Disquiet Junto Project 0295: Disregard Echoes

Disquiet Junto
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poisoned-waterhole 560

Disquiet Junto Project 0295: Disregard Echoes
Make music inspired by a haiku, reflecting on Australian history.

This week’s project is a collaboration with Naviar Records and Western Riverina Arts, spearheaded by longtime Junto participant Jason Richardson. The results will contribute to an exhibition in the town of Narrandera during October that incorporates haiku describing local scenes.

Step 1: Consider the following haiku:

Poisoned Waterhole:
Violent disregard echoes.
Keenly felt today.

Step 2: Write a piece of music inspired by that haiku, which was written by Peita Vincent.

Background: This project is the brainchild of Jason Richardson. He has encouraged members of the community to write haiku describing local scenes. Those haiku have been turned into music as part of Naviar Records’ weekly Naviar Haiku series. The resulting recordings will join the haiku, photography and a textile exhibition Slow Book Haiku by Kelly Leonard Weaving and Greg Pritchard. There are also plans for Naviar Records to develop a CD featuring a selection of recordings. While the image of a poisoned waterhole speaks to many environmental concerns, the location earned its name during the “Frontier Wars” of the early 19th Century when the indigenous Wiradjuri people resisted European settlement. In the 1830s, several groups of Aboriginal families used to camp by the waterhole. Annoyed and eager to get rid of them, the local homestead owner poured drums of poison into the waterhole, killing many of them. This discussion comes as contemporary Australia reconciles colonial history.

Five More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: If your hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to include the project tag “disquiet0295” (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.

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’s deadline is 11:59pm wherever you are on Monday, August 28, 2017. This project was posted in early afternoon, California time, on Thursday, August 24, 2017.

Length: The length is up to you.

Title/Tag: When posting your track, please include “disquiet0295” 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 295th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Disregard Echoes: Make music inspired by a haiku, reflecting on Australian history — at:

https://disquiet.com/0295/

Thanks to Jason Richardson, who proposed the project; Naviar Records, which is collaborating with Richardson on a series of haiku, as part of the ongoing Naviar Haiku community; Peita Vincent, who wrote this haiku; and Western Riverina Arts, which is hosting an exhibit that will include music from the haiku series.

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0295-disregard-echoes/

There’s also on a Junto Slack. Send your email address to twitter.com/disquiet for Slack inclusion.

Photo associated with this project is by Jason Richardson.

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Hey, I’m a bit confused here as this project seems to completely overlap the naviar project posted yesterday.
I already contributed a track for the Navairhaiku project, I wont upload the same thing , change tags, re-title (disuiet0295 instead of naviarhaiku190) etc, what’s the point?
Or the idea is that we create 2 different tracks in a week, inspired by the same thing, etc??
I’m pretty sure there’s something I don’t get on my side,
Please enlighten me.
Love

DD

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Hi. You can just add the disquiet0295 tag to your existing track, and I’ll add it to the playlist.

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Hi, as a tag, not in the title right?

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Yeah, that’s totally fine.

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You can probably do either but I do both.

Thanks for contributing your music to this project. I’ve really enjoyed your tracks.

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Cool, here then:

https://soundcloud.com/daniel-diaz/in-poisoned-waters-naviarhaiku190

Why do I feel like I’m cheating? What’s wrong with me?

:wink:

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No comment on the cheating aspect of things. (g)

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Here’s a recording from the location that I made using an electric guitar, which has a “Nashville” tuning that’s an open E minor.

There’s more on my blog.

Thanks to Marc for sharing this project and thanks to the Junto for joining the Crossing Streams exhibition. I’m looking forward to hearing your responses.

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Thanks Jason, enjoying your contributions myself (music, images and as idea-project-man).
Enjoying a lot.

I’ll probably create an specific junto track as well if I have time and inspiration to get into the same subject from different paths.
Haikus are good for that, aren’t they?

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Can you cheat at Juntos?

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Yes, I’ve an idea from a different haiku to develop another response.

One of the haikus that hasn’t been used came from my partner Jo Roberts and I’ve been thinking about it since I made my recording:

Nurrungdera lands
A town squats here but Country
Breaks through singing truth

It leads me to think about a composition that will complement the Em tuning of the guitar.

Thanks again :slight_smile:

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https://soundcloud.com/user-970962304/disregard-echoesdisquiet0295

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Poisoned Waterhole:
Violent disregard echoes.
Keenly felt today.

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this is awesome, like your guitar it’s just being played by the wind, the cars and the sympathetic resonance.
I’m completely charmed and hypnotized.
Are the isolated, melodic notes being played by the rain? Really?
Mental.

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Thanks again.

Yes, I think the guitar was tuned EGBGBE and the rain hitting the strings gave that arpeggio-like result. It was unexpected and you can hear the strings start becoming muted as they got soaked.

I’ve been meaning to try letting the wind play a guitar. First learned of this approach from Garlo Jo’s Vent de Guitares project.

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https://soundcloud.com/user-208393504/australian-stone-disquiet0295

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I moderated a discussion earlier tonight on grief and loss, so I needed this–cathartic. I tried to evoke the horror of the haiku–the image of parents finding their children lying by the lake at nightfall, poisoned by the water. I guess it’s a kind of threnody. I find it hard to listen to, but given the subject matter, I suppose it should be.

the basic pieces used to construct the piece were:

–a recording of backyard nighttime noises (using my wife’s phone)
–a synth1 patch I made (sort of string-ish)with some minor 2nds
–a Z Vex Fuzz Factory set so that it’s driven to internal oscillation (no instrument plugged in, just a cable), fiddling the controls to modulate it
–on the outro, a solo drum tweaked a little for extra resonance

not much in the way of effects except limiting and some reverb. I did layer the Fuzz Factory tracks by creating multiple copies and then detuning and panning some of them. This created a lot of density (so much that Soundcloud suggested the tag “Black Metal”! fond memories of my teenage days listening to Venom!!)

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See also some of Ex Easter Island Head’s work - saw them open a concert with three guitars tuned to different drones, and three oscillating desk fans in front of them. They slowly turned the fans on one by one. It was magic.

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Thanks for this. I’d been thinking about setting up a fan with a tuned guitar.

Three guitars would be much richer, cheers.

Ex Easter Island Head is a great name too!

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