Audio Journal 2016 (disquiet0261) by Nate Trier

This week's Disquiet Junto assignment was to create an audio retrospective of 2016. The retrospective could include music, but didn't need to. We were to include 5-second snippets of whatever we wanted, but our selections had to be evenly spaced into regular intervals over the course of the year.

This was actually an enlightening exercise - I thought this had been a pretty dry year for me, but I actually created over 30 recordings in 2016 and that number doesn't even include performances that were not recorded, pen-and-paper compositions, arrangements, and the two EP's I released (one under a pseudonym).

Just goes to show how our perceptions are not always based in facts!

My "regular interval" for this compilation was every three weeks (so, in 2016, my longest dry spells were when I made only one recording in 3 weeks).

Since there's not a lot to talk about compositionally for this one, let's talk nerdy audio stuff: I tried using Soundflower for the first time - I just ran the audio from Soundcloud directly into Ableton Live and recorded it there. Pretty easy. And useful, considering Soundcloud decided it repeatedly "couldn't find" the audio files I was trying to download. In Ableton, I sorted the excerpts into different types (pop, piano, noise, beats, etc.) and gave each type of music its own place in the audio field. A little compression on the master bus.

Also, this compilation begins and ends with a little throwback for those of us who remember when "compilations" were only made by record labels...

The pieces are:
:05 - :10 - 12 - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/12a
:10 - :15 - Tiny Layers, Meta Landscapes - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/tiny-layers-meta-landscapes-disquiet0217-formsong
:15 - :20 - Arrite - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/arrite-disquiet0220-rhythmicarrhythmic
:20 - :25 - I Will Never Eat at That Particular Buffet Again - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/i-will-never-eat-at-that-particular-buffet-again-disquiet0223-layeredsameness
:25 - :30 - The Temple Bells Do Not Hear Basho - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/the-temple-bells-do-not-hear-basho-disquiet0227
:30 - :35 - Emotions - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/emotions-graphic-score-realization
:35 - :40 - NND-DUB - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/nnd-dub-disquiet0233
:40 - :45 - In Between the Walls - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/in-between-the-walls-disquiet0238
:45 - :50 - Weinstein - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/weinstein-disquiet0240
:50 - :55 - Get It Done! - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/get-it-done-disquiet0245
:55 - 1:00 - An Abandoned Bed - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/an-abandoned-bed
1:00 - 1:05 - On Mighty Men - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/on-mighty-men-disquiet0249
1:05 - 1:10 - Serial Parameter Shift - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/serial-parameter-shift
1:10 - 1:15 - Toes, Clothes & Thyme - https://soundcloud.com/robotmonstor/01-toes-clothes-and-thyme
1:15 - 1:20 - Winter concert at my new job
1:20 - 1:25 - It's Not A Toobah - https://soundcloud.com/triermusic/its-not-a-toobah-overtone-euphonium-disquiet0260

Photo by Bine Rodenberger on Flickr

* * * * *
More on this 261st weekly Disquiet Junto project — “Audio Journal 2016: Create a sonic diary of the past year with a dozen five-second segments — at:

http://disquiet.com/0261/

More on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements here:

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

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co:

http://llllllll.co/t/make-a-2016-sound-journal-disquiet-junto-0261/5891

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