Capone's Ghost (Disquiet Junto Project 0255)

[disquiet]

Placeholder in advance of project going live.

[disquiet]

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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 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.

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 group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto):

Disquiet Junto Project 0255: Capone’s 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 — a banjo that is said to be heard long after his death.

Step 2: Create a short piece of what you think Capone’s 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 “disquiet0255” (no spaces) in the name of your track. If you’re 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 “disquiet0255” 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 — “Capone’s Ghost: What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?” — at:

disquiet.com/0255/

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/

There’s 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.

[sevenism]

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

[klaatuberada]

Something simple and quite literal. Temporally distended banjos and reverb.

[Tuonela]

I found a track I’d 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 goes…

[earthborn.visions]

https://soundcloud.com/earthborn_visions/bacon-jalapenos-disquiet0255

For this week's project I started with a (midi) snippet from a 1930's tune, 'How Deep is the Ocean?', which seemed somehow appropriate when you've 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 Al's dislocation from his former life. Changing levels of reverb throughout the track were used to evoke ghostliness... I hope!

Looking forward to hearing / reading about everyone else's 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 anagram...

[mode.analogue]

this is ¶radio hummingbird's contribution to this week's 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 Capone’s 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.

[DeDe]

What does the banjo music of the fabled criminal sound like?

I don’t play banjo, I don’t have one. But I do have a QinQin, (sort of “Chinese banjo”) 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:

Now how to link Al Capone to China? Well I let you guys make that connexion, but let’s face it: everything seems to come from China nowadays, or at least have a “budget counterpart” 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, let’s 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 Capone’s 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.

disquiet.com/0255/

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 — 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: Capone’s Ghost

[DeDe]

Very good deep and dense drone. Like it.
Your track title misses a 5 in soundcloud (that's to show that people like me sometimes pay attention to the most stupid details...)
Love
DD

[RichardFair]

I've 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 it's 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. It's what I love about Disquet.

[detritus_tabu]

"Capitalism is the legitimate racket of the ruling class." Capone
Amen Brother.

https://soundcloud.com/detritus-tabu/capone-alone-disquiet0255

Peace, Hugh

[Larrea]

Sorry, I know this isn't 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 line...no?

[RandomShuffle]

Found that old banjo in the theatre I worked
I'm really not a banjo player, but I found this little melody to play

[les-s]

Rare recording of The Birdmen of Alcatraz featuring Al Capone on banjo.

https://soundcloud.com/les-squeegee/the-angel-of-death-disquiet0255

Later, Les

[Drewsky]

Collaboration with @murray

https://soundcloud.com/bonemurmurer/hazy-afternoon-banjo

[bassling]

In lieu of banjo, I've used my new electric ukulele. It's been a fun songwriting instrument, so I've taken the point view of a prisoner and channeled my inner Capone.

See here for more track discussion.

[George_Smyth]

As the scene begins instruments are interacting with one another. Al Capone's 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/

[Pfaender]

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.

[Pfaender]

Nice melody, can imagine Capone playing this behind the walls ...

[sevenism]

thanks, havent heard this for years! i always called this drug didnt know dilinja called himself capone.. oh the days of just listening to badly recorded unlabeled mixtapes!

anyone want to vocode this thru banjo?