This junto exhausted me. So much to try and fit into one minute! And so much planning and patching for that minute! I'll do a full write up of my process shortly, but this was recorded live on the fly with one take.
Original field recording of my Tibetan Singing bowl, used for the source of this track:
https://soundcloud.com/337is/scraping-harmonics-contact-microphone-test?in=337is/sets/field-recordings
Full notes:
I was almost immediately certain I wanted to repurpose the above recording of my Tibetan Singing bowl when I read the concept of this week's Junto. The sustained tone created from scraping the edge of the bowl in a circular motion creates the harmonic overtones which can be infinitely sustained given the right stick technique. I found the sound both haunting and soothing, and a contact microphone recording of the bowl begins this performance. I played back the recording on my computer and fed the headphone out into my Music Thing Modular Mikrophonie at full gain (to induce a bit of distortion) and then jacked the volume up even further by dual gain-staging the signal via both sides of my Positronic Transient Gate. The PTG proved to be the heart and soul of this performance as I routed the audio chain through my Phonogene. The Phonogene was then cv-d six ways to sunday from the remaining outs of the PTG, which I essentially used as an elaborate envelope follower. I extended some of the envelopes further utilizing my Function, and spread a clock/gate from it throughout the effects chain. Everything was tempo synced through this gate, and the tenuous wisps of harmonics were modulated by it as well. The hardest thing was to establish the first layer, leave room for more delicate layers, and exit without getting overly dense and heavy ... all in under a minute. I love the near fade to silence, that is overcome with echoes of echoes, which re-arises just prior to the finish.
More on this 189th Disquiet Junto project (“Create a dense stack of attack-free tonal material from one audio source”) at:
http://disquiet.com/2015/08/13/disquiet0189-tonelayer/
More on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://disquiet.com/junto/
Join the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/
Disquiet Junto general discussion takes place at:
http://disquiet.com/forums/
(NOTE: I did not use this image)
Image associated with this project by Nicholas D., and used thanks to a Creative Commons license:
https://flic.kr/p/ca1iLd