Placeholder in advance of project going live.
3 Likes
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the groupās 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. A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required. Thereās no pressure to do every project. Itās weekly so that you know itās there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time.
This project was posted shortly after noon, California time, on Thursday, November 17, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, November 21, 2016.
These are the instructions that went out to the groupās email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):
Disquiet Junto Project 0255: Caponeās Ghost
What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?
Step 1: Ghost stories are prevalent throughout cultures. When they involve music, they manifest in ways that find parallels between two intangibles: ethereal presences, and a cultural form that you can, generally speaking, neither see nor touch. Now consider the case of Al Capone, who played banjo during his time on the famed prison island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay ā a banjo that is said to be heard long after his death.
Step 2: Create a short piece of what you think Caponeās ghostly banjo sounds like.
Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Per the instructions below, be sure to include the project tag ādisquiet0255ā (no spaces) in the name of your track. If youāre posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to my locating the tracks and creating a playlist of them.
Step 2: Upload your track. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your track.
Step 3: In this discussion thread at llllllll.co please consider posting your track. (Assuming you post it on SoundCloud, a search for the tag will help me construct the playlist.)
Step 4: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 5: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Deadline: This project was posted shortly after noon, California time, on Thursday, November 17, 2016, with a deadline of 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, November 21, 2016.
Length: The length is up to you, but two minutes sounds about right.
Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include ādisquiet0255ā in the title of the track, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.
Upload: When participating in this project, post one finished track with the project tag, and 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 preferable that your track is set as downloadable, and that it allows for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track online, please be sure to include this information:
More on this 255th weekly Disquiet Junto project ā āCaponeās Ghost: What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?ā ā at:
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
Subscribe to project announcements here:
tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
http://llllllll.co/t/capones-ghost-disquiet-junto-project-0255/
Thereās also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.
Public-domain mugshot associated with this project from Wikipedia.
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https://soundcloud.com/voteforsevenism/255-ether
turns out ghost banjo sounds like paulstretched ukelele* through lots of guitar fx
i went to san francisco and saw alcatraz over the bay. remembering the cool sea air and choppy waves influenced the sound of this, especially the fx
.
*ok maybe coz the closest thing i have to a banjo is a uke
6 Likes
https://soundcloud.com/klaatuberada/apob-island-life-als-lament
Something simple and quite literal. 
Temporally distended banjos and reverb.
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https://soundcloud.com/tuonela-1/existence-of-a-hunted-man-disquiet025
I found a track Iād recorded on a strumstick, which I hope sounds
enough like a banjo to get away with. This was multitracked, mixed down
and treated with enough delay and reverb to hide the crappier bits.I
used some atmospheric bits of a track I was working on to create three
foggy drones, then overlaid another made from the strumstick track, and
another sort one to zest the ending a bit.Not sure if AC was any
better than me on his instrument - Apparently Al was actually shanked in
his cell while playing one day. He stood up and beat his attacker off
with his banjo. So the story goesā¦
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https://soundcloud.com/earthborn_visions/bacon-jalapenos-disquiet0255
For this weekās project I started with a (midi) snippet from a 1930ās tune, āHow Deep is the Ocean?ā, which seemed somehow appropriate when youāve been incarcerated on an island! I tried to transition to a more mournful (locked up in prison) minor mood with some strings, and brought in a disjointed banjo melody to reflect Alās dislocation from his former life. Changing levels of reverb throughout the track were used to evoke ghostlinessā¦ I hope!
Looking forward to hearing / reading about everyone elseās tracks!
Have a good weekend, Mike (earthborn visions)
Ps. As well as the screen grab of Mr Capone, the track photo also includes a portion of the sign you see when you first land on Alcatraz. Taken by me during a very enjoyable trip to California in 2015.
Pps. The track title this week is another anagramā¦
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https://soundcloud.com/radiohummingbird/disquiet0255
this is Ā¶radio hummingbirdās contribution to this weekās disquiet junto with the serial number 0255. in short, the requirement for this contribution was to record a piece of music which sounds of what I would think Caponeās ghostly banjo sounds like.
this piece has been created using my special little travel synth kit (the modules used were: Koe 2.0, Disting mk 3, Spring, EvenVCO, Polivoks ADSR, VG2 and self-build lowpass filter) plus the SQ1 and a reverb as well as an echo pedal. the only post-processing applied was LANDR for mastering the recording.
please listen loud and enjoy what you hear.
3 Likes
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz/al-capones-ghost-banjo-disquiet0255
What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?
I donāt play banjo, I donāt have one. But I do have a QinQin, (sort of āChinese banjoā) I bought in Beijing 15 years ago, so I picked it up and made a little recording this morning.
The actual un-treated un-pitch-shifted instrument sounds like this:
https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz/snapshot-50-qinqin-china
Now how to link Al Capone to China? Well I let you guys make that connexion, but letās face it: everything seems to come from China nowadays, or at least have a ābudget counterpartā made in China, like guitars that have an expensive US version and a cheap-almost-identical-in-looks-no-so-identical-in-quality Chinese version, letās say that wherever he is, Al needed a new banjo and all he could get was a Chinese budget replica, a QinQin. This is exactly how Caponeās ghost playing a Chinese Banjo sounds, believe me!
I recorded 2 tracks of the instrument, one melody and another strumming a single chord, and what you hear is just that source material, chopped down, pitch shifted and passed through a couple of convulsion reverbs.
Performed DD in the morning of November 18th, 2016 @ Paris, france.
What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?
Ghost stories are prevalent throughout cultures. When they involve music, they manifest in ways that find parallels between two intangibles: ethereal presences, and a cultural form that you can, generally speaking, neither see nor touch. Now consider the case of Al Capone, who played banjo during his time on the famed prison island of Alcatraz in the San Francisco Bay ā a banjo that is said to be heard long after his death.
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
disquiet.com/junto/
Subscribe to project announcements here:
tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/
Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:
llllllll.co/t/capones-ghost-disquiet-junto-project-0255/
Disquiet Junto Project 0255: Caponeās Ghost
4 Likes
Very good deep and dense drone. Like it.
Your track title misses a 5 in soundcloud (thatās to show that people like me sometimes pay attention to the most stupid detailsā¦)
Love
DD
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https://soundcloud.com/richardfair/big-fellow-little-banjo-disquiet0255
Iāve never been to prison but I imagine that this is what it sounds like after the lights go out.
Somewhere amongst the noise there is a banjo playing, although it sounds more like a tin cup being hit on the bars of a cell.
Some say itās the ghost of Scarface, while other would have you think it was just the plumbing.
All done via Ableton live with a little help of a Banjo and a theremin. Plus lots of reverb and effects. Quite a departure from my normal contribution, yet very satisfying. Itās what I love about Disquet.
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Sorry, I know this isnāt helpful, but given the context of electronic music, surely I am not alone in thinking of Metalheadz and Hardleaders every single time I see this subject lineā¦no?
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https://soundcloud.com/randomshuffle/rans-alphonse-beyond-junto-project-0255
Found that old banjo in the theatre I worked
Iām really not a banjo player, but I found this little melody to play
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In lieu of banjo, Iāve used my new electric ukulele. Itās been a fun songwriting instrument, so Iāve taken the point view of a prisoner and channeled my inner Capone.
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https://soundcloud.com/glsmyth/uninvited-disquiet0255
As the scene begins instruments are interacting with one another. Al Caponeās banjo enters and begins to play Madonna Mia, a song that Capone wrote while he was locked up. The Wood Blocks are first to notice his entry and show some irritation. As the banjo pauses the Harp mocks what he is playing. The banjo, unsettled, tries to play but the mocking continues. Eventually the strings notice its presence and interrupt as it tries to play. The banjo gets mad and leaves, and the instruments return to their interactions.
The music is available through Creative Commons and the score is available at http://glsmyth.com/music/
3 Likes
https://soundcloud.com/pfaender/capones-ghost-disquiet0255
Using a sample of samattacott (freesound.org): tuningABanjo.mp3 and a digital banjo; I tweaked and cut the sample through several instances of granular synthesis.
4 Likes
Nice melody, can imagine Capone playing this behind the walls ā¦
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thanks, havent heard this for years! i always called this drug didnt know dilinja called himself caponeā¦ oh the days of just listening to badly recorded unlabeled mixtapes!
anyone want to vocode this thru banjo?
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Yeah, it was one of his main aliases. He released quite a number of tracks under that name. I probably have mostāif not allāof them, on vinyl. Most of those came out on the label Hardleaders. He also released a couple tracks on that label under the name Basic Influence, which produced one of the standout singles on that label, āStill Waters.ā
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXRdLgCKcDk
I couldnāt get enough of this tune back then. 22 years old. Gah.
Other aliases: Trinity and Cybotron.
Sorry for thread drift. Back to original music.
2 Likes
Disquiet Junto Project 0255: Caponeās Ghost
What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?
I went searching for banjo music. I wanted to avoid stereotypical bluegrass banjo sounds and found samattacottās amazing track ātuningABanjoā on Freesound. Thirty minutes of vague, random banjo sounds.
I selected a few segments and processed them through Borderlands. Added some Alcatraz prison ambience at the opening. 85 was Caponeās number at Alcatraz.
Thanks also to: YleArkisto, squashy555, and haldigital97 for their Freesound sounds.
Banjo sounds processed with Borderlands. Recorded and edited with Audacity.
Creative Commons license granted.
More on this 255th weekly Disquiet Junto project ā āCaponeās Ghost: What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?ā ā at:http://disquiet.com/0255/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:http://disquiet.com/junto/
3 Likes