I was trying to get into the Disregard Echoes concept, I decided to refresh a previously unavailable track I created when I was seriously infatuated with echoes and delays, particularly the casualties of infinite decay on some units. While some pedals/racks just repeat the original signal forever when you set “feedback” to 100%, others just clip, overload, crash or produce a dense distorted thing out of a single note or musical phrase.
Here I used my bamboo drums (from Guatemala and Mexico) called Tun or Tembonastle. And run the simple groove through rhythmic delays to create a nice evolving groove, and some notes went to different delays with 100% feedback that went through filters and pedal WahWah. The other sound used is my Maelzel mechanical metronome (oak wood, gorgeous) also treated with infinite echoes.
Here’s my Bamboo Painfull Clix released for the first time, let Violent Disregard Echoes be heard today.
Love
DD
Sorry about the length of this piece (six minutes), as there was no way to make it shorter. This is something that I will eventually revisit and expand to a length more fitting to its requirement.
I know little about the history of Australia, but Americans know how we treated the indigenous people when the Europeans arrived. This is a stain on our history that cannot be erased, and should not be erased.
Bathurst Stain is about the treatment of the Wiradjuri in just one instance, where locals poisoned a waterhole to rid themselves of these people.
This piece is scored for Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Timpani, Side Drum, Violin, Viola, Cello and String Bass.
I was inspired an essay by Laurie Spiegel about using ideas from Information Theory for composition. I tried to get a vibe to fit the troubling story of the poisonous creek . The track includes Algorithmic piano, runout-grooves, DX7, a tinkly Vangelis effect and field recording made under a freeway.
The assignment felt like semi-controlled noise, fuzz, and voices.
The voices and the bass drone were made with Morphagene (such a lovely beast) and Furthrrr Generator respectively. The rest ist Aalto, String Studio, Trash 2, some delays and compressors.
Sounds strangely alien, doesn’t it?
reflecting on the haiku, I felt I wanted to do something acoustic without any electronica. So I played on my zither with loads of delay, reciting the haiku over and over. When I felt like it was enough, I stopped and added some percussion and some drums, singing the haiku to what I was playing.
On YouTube, I got to an interview with Duncan Smith, a member of the Wiradjuri, I contacted him and asked for permission to use his voice and the music from that interview and he granted it.
Further, I did what I usually do and a new song is born. I am not really sure if it has got something to do with the Haiku… the song got echoes and that’s about it.
In preparation for this piece, Suss Müsik took some time to research Wiradjuri history.
We learned how during the 1820s, war broke out between the Wiradjuri and white British colonists just west of Sydney. We learned about vigilante groups who were formed to roam the Bathurst plains, hunting down the Wiradjuri as if they were wild animals. And we read about a local homestead owner who poisoned the water hole from which the Wiradjuri took refuge.
Timothy Leary once said that all suffering is caused by being in the wrong place. Suss Müsik thinks that’s a crock. When consciously inflicted upon others with the cruelest of intentions, suffering is unavoidable — every place we go is the wrong place simply because someone doesn’t want us there.
“There is an elasticity in the human mind,” wrote Charles Caleb Colton, “which [is] capable of bearing much but will not show itself until a certain weight of affliction be put upon it.” Listening to traditional Wiradjuri music recalls ancestral spirits: the rhythm is insistent, a series of singular beats that grow in intensity during performance.
For this cinematic piece, Suss Müsik combined field recordings of water with the sounds of homemade percussion and looped echo effects. Pieces of wood were clacked together to create the nuance of rhythm, upon which various reed tones were played using an EWI device. Although the result is a little longer than anticipated, we felt it was important to let things breathe a bit during transitions.
The piece is titled Yindymarra, named after the Wiradjuri word for doing things with kindness and in good time. The image is the Wiradjuri symbol for “meeting place.”
Many thanks to Jason Richardson for opening this window to a part of history of which we were unfamiliar.
Little to tell about this one because I did something pretty traditional I guess… just a rhythm and some soft instruments… I recorded some sounds with a cymbal, a wah wah, a rain stick, a ‘thunder maker’ (tube spring drum) and I used a lot of tape echo and spring reverb
And Ours Became No Ones(disquiet0295)-https://soundcloud.com/hypoidsound/and-ours-became-no-onesdisquiet0295
I have been thinking of a guitar centered piece lately, so when this prompt arrived I knew where I was going to start. Something about an Australian watering hole that feels familiar to me living around the American southwest. The arid landscape and scarcity of water and services feel so desolate, and reintroduce you to the importance of what really matters. The guitar fits this environment well, needing nothing more than a shoulder to hang from and hands to play. This is a sparse piece, fitting both my abilities and the feel of the subject. Dirge like in its pace but building with indignation. The three main characters, an acoustic, clean electric and angry loud electric guitar were recorded in GarageBand alongside the minimal acoustic drums. A nice minimal percussion from Korg Gadget was made and brought into Cubasis along with the guitars. I was fortunate to have the cicadas make an appearance just in time for this project, so they were recorded with the Zoom recorder and open the piece. The mixing, equalizing, effects and track automation were also pretty minimal with a small amount of verb for all and momentary delay on the acoustic. My music videos- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc_iQ5JFusPt9EIwKIZ5rew
Wow! Really nice piece and video, agreed on the ambience influenced guitar and sound I was wondering how to incorporate a video this week, but that’s setting the bar high, really good stuff!
It is sad what happened in the past to the natives of Australia (and Canada). Unfortunately the same is happening in the present moment to the people of Tibet. The piece has some Tibetan music and chanting in it, and also someone trying to teach Tibetan to westerners. Hoping to transmit Tibetan Buddhism to future generations, lets not lose this amazing knowledge.
Been a while, only my second Disquiet Junto project this year! The plus side is that I’ve been busy making, releasing and performing work, spurred on by my past Junto contributions. Full circle?
This project brought up thoughts of my home country’s own negligence.
See:
I was wondering how to incorporate a video this week, but that’s setting the bar high, really good stuff!