The material used in this piece was originally from a modular synthesizer improvisation on my Make Noise system, called For KS.
The piece used a multitrack acoustic guitar/voice improv as a reel for the Make Noise Morphagene as the main sound source. Other essential modules used: Maths, QPAS, Telharmonic, RxMx and Erbe Verb.
The following text is from a vision I had while listening to the partially finished piece.

(Transcript of the intro to Cold Clear Water, from Wolfgang Public Radio, 5/23/23)

Welcome to Cold Clear Water. On today’s show, we will discuss what we’ve all been talking about.

In the last decade we discovered that what was intended to be a work of fiction, the film Idiocracy, was in fact, a documentary. We can now say with absolute assuredness, that this is not just hyperbole.

This decade promises to bring even more stunning revelations, with Boring Old NASA’s discovery of the VALIS spacecraft in orbit around our planet. It turns out that the science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick wasn’t delusional, or even writing fiction during his final years. The VALIS trilogy is based entirely upon factual events. The events in the books that appear to be fiction, actually took place, only, on a different, slightly offset version of Earth. Apparently, there are an infinite number of these variants.

As we all know, one year ago today a manned shuttle witnessed the ‘alien’ craft materialize, less than 50 kilometers ahead of their orbit. As soon as the ship materialized, the crew took evasive action, as to not collide with the immense ship, that according to one crew member, looked like a piece of space driftwood, the size of 3 football stadiums, set end to end. Their actions had no effect. The controls were disabled. VALIS had the shuttle locked into it’s orbit with the some sort of ‘tractor beam’.

All Communication with the B.O.N. shuttle was temporarily lost. After almost an hour, communications were restored. Ground control heard the crew speaking amongst themselves. They ignored commands from the ground to answer. They simply continued discussing what had just happened to them. In the recordings we can hear two people, nearly raving with fascinated awe. The third is silent until near the end of the conversation. As the two shocked astronauts repeat words like, “Impossible” and ‘Unbelievable’ ‘I can’t believe it!’ And, most controversially, ‘I think that may have been God. I was God!’, the third crew member, just listens with an occasional chuckle and interjects the word “Yup” a few times. Eventually he breaks in to the conversation and says: ‘Yeah. I’ve been there. A lot. It’s DMT hyperspace. It’s the ketamine space. It’s the mushroom space. The Ayahasca space.”

He then goes on to name a list of several more hallucinogenic drugs and other forms of consciousness perturbation, such as advaned yoga, sensory deprivation tanks and the near death experience. All of which he has apparently experienced.
You can always spot the worker that came over from The Boring Company when they absorbed the politically decimated ruins of NASA.

The sounds you hear in the background are not music in the traditional sense. Although there is no way for humans to enter the VALIS craft, and no way for it’s occupants to leave, as a gift to us, they broadcast the sounds from inside of their ship and allowed major swaths of Earth’s communications bandwidth to be a conduit for the sounds, without interrupting normal operation of any device. A sort of multiplexing we may never truly understand. Especially since many of the devices broadcasting the sounds did not have power, or in some cases had been non functional for decades.

The sounds seem to come, not from the speaker in whichever device you are receiving it, but from the room itself. Not necessarily even from the room, but from everything in the room including the air including the outside air that is touching the structure you are in. From you. From every cell in your body. Upon hearing the sounds, many people report that they feel that they remember them, or have always known them, but had forgotten about. Those people, almost invariably weep when describing this. Some laugh and shake their heads in stunned awe.

The beings on the ship cannot describe themselves to us in any way except to show us, in our minds. They take myriad form, many of which can be recognized from myths and fairytales and origin stories from throughout history. They ‘sing’ songs called ‘Icaros’.
Long known on Earth as healing songs, sung by shamans in South America. We now know that these songs are universal in nature. They appear in every culture, in different forms. When sung around people who are in certain altered states of consciousness, they create hyperspatial objects. These objects can only be seen from within what psychedelics advocates call
‘X-space. The X, denoting the substance used to move into these spaces. These spaces can also be perceived by mystics and the ‘mentally ill’, without the use of extra chemicals. Anyone who travels by means of a full dose of a psychedelic substance, used with proper set and setting and purity of intent, will eventually encounter the objects and their keepers.

These objects have more than a visual aspect. They are obviously alive, continually changing and imbued with emotional significance. Proximity to the correct object can help heal many disorders from a lifetime of trauma to what is seen in the west is schizophrenia. One reason we cannot board the ship is that any unmanned probe overrides programming and moves in The opposite direction i’m nears The 2 km range. Any vehicle that has humans, Animals, Insects or plants on board locks into orbit with Vallas and the occupants fall immediately into a deep trance.

The craft itself appears to be completely organic in nature. The occupants have told us in the best way they can that the craft is made of something like wood that has a relationship with a mycelium that lives within it. This was all shown to us in mind movies. Some of them were matter-of-fact and almost like industrial training films from the 1950s and some were surrealistic/impressionistic journeys through the psyche that showed the traveler not just the physical details of the craft but also showed it the mind of the craft and its occupants.

On the interior walls, and other surfaces of the craft, mushrooms grow. Many plants with regular old leaves, grow in a mysterious light that seems to come from nowhere. The occupants of the ship eat the mushrooms constantly. The mushrooms are the source of all of their nutrients and water. The mushrooms are also high in a semi-tryptamine substance that seems to be a combination of several major hallucinogens. The molecule itself is very complex and of a sort never seen before on earth. We won’t get into that here But it is amazing. Scientists across the globe are calling it ‘the impossible’. Some aspects of the molecule resemble Ketamine and some resemble various Cannabinoids, while others resemble Salvinorin Alpha, the active ingredient in Salvia Divinorum. The list is too long to print here.

The ethnopharmacologist, Dennis McKenna claims that the mushroom is in fact, the ‘Excreta Bonum’ or ‘Good Shit’, he foresaw during his shamanic initiation, which is described in the book True Hallucinations, written by his brother Terence McKenna.

My favorite quote regarding the molecule, is from a chemist who said: ’It seems to show different parts of itself depending on what mood you are in. I’ll be damned if I get this thing at all!’

One of the most interesting things about the ship is it hull. A very odd feature, on the inside of the ship are little mouths, spaced randomly on the walls. They are what the occupants refer to as ‘pooper suckers’ , due to the flatulent sound they make when they breathe in the spores from the mushrooms, then inject them into a space between the living fungus/plant part of the ship. Then, they are somehow integrated into what is estimated to be a 100 m thick, impenatrable shell. The electron density of the mushroom spores have an electron density, far denser than titanium. Nobody knows what holds them together to make the seemingly impenetrable hull of the ship. Occasionally the ship will undergo a slight change which can be seen briefly by the human eye. It’s as if it blurs and then a small cloud floats away from it. These are trillions upon trillions of spores. Some of which fall into earths atmosphere, where they land on wood, cow dung and on many other substrates. Many of these substrates were not previously known to support fungal growth.

Despite many governments efforts, people all over the planet are picking and eating the mushrooms. Many have begun having large gatherings where they go into a group trance and sing songs that are eerily like the sounds from the VALIS spacecraft. In the days after these gatherings, good things seem to happen in the vicinity of the ritual. No scientist has been able to explain the phenomena, and many are abandoning their long held domes surrounding the empirical method.

After the break, we will talk about VALIS and it’s mushrooms, which Paul Stamets has named
‘Psilocybe VALISensis”. We will discuss the implications for our species, for our planet and, perhaps, for our understanding of what many have been trying to describe in books and stories for thousands of years: God.

We’ll be right back. First, the news.

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I was always fascinated by the sound of spaceships rumbling through empty space. So listen to the sounds inside and outside of a spaceship.

Created with my DIY modular synthesizer. Main audio source is a CGS77 Serge 1973 VCF in feedback mode. Reverb through PT2399 and Alesis MidiVerb. Modulation with NLC Triple Sloth. CGS76 Envelope, CGS114 Dual Universal Slope Generator, CGS85 Waveshaper, Low Pass Gate.

Be sure to turn in enough bass to hear Battlestar Galactica rumbling on it’s endless journey.

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I really liked this one a lot. It has a very visceral feeling to it. I initially wanted to go with a concept like yours. I wanted to do a waking up scene. Waking up to loneliness. The sounds of human things overlaying the ship rumbling. I wanted to have a lot of cloth sounds and water running, coffee being made. I love that you used radio. And thanks for Radio Garden. I didn’t know it and never think to go any further than my shortwave.
I also appreciate your including the VCV rack patch. I’ve only recently started playing with it, but it seems like amore than adequate gateway drug for future modular addicts. A lot cheaper than my 12u of 104hp… andI’m just getting started :slight_smile:

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The Assignment: „Record the sound of an apartment on a large interstellar ship.“

My solution: “Throw in as many samples as you find in one hour.”

It may seem repetitive, but it is not. All samples placed by human hands with love (in Reaper… :wink:

Although I do not believe that human beeings, as we know them, will ever travel interstellar: Here the apartment of bord janitor 7th class, McLane, who misses the comfort of silence.

VSTs, VST fx, and 8 cc0 samples, as listed on soundcloud.

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For the track “Apt12”, I compiled and filtered audio recordings using Supercollider so this track could continue indefinitely. The obligatory rumble is evident throughout the track and I added a couple of hallway cleaning devices that pass on several occasions throughout the track to add some texture. My first submission to Disquiet challenges and this site and Soundcloud.

Joule

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Lonely Starships

They created sixteen starships
Sent to sixteen points in the sky
In hopes the human race could survive
They accounted for all possibilities
Except the one that happened
All that survived were the service robots
Keeping the starships well maintained
For the creators
Who would never wake

Ambient sounds from the lonely starships, made for the Disquiet Junto prompt to record the sound of an apartment on a large interstellar ship.

Created from a combination of environmental recordings around my house (refrigerator hum, microwave oven, air purifier fans, cat water fountain) and various sounds and sequences created with my modular synth (Keystep and Teletype controlling several oscillators and LFOs). Combined and processed in Ableton.

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In addition to life support on the massive craft there are appliances, communications and other audible noises, biotech mechanisms, many different devices at play. What it lacks in human presence, movements, voices, etc., it makes up for with the activity in the electromechanical world we are surrounded by.

PaulStretch bed underlies unedited modular activity, mastered in Pro Tools with EQ, dynamics and reverb. Long!

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A clock in a bathroom and some mlr stuff

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Hehe - we went the same route - Mine is also a budget cabin…

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For this week’s junto, I imagined being a passenger on the “Titan” Interstellar Cruiser. Sadly after spending all my money on the latest Martian modular synth gear, I could only afford to go steerage class, so my cabin is not too well soundproofed…

I recorded various background sounds from around the house (fridge compressor, washing machine and dishwasher, computer fans, a tape being rewound, an old 3.5" floppy disk drive being read, I set my recorder spinning on a record player deck… etc…) and then processed each recording to create a series of different ambiences, some designed to feel closer and some more distant. I then layered these up and played aound with them until I had my ambience. Some sounds repeat every few minutes, though at different rates, while others fill the entire 1hr 25min length of the track so it is not totally repetitive.

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Lets see if someone creates a first class cabin sound :smiley:

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The inhabitants died long long ago and the ship is endlessly floating in space .

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off course. keep it disorganized (not so much that its flagged). send missive back (obscure group - potential listeners high on openness/cynicism/progressive/tech oriented. hopefully high enough probability of conscious raising) meditate: focus on neural static, visual noise when looking at clouds(?) (remember?) hiss in silence (already updated against), focus architecture on sound, peripheral attention on thought
idiosyncratic that no data for these thoughts (yet: please not another update) focus
wasnt enough to pay extra for ad free, less intrusion, but always there. can only shield for so long
this doesnt make sense. imagine choosing not to wear glasses because you don’t want to be augmented, you had the choice
everyone feels that they’re in control who wouldnt want this ease. i knew it when it became mandatory i knew it woul/ oh no focu/

radical/incorrect thought detected
shit more ti
update complete
we’re so lucky to have google mind neural architecture

voice recorded in podfarm, paulstretched
converted to midi
cello/trumpet sample in protoplasm +vinyl/ambient reverb

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So this week it seems I will be mostly working really remotely… using my electronic thumb to hitch-hike through space!

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Nice piece! Welcome to the Junto :slight_smile:

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First class cabin = 4’33” = very uninspiring :wink:

Really enjoying this weeks variety of works! Maybe my ISP, maybe the lengths, but having a hella hard time loading in SC. After lots of listening, a bit of regret going the literal route myself, maybe a bit more musical artistic license would’ve been nice?

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Welcome. @Joule. Great to have you here (and in outer space).

Hey All, This article showed up in my Google feed at work today for some reason and I started reading and low and behold Marc pops up in it. Posting as this is kinda an ambient week i thought it was interesting.

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I think my personal circumstances–spending the next month on travel living in a hotel room–helped inspire my contribution this week. I imagined a lone traveler, in bargain accommodations on an intergalactic cruise, spending one day of many, drifting towards his destination. The wheel of time, like the stars outside, rotate slowly. The mocking tone of the laugh track, penetrating the walls from the neighboring compartment, is intentional. The following is the list of “movements”:

  • i awaken
  • in the next compartment, they watch a show
  • i re-watch the travel video after lunch
  • a vague disturbance somewhere, not here
  • i wonder why
  • i sleep

The ship noises were created using the Ticky-Tacka instrument from the Toxic Metal Kontakt collection, generated by interwoven random number generators and processed through a convoluted FX rack, and finally a Black Hole reverb. The engine noise was created with a random drone sample, pitched down to be in tune with the musical elements of the track and mangled with a Nebula plugin. The laugh track was pains-takingly extracted, laugh-by-laugh, from an episode of “Big Bang Theory”. The ambient meal sounds were recorded on my phone as I ate dinner tonight. The musical sections were all performed on Dune 3.

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It turns our there are plenty of annoying noises around my apartment if you put the mic in the right place. A few tracks of that, plus a few from my synth, and I got my version of the cheap seats.

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