release, nine tracks in all, for free download at notype.com.
July 26, 2012
Disquiet Junto Project 0030: Sounds from Silence
Each Thursday evening 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 to the Junto is open: just join and participate.
This week’s project tackles the concept of silence, which by most measures is in fact a relative term, a term in regard to perception rather than some actual objective absence of sound. The major 20th-century milestone in our understanding of silence is arguably the (perhaps apocryphal) story told by the late John Cage of entering an anechoic chamber, expecting to hear nothing, and instead hearing sounds emitted from his own body. In this project we will take recordings of perceived silence, push them until the noise within the silence reveals itself, and then make music from that noise. Cage, pictured above, would have turned 100 this year, and this project is in his memory.
The assignment was made late in the day, California time, on Thursday, July 19, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, July 30, as the deadline. View a search return for all the entries as they are posted: disquiet0030-nonsilent.
Below are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto). They appear below translated into four additional languages: German, Japanese, Spanish, and Turkish, courtesy of Allan Brugg, Naoyuki Sasanami, Norma Listman, and M. Emre Meydan, respectively.
Disquiet Junto Project 0030: Sounds from Silence
This week’s project deals with the concept of silence — specifically recorded silence. We will take a segment of audio that is intended to signify silence, and then from it make an original piece of music.
Step 1: Select a segment of recorded sound that would generally be perceived as silent. Examples include: the gap between tracks on a tape cassette or vinyl record, the noise your laptop’s headphone jack emits when nothing is playing, the quietest moment in an MP3, a radio signal when nothing is supposed to be heard.
Step 2: Amplify or otherwise magnify that supposed absence of sound until it makes a perceivable noise.
Step 3: Compose, perform, and record a new original piece of music that takes this sound as its sole source material. You can manipulate the original audio as you see fit, but you can’t add other pre-existing audio elements to it.
Deadline: Monday, July 30, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Please keep your track to between 2 and 4 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, please 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 “disquiet0030-nonsilent” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: As always, you don’t have to set your track for download, but it would be preferable.
Linking: When posting the track please include this information:
More on the 30th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/07/26/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
. . . . .
Instructions in German:
Disquiet Junto Projekt 0030: Klänge aus Stille
Diese Woche handelt das Projekt von dem Konzept der Stille — insbesondere aufgenommener Stille. Wir werden einen Audio-Abschnitt nehmen, dessen Absicht es ist, Stille darzustellen, um von dort aus, ein ursprüngliches Stück Musik zu schaffen.
Schritt 1: Wählt einen Abschnitt einer Aufnahme, der für gewöhnlich als Stille verstanden würde. Beispiele wären: die Lücke zwischen den Tracks auf einer Audio-Cassette oder Schallplatte; die Geräusche, die der Kopfhörerausgang eures Laptops von sich gibt, wenn nichts läuft; der stillste Augenblick eines MP3s; ein Radiosignal, wenn nichts zu hören sein sollte.
Schritt 2: Verstärkt oder vergrößert auf andere Weise diese angenommene Anwesenheit von Klang bis ein wahrnehmbares Geräusch entsteht.
Schritt 3: Komponiert ein neues, ursprüngliches Stück Musik, dessen alleiniges Quellmaterial dieser Klang ist, führt es aus und nehmt es auf. Ihr könnt das ursprüngliche Audio-Material behandeln, wie ihr es für angemessen haltet, aber ihr könnt keine anderen, bereits existierenden Audio-Elemente hinzufügen.
Abgabefrist: Montag, 30. Juli, um 23:59 Uhr, wo immer ihr seid.
Länge: Bitte haltet den Track zwischen 2 und 4 Minuten.
Information: Bitte fügt eurem Track, wenn ihr ihn auf Soundcloud hochladet, eine Beschreibung des Planungs-, Kompositions- und Aufnahmeprozesses hinzu. Diese Beschreibung ist essentieller Bestandteil des kommunikativen Austauschs, der Disquiet Junto eigen ist.
Titel/Tag: Wenn ihr euren Track der Disquiet Junto Gruppe auf Soundcloud.com hinzufügt, schließt bitte die Bezeichnung “disquiet0030-nonsilent” im Titel und als Tag mit ein.
Download: Wie immer, ihr müsst eure Tracks nicht zum Download freigeben, es wäre aber wünschenswert.
Verlinkung: Wenn ihr euren Track postet, fügt bitte die folgende Information hinzu:
More on the 30th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/07/26/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
. . . . .
Instructions in Japanese:
Disquiet Junto Project 0030: 静寂からなる音
今週のプロジェクトは静寂をコンセプトとして扱います。具体的には録音された静けさです。無音であることを意図された音声の部分を取り出して、オリジナルの音楽を作ります。
ステップ１：一般的に無音と受け取られるような録音物の断片を選びます。例えば、カセットテープやレコードのトラックの間の部分、ラップトップコンピューターが何も再生されていないときにヘッドホンジャックが発するノイズ、mp3ファイルの一番目立たない部分、聞くべきものが何もかかってないラジオのシグナルなど。
ステップ２：その無音とされる部分を増幅、または別な方法で強調して、認知できるようなノイズにしてください。
ステップ３：その音素材が唯一の音源であるような方法で、新しい音楽を作曲、演奏、録音してください。音源はあなたが望むように改変してかまいませんが、元からある音素材を新たに加えないでください。
〆切：7月30日月曜日11:59pm あなたがどこに住んでいるかかわらず
長さ：２～５分の長さにしてください
情報：作品をサウンドクラウドのグループに投稿する際には、あなたの採用した構想、作曲、録音の過程についての説明をつけてください。この記述がこのグループの本来の目的であるコミュニケーションに大事なものとなります
タイトル／タグ：Disquiet Juntoグループに作品を投稿する際には”disquiet0030-nonsilent” をタグとしてタイトルに追加してください
ダウンロード：いつものように必ずしもダウンロード可能にする必要はありませんが、望ましい
リンク：投稿する際には以下の情報を追加してください
More on the 30th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/07/26/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
. . . . .
Instructions in Spanish:
Disquiet Junto Proyecto 0030 Sonidos del Silencio
El proyecto de esta semana trata sobre el silencio como concepto, específicamente el silencio grabado. En esta ocasión usaremos segmentos sonoros que han sido intencionalmente grabados como silencio para componer una pieza musical.
Pasos:
Selecciona un segmento de que haya sido grabado con la intención de silencio. Algunos ejemplos son lo espacios entre garabaciones de casets o viniles, el sonido de los audifonos de tu laptop cuando no estas tocando nada, el sonito de tu mp3 cuando nada esta tocando, la senal en el radio cuando se supone que nada esta tocando, etc.
Amplifica o magnifica, el sonido que sale de esa supuesta ausencia de sonido.
Compon, toca y graba una pieza musical que use este sonido como su único material. Puedes manipular el audio original como tu quiereas, lo que no puedes hacer es añadir otros sonidos a tu material.
Fecha limite: Lunes 30 de Julio a las 11:59pm del lugar donde te encuentres.
Duración: Favor de mantener tu pieza de dos a cuatro minutos.
Información: Incluir una descripción de tu proceso de plantación, composición, y grabacion. Tu información es esencial para la counicacion en Disquiet Junto.
Titulo: Por favor incluye el termino “disquiet0030-nonsilent” en el titulo de tu track cuando lo subas al grupo Disquiet Junto en Soundcloud.com, también usalo como tu tag cuando lo quieras buscar.
Descarga: Es preferible que tu mezcla se pueda descargar, pero no es necesario ( es tu decisión).
Enlaces: Cuando subas tu track, por favor incluye la siguiente información:
Mas información en Disquiet Junto:
http://disquiet.com/2012/07/26/disqui...
. . . . .
Instructions in Turkish:
Disquiet Junto Projesi 0030: Sounds from Silence (Sessizlikten Sesler)
Bu haftanın projesi, sessizlik kavramı –özellikle de kaydedilmiş sessizlik– ile ilgili. Sessizliği temsil eden bir ses parçası alıp, bu parçadan bir beste yapacağız.
1. Adım: Bir ses kaydından normalde “sessiz” olarak algılanan bir bölüm seçip alın. Örneğin; bir kasette ya da plakta şarkılar arasındaki boşluk, laptop’unuz müzik/ses çalmazken kulaklık çıkışından gelen gürültü, bir MP3′teki en sessiz an, bir radyo yayınında sessizliğin olduğu bir kısım — gibi.
2. Adım: Bu kaydın sesini, duyulabilir bir gürültü çıkana kadar yükseltin.
3. Adım: Bu sesi temel alarak bir beste yapın. Kayıt üzerine uygun gördüğünüz şekilde müdahalelerde bulunabilirsiniz, ama dışarıdan başka ses ekleyemezsiniz.
Son Teslim Tarihi: 30 temmuz pazartesi, 23:59 (bulunduğunuz ülkenin saatine göre)
Uzunluk: Lütfen bestenizin uzunluğunu 2-4 dakika arasında tutun.
Bilgi: Yaptığınız parçayı paylaşırken, lütfen bu parçanın planlama, besteleme ve kayıt süreciyle ilgili bilgi de verin. Bu açıklama, Disquiet Junto’ya içkin iletişim sürecinin önemli bir parçasıdır.
İsim/Etiket: Parçanızı Soundcloud.com’daki Disquiet Junto grubuna eklerken, lütfen “disquiet0030-nonsilent” kelimesini hem parçanın isminde, hem de etiket (tag) olarak kullanın.
Download: Her zamanki gibi; parçanızın indirilebilir olması gerekmiyor, ama öyle olması tercih edilir.
Linkler: Yaptığınız parçayı paylaşırken, lütfen şu satırları ekleyin:
More on the 30th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/07/26/disqui...
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
July 25, 2012
Music from the Forum (MP3)
The Internet giveth, and the Internet giveth. Yesterday I made note of a nicely recorded loop of a vinyl album’s locked groove, made by John Dombroski, who — in the process of archiving the 50 or so repeats of the skip as the needle passed over the same spot — noted that remixes of the audio would be appreciated. Shortly thereafter, Larry Johnson did just that. Interestingly, Johnson focused not on the skip so much as on the reveal, at the end of Dombroski’s track, when the music from the album suddenly flourishes, like it’s come out of hiding. In the original version, the music is a bit like a glass of cold water after a trek across the desert; it happens at the very end. In Johnson’s, the reveal happens repeatedly, in a more subdued manner, and out of a drowsy miasma that’s a deep filtering of the original recording’s beat. Here, Johnson has reversed the original, making the occasional reappearance of the musical material the track’s internal metronome.
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/l-a-j-1. More on the source track: “Repetition Is a Forum for Change.”
July 24, 2012
Denver Disquiet Junto Concert Planned for August 19
This coming August 19, a Sunday, we’ll be hosting a Disquiet Junto concert in Denver Colorado at the Walnut Room. It’s billed as “An evening of musicians performing new compositions and improvisations for the electronically enhanced glass harp.” These fine Colorado ambient/experimental performers are featured:
• Offthesky
• Radere
• C. Reider
• Pillow Garden
• Ten and Tracer
• Cody Yantis
And there’s a special guest visiting from New Hampshire:
• Mysterybear
Doors open at 6pm, and the show begins at 7pm. The Walnut Room is located at 3131 Walnut Street in Denver, Colorado. The tickets will cost $10. More on the venue at thewalnutroom.com. Special thanks to C. Reider and Carl Ritger (aka Radere) for assistance in putting this together. Details will be added to this page as the event approaches. If you’d like to spread the news, please use this URL: disquiet.com/JuntoColorado2012. There’s also a facebook.com event page.
All the acts will perform two works: one drawn from the Disquiet Junto series of weekly projects, and a recent piece of their own they’d like to share with the audience and their fellow musicians. The Junto project involves treating the sounds of a glass harmonica, the instrument that held a special interest for Benjamin Franklin, from whose own Junto society ours borrows its name. This is the same format as the concert held in Chicago earlier this year, back in April, but with a whole new set of performers. Concerts are also in various stages of planning for San Francisco and Portland.
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Repetition Is a Forum for Change (MP3)
The track is rhythmic, like a municipal light rail passing in steady rain on a quiet street. There’s a crunch to it, the leaden beat of something hit repeatedly yet resilient enough to show little if any resulting damage. Through headphones, the noise expands; it comes to span the sonic periphery despite its inherent delicacy. You hear the beat, but you listen through it as well, first to the broader, textural noise, and then to the beats within the beat, to the shape of the beat. In time, the beat regains its centrality, and new questions emerge: Does the beat give a little, sway a little, on occasion? Is there a nudge toward development? What in fact is it?
It’s the sound of a locked groove on a vinyl recording, taped by John Dombroski not only for posterity, enjoyment, and analysis, but also with the intention that others might rework it, might make music from the absensce of music. We know from Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s Oblique Strategies card deck that “Repetition is a form of change.” In Dombroski’s gambit, it is also a forum for change. In his brief accompanying note he states:
Record player needle in locked groove repeats (~1.8 seconds) 55.5 times and resolves.
NOTE: (If you would like, go on and make a remix of this sound and share it – I’d love to hear).
Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/johndombroski. More on Dombroski, who is based in Richmond, Virginia, at dombroskij.com.
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