Disquiet Junto 0519 Looking Glass Remix

This is my 300th video for the Disquiet Junto and it remixes material from around the time I started following their prompts.

It was 2012 and I was about a year into my project to remix Leeton's playgrounds for the town's centenary.

I'd quit my job and was following the one idea I thought was good.

There's an early attempt at a Junto (no. 29!) in this park remix, which is a rare project that I added after the deadline passed.

It's funny but this is one of a couple of attempts at Junto projects before properly joined when I published the Tanku remix.

Then I started producing video responses to the Junto prompts with number 100, which was driven by disillusionment with Soundcloud.

One observation is the workflow is a lot quicker to produce a video now, particularly thanks to Ableton Live's video editing capabilities and my 2019 model Mac Mini.

I made a dubstep track and that seems suitably 2012.

This video was largely produced using Live and took less than a day using the raw recordings, whereas I think the earlier Enticknap Park track took a few days to complete.

Disquiet Junto 0433 Kit Bits

I've exported a dozen sounds from my recording of Spinks Park for the Junto to use.

You can download audio (7mb aif file) and video (21mb mov file), both single files containing the 12 tones.

Disquiet Junto 0413 Objective Thankfulness

The Disquiet Junto this week requests we "highlight one piece of musical equipment for which you are particularly grateful."

The appropriate response was at hand, in the form of my recent remix of Spinks Park in Lismore.

I'd been invited into the Northern Rivers region to be part of The (Un)Usual with my friends at RealArtWorks.

Barcus Berry 4000: Planar Wave System pickup has been a part of my process for remixing playgrounds since 2012.

Thanks Barcus Berry, I know you pitch this product for pianos and harps but it helps me find music in everyday locations.

And thanks to the Disquiet Junto, this has been my 200th video in response to their creative prompts.

Disquiet Junto 0345 Sample Time

The Junto this week ask we make our own drum machine sounds and then make something of them.

My sounds come from 2011-13, when I was recording playgrounds in and around Leeton for the centenary of the town.

It's been interesting to revisit those productions, hearing how my skills have developed but also remembering how interesting the sounds were from those unlikely musical instruments.

A few of the sounds have been repitched and I seem to have made an error somewhere, as I used the same sound from a swing seat a few times.

The video is a little glitchy in places but Ableton Live has handled the short edits better than expected.

Disquiet Junto 0029 Count Zero

When I first joined the Junto mailing list, it took a few turns before I joined in.

Elsewhere there's a track where I misread the instructions and made a song from a book. This project was one where I wondered if I'd drifted too far from the Junto instruction for the sound of running water to be present.

It's another track made from Mountford Park and I was thinking of it after the Junto this week.



Today, while looking through old files, I found this video I'd made while manipulating the recordings in Live.

In hindsight it's interesting I'd explored making a video for the Junto back at number 29. It wouldn't be until number 101 that I returned to that medium, more than a year later.

Marie Bashir Park

KlanKman's Gossamer Park

Another fantastic playground remix from Belgian producer KlanKman, who has previously reworked Dinosaur Park.

Hear the original Gossamer Park track here or Schemawound's percussive remix can be heard here. Below is a track I made when I returned to the material in 2013 with my partner Jo.

100-year old pipe organ

When I was thinking of pipe organ earlier this year, I remembered the improvised piece Dominic Vella recorded for me on St Peter's 100-year old instrument.

Above is Dominic accompanying one of my remixes of Mountford Park, which is across the road from the church with this beautiful instrument.

And in the video below he's accompanied by my drumming.

Here comes a video

Here's the 14th video accompanying the AND album and the 25th video of my Disquiet Junto tracks. It's the track Here Comes A Train, which was created from a recording made at storytime in Leeton Library.

The Library Shhh Junto project had asked for a recording from the front desk. I'd recorded on video as well as audio but wanted to use the storytime, which had already started when I started recording so I didn't set up the camera.

The train comes from Ramponi Park, it seemed an obvious addition. Adds nice colour and some sound too. And I covered up the Ken Done painting at Leeton Library with a home movie for various reasons, including disliking his work.

One thing I do like about Done is that brightness really is an element of the Australian landscape. There's a story about a cinematographer or director arriving by airplane and, shielding his eyes as he steps into the light, exclaims "This country is half a stop overexposed."

Interstellar pipes

The pipe organ in the Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for Interstellar was one of my favourite parts of the film.

They are an amazing instrument and the video above explains some of the reasons why I love them. Another is their dynamic range, as the opening note of Also Sprach Zarathustra demonstrates -- you mightn't hear it without large speakers.

I recorded the organ at St Peter's church here in Leeton for my For 100 Years project, which celebrated the centenary of the town and also that instrument.

Local maestro Dom Vella recorded two parts, one of which I've used in the video below for the screenings and another that is sitting on my desktop awaiting the right moment.

Schemawound visits Gossamer Park

Awesome remix by Schemawound. Below is the original.



And here is a remix by me, when I returned to the original recordings in 2013 ahead of screenings to conclude the centenary of Leeton and the For 100 Years project.

Restyn Park Remix remixed by Kelp

The Disquiet Junto this week prompted me to return to remixing Restyn Park, which I'd recorded nearly two years ago.

It also encouraged me to see if Kelp wanted to remix the track to share the process he introduced me to in the Ninja Tune remix chains we've been running. We're currently part way through our third chain and once again it's linking together producers from around the world, including some like Lee Rosevere who I recruited from the Junto.

Below is a sampler of our last collection of remixes.

A Restyn melody

Restyn Park remix

Disquiet Junto Project 139 Tech Technique

The Assignment: Create and upload a track that exemplifies explain one key process you’ve developed.

My process is recording playground equipment with homemade contact microphones and then remixing the sounds to make EDM. I've re-pitched short loops of sequences tapping on swings, monkey bars, a sign and a climbing frame -- click here to see video. You can download the Restyn Park stems here.

 

I recorded Restyn Park in Hanwood on 13 September 2012 but haven't done much with this material until now. My hair looked good that day, so I used images for a magazine article.

This process of manipulating locations developed from an idea that landscapes could influence my audio productions.

The Space Program had a cool philosophy that being based in regional Australia was a key part of their sound. That made a lot of sense to me when I started remixing field recordings.

Around the time I published my first album of electronic music online in 2004, I was introduced to the work of Alan Lamb and his large-scale aeolian harps via the Wagga Space Program's Unsound festivals. My partner Jo and I worked with Lamb for Unsound in 2006.




Lamb showed me how he makes piezo contact microphones and those used for these recordings are the same pair shown in this guide.

When I moved away from his installation outside Wagga Wagga, I started using them on playgrounds for a project to celebrate the centenary of the town Leeton. All sounds in the tracks on the album For 100 years used only those from the playgrounds in the titles.




Of course, once you get an audio recording into Ableton Live there are a lot of ways to manipulate the sounds. I've also used these piezo contact microphones and Live to remix myself eating an apple for an art exhibition.




You can hear more about my 'parktronica' in this short video.

Restyn Park, Hanwood

New Weird Australia

My track 'Having a Barney' appears on the new compilation from New Weird Australia. Looking forward to hearing the other contributions.

WHILE

Here's the first of two recordings I'm publishing on Bandcamp this week. These are 20 of my favourite Junto pieces, from the 36 completed in the first 100 Juntos. It's a mixed bag in terms of genres but it's had a good response from listeners.

Some electronic instrumentals and some rock and some made from things like boiling water, ice in a glass, a ticking wristwatch, an interstellar space recording by the Voyager satellite, handclaps, etc. Only one playground this time :)

Recent collaboration

Another result from my community recording sessions during the school holidays, this time in and around Leeton's Mountford Park.

The pipe organ sits in a church just across the road, so I bent the rules a bit but it really deserved to be part of the track as it's also celebrating a centenary. And I love pipes, so it was an opportunity to hear how it sounds without sitting through a sermon.

Thanks to local maestro Dominic Vella for the melody and thanks to the kids who joined in too.

PS -- Nice follow-up piece in The Irrigator today

More Dinosaur Park

Think I should call this track 'Having a Barney' for the role of the purple dinosaur. As mentioned elsewhere, this song is one of many remixes made from playground recordings. I'm really keen on this Belgian producer's take on the material:

Screenings

Tonight was the last of the three screenings. Mountford Park looks magic at night and tonight it sounded magic too, as the church bells chimed six o'clock during one of the Mountford remixes.

The response was positive and it was satisfying to see my work projected large.