#22

Artistic collaboration is a form of automatic writing. In his classic book A Vision, W.B. Yeats discussed the importance of relinquishing to spontaneous discovery. “I was told that I must write,” according to the unconscious impulses that Yeats claimed had penetrated his creative process. “That I must seize the moment between ripe and rotten—that there was a metaphor of apples about to fall and [had] just fallen.”

Whether due to supernatural alignment or the ideomotor effect, Yeats was on to something. Productive creative dialogue is a magical experience. Listen to how African percussion music is built around polyrhythmic conversations, for example, forming a singular one-on-one connection between two individual members among a large troupe of performers.

Suss Müsik took part in a similar discovery recently with Wm. Wolfgang Allen. A rough, simple piano phrase was recorded to 8-track. Allen then emoted a beautifully wordless vocal: vulnerable, anguished, redemptive. The piano phrase was refined using the vocal as guide, which was then followed by a new vocal response. Not a word was spoken between participants; the dialogue was entirely musical. Softly percolating bass, Moog synth and percussion finish the piece.

The result is both lament and celebration, a deeply personal and transcendent interaction. To again quote Yeats: “I do not know what my [creation] will be to others — nothing perhaps. To me it means a last act of defense against the chaos of the world … a tragedy of separation and rejection, which instead of asking whether it is not something almost incredible, [it] clings to all that is vague and obvious.”

The piece is titled Translating and dedicated to the memories of W. Larson and T. Thompson. RIP both.

8 Likes
#23

Hello everybody, I hope you are well. This is already a very strong week with many inspired and moving contributions.

My piece is much simpler. It is a kind of love letter to one of my very favourite guitarists, Marc Ribot. In particular, some of the work he was doing with John Zorn around 20-25 years ago - Bar Kokhba, Circle Maker, various Filmworks - really got into my heart and head.

Unfortunately, it didn’t get into my fingers.

Apologies in advance for the rough playing.

9 Likes
#24

:heart:

6 Likes
#25

This is a song for my father, and in some small way represents the expansiveness of my feelings for him and the fleeting time that we have left together.

It was composed on iOS using pads from Zeeon recorded into 4 Enso loopers with speed changes and loop start/length controlled by a MIDI Fighter Twister.

3 Likes
#26

there’s a cat who’s often in our garden, she has a thyroid problem; is very skinny, so we feed her (almost every day atm) she always leaves a few meaty chunks, and the magpies are getting wise to this. one brave magpie was waiting patiently today but after the cat had finished eating she just sat there guarding the last few chunks. this is for the naughty cat we call mitzy.

in protoplasm i used a choir-like sample from gansynth and spoon & glass / door samples from freesound for rhythm.

4 Likes
#27

Hello all!

Waiting for You (disquiet0380)
Fighting City Hall has devoured my involvement, time and patience of late. So after missing last weeks prompt, a short reprieve gave me a chance to try some new experiments.

A simple melody was created in Cubasis with Aparillo, Micrologue and Kauldron. The Micrologue bass line uses the ShimmerFX harmonic exciter but the remaining Micrologue and Aparillo tracks use only a bit of eq. The last track is a ghostly pad in Kauldron where I wanted to try live automation with the Bleass Reverb transform pad. Unfortunately, I couldn’t seem to make that write in the automation lane. Not sure if it normally works or if I’m just doing something wrong, but I would greatly appreciate any feedback from my fellow iOS musicians using Bleass in Cubasis.

The new approach found me mixing down the melody and ghost pad into separate tracks and bringing them into AUM. In AUM, each were loaded into individual file player channels and the Bleass Reverb plugin was added to the ghostly Kauldron. Then with both armed to record, the morphing pad was opened and played. This new effected Kauldron track was imported back into Cubasis for the final mix. A boring description for readers and a little convoluted, but an effective work around with good results I thought.

8 Likes
#28

I finished this track a few weeks back, but since it was recorded for someone very specific, I thought it fit the intent of this week’s project.

The inspiration for this song came from one of those daily-question books for couples. The question was “write a two-line poem about your partner.” My answer was:

Lovely as a flowering tree,
Your beauty and strength blossom together.

I knew immediately that this poem would become the inspiration for a song. Then, late one night, while I was on a long temporary work assignment in Washington DC., with nothing but my laptop and a MIDI controller, I fumbled upon a motif that really struck me. I enabled a track in Ableton Live and played the melody line in its entirety.

I knew instantly that this was the melody I was looking for. But how to capture the rest of the song? I knew I couldn’t play it again… I was just lucky enough to have recorded it the first time. To make matters more complicated, I don’t have the piano skills to play along with the recorded melody either. So I tried to capture the emotion of the melody in my head and just started playing chords.

By some sort of miracle I never expect to repeat, the resulting chords fit neatly with the melody. I spent the next several months tweaking it and ignoring it, then it tweaking more. As Valentine’s Day approached, I knew it was time to finish it, as a gift to my girlfriend.

6 Likes
#29

Here’s my second response to a Disquiet Junto challenge, to a much appreciated prompt. My audience of one is someone who was very interested in electronic music decades ago, and in her later life liked listening to horn concerti during the day at home and in her studio.

The piece is made from a sample of a piece she liked, reinterpreted in an improvisation with a Morphagene. The results were tidied up in Pro Tools.

4 Likes
#30

Decided to make a composition for myself.

I’ll keep the description short:
All sequenced and composed on a Digitakt: some manipulated piano sample looping endlessly, glitch sounds some looped some not, mostly inaudible vocal samples.
Recorded into a single track in reaper with very light effects added.

Came out quite bleak sounding…

4 Likes
#31

This is perfect. You don’t need any work on your recording at all. I was there with you.

2 Likes
#32

Lovely work, poem and music.

2 Likes
#33

just started and kept going
had a sleep in the middle
and then it was done

it’s for anyone who wants to listen

5 Likes
#34

I love this idea :smiley: I wonder if you can play the composition for the cat while she is eating the meaty chunks?

I really liked the sound here, so I looked up protoplasm, but damn it looks like its a windows only VST :pensive:

Nice job :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#35

Hey All, I was racking my brains to think of someone for his assignment but I went into the reading room and saw a book on Morrissey laying on the floor so I had my person. I can understand if anyone finds him to be annoying cause he is really annoying but I just really love the old bastard. I guess this track would be more for the fans in mourning. Lord wouldn’t that be a laugh fest- Morrissey fans gathered at a memorial for a dead Moz. Hope all are well.

Peace, Hugh

3 Likes
#36

Anybody notice Soundcloud stats acting funny?
Like not updating. There’s a ridiculous low count on plays on this week’s tracks, songs with 3, 4 plays (one track has 0 plays since yesterday)
My track has 17 likes and 5 plays lol
I played some tracks twice or thrice and still they show 3-4 plays total.
Am I alone?

4 Likes
#37

yeah, it’s been messed up for the last 24 hours. my submission was at 2 plays for a long time then went up to 6…which actually might be accurate lol

3 Likes
#38

Well, my submission last week was my worst performing track ever, in terms of plays.
Perhaps we’re just losing popularity man, we’ve been around for too long…

17 likes and 5 plays means 12 guys liked the track and never heard it. That explains why they liked it :wink:

4 Likes
#39

I’ve also noticed that sometimes the track statistics are a mess.

As a side note, one thing I’m going to start doing is putting the current playlist at the top of my spotlight each week. I’m not sure when they introduced the home page, as distinct from the /stream page, but that also I think has resulted in some reduced play.

2 Likes
#40

Daniel I have also noticed this. There’s definitely something up. But for me it just started yesterday.

3 Likes
#41

First time contributing to Disquiet Junto. The track was made using Fieldscaper app featuring two samples - one an original string section line and the other a conga sample from a 70’s LP. I used the looper section to play the synth part in live and recorded the horn in one take last night. Could probably do with a better mix but it stands up ok. I wanted to try and portray a search for peace in a sometimes chaotic world. The track is dedicated to my wife as it’s our anniversary today!

7 Likes