Disquiet Junto 0552 The Radio in My Life

The Disquiet Junto this week asks "Record a piece of music that reproduces or otherwise suggests the sympathetic (i.e., non-intrusive) commingling of radio and everyday sound."

I've been listening to the classical radio station this year.

It started when I fatigued of hearing news headlines while driving to work.

One day I got frustrated with the repetitions of grabbed snippets, switched over to an instrumental and felt muscles relax across my brow.

When the Junto arrived I looked at the lightening sky and decided to use whatever was being broadcast after I got to Mark Taylor ovals.

Then I added subtle reverb and more birdsong.

That is a very nice looking CPU

Disquiet Junto 0551 The Bends

The Disquiet Junto assignment is to "Get less strict about something you’re strict about."

I decided to try an idea to randomly assemble lines of lyrics.

As part of my haiku-writing habit, I've collected five-syllable lines.

For this piece I printed them, then cut them out to pull from a box.

Bad Gear for birds

I love Florian Pilz' Bad Gear videos

So much that I've started making bad memes!

OMW to Berlin

 

Disquiet Junto 0550 Abrupt Probability

The Disquiet Junto this week asks participants to "Devise a situation... that depicts randomness visually" and then to "Create an original piece of music that is an interpretation."

At least that's what I've taken from it, as I need to work in video due my own creative constraint established when I abandoned Soundcloud.

My situation depicts randomness as a lava lamp and involves using the random functions on the drum and bass machines to create an original piece of music.

I made a break in their rhythms each time the lava snapped, aside from an abrupt and random break early on.

No crowdsurfing

Disquiet Junto 0549 Sidelines

The Disquiet Junto assignment this week is to "think less about using stereo as a means to give a sense of a physical space to a recording, and more about using stereo as a compositional tool."

I toyed with a few ideas but playing drums interested me most.

My intention was to dramatically pan across the stereo field, then I re-read the prompt and realised it needed composition.

Playing around with two takes, I found it interesting to listen to their interplay.

So I layered them, then panned them to either side.

During the mixing, I found that reverb massaged them together but sorta blurred their edges.

I guess it's surprising that I took two stereo recordings towards being mono, then made them sound closer to being stereo.

Nick Zinner on intention

In my head, I feel genre is over or irrelevant, but I never really think about that. Maybe I’ll think about context. I was reading a little bit of that David Byrne book [How Music Works] where he was talking about context, and that really struck a…I can’t really say struck a chord. That’s so corny. But it hit a nerve. It really made sense to me. The music I listen to is probably only half, quote-unquote, rock music or guitar music, if even that. I think more about intention than genre. 

First sample to be used

 

naviarhaiku443 – just before sunrise

 

The haiku shared by Naviar Records prompted me to look for the footage I shot at Valla Beach earlier this year.

Then I looked through my folder of unfinished music and found the germ for this track.

I considered how "the quiet mystery of dawn" might sit among the noisy synths and tried to find a space for it.

It's surprising how every crashing waves seems to coincide with something audible, even though the composition was largely created without looking at the video.

However, I did try to have the sun rise into frame during a quieter moment.

Mixing is tough

Disquiet Junto 0548 Drone Vox

The Junto project this week is to "Make a drone using just your voice."

I feel as though I've done similar projects before, but arrived at the idea I might create a vocal bed for a song that I might sing later.

So I tried to sing an accompaniment for that song.

I recorded four takes, but the camera battery ran out of charge during the last.

Then I panned them and added a little reverb, but decided to keep it raw.

Although the growling part early on unsettles me, there's a bit in the second half that I don't mind