The barbershop that I usually go to employs two barbers: one who plays oldies, and the other who plays no music when the one who plays oldies isn’t around. Today, both barbers were present, and there was a customer in each chair, so I took a seat and waited. It took a few moments before I noticed that no music was playing, which is unusual when both barbers are on duty. Each barber spoke to his respective customer until there was no speaking at all, and then all I heard was the two industrious pairs of scissors at work. When the barbers did speak, they gave room for each other to communicate clearly with their customer. When they cut, however, there was no such balance necessary. The result was a quiet cacophony of cuts and pauses. I managed to record 10 seconds. I don’t think this recording reflects particularly well the crispness of those four blades in this tiny shop, but I did my best under the circumstances. After the fact, it sounds a bit like a sword fight.
Disquiet Junto Project 0758: Background Noise
The Assignment: Play into the distraction.
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have five days to record and upload a track in response to the project instructions.
Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. The Junto is weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when your time and interest align.
Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks also generally appear in the llllllll.co discussion thread.
Disquiet Junto Project 0758: Background Noise
The Assignment: Play into the distraction.
Step 1: Consider past moments during which background noise has been an unwelcome distraction for you.
Step 2: Now, set up some loud noise to play continuously wherever it is you record your music — or, perhaps, situate yourself to make music where there is noise (near a busy freeway or a raging river, for example).
Step 3: Record a track that you make with that background noise fully audible — that is, play into the noise.
Tasks Upon Completion:
Label: Include “disquiet0758” (no spaces/quotes) in the name of your track.
Upload: A person participating in the Disquiet Junto should post only one track per weekly project (SoundCloud account preferred but not required). If on occasion you feel inspired to post more than one track (whether to a single account or across multiple accounts), you should clarify which is the “main” rendition for consideration by fellow members and (if on SoundCloud) for inclusion in the SoundCloud playlist.
Share: Post your track and a description/explanation at https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0758-background-noise/
Discuss: Listen to and comment on the other tracks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up for you.
Deadline: Monday, July 13, 2026, 11:59pm (that is: just before midnight) wherever you are.
About: https://disquiet.com/junto/
Newsletter: https://juntoletter.disquiet.com/
License: It’s preferred (but not required) to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., an attribution Creative Commons license).
Please Include When Posting Your Track:
More on the 758th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Background Noise — The Assignment: Play into the distraction — at disquiet.com/0758.
Scene Report
The media is the message
Living room scene, that is
Red Alert
Very much my vibe
This does not begin to express how hot it was — but I did get many thousands of words of a short story out of the experience
Pre-Junto
Gauze is the way
This week’s Disquiet Junto project has worked out well, tracks by dozens of musicians who take as their compositional and production inspiration the way gauze might be interpreted as a sonic effect. This image, shot from a hotel room in DTLA, was an alternate option, while I went with this one.