Disquiet Junto Project 0618: Burying the Lede
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just under five days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, November 6, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 2, 2023.
Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.
These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).
Disquiet Junto Project 0618: Burying the Lede
The Assignment: Turn old news into new music.
Step 1: Locate an old news article, the less dramatic perhaps the better, from roughly 50 years ago. Try to find something local to where you live now or have lived.
Step 2: Use a text-to-speech tool to convert the article to audio. There are numerous such software applications, and no doubt discussion in the Junto thread on llllllll.co will yield suggestions should you require one.
Step 3: Set to music the voice recording that resulted from Step 2. A length of two and a half to five minutes is recommended. Use an article sufficient to that length — you may end up not using the entire text. As the piece goes on, have the voice slowly get subsumed by the music, until by the end the voice is no longer intelligible — perhaps not even audible.
Note: In case the word isn’t familiar, a “lede” is “the opening sentence or paragraph of a news article, summarizing the most important aspects of the story.”
Seven Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0618” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0618” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0618-burying-the-lede/
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you. It will largely be determined by the length of the text you select.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, November 6, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, November 2, 2023.
Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 618th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Burying the Lede (The Assignment: Turn old news into new music), at: https://disquiet.com/0618/
About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0618-burying-the-lede/
