Month: December 2021

And it’s a wrap. 2020 was the first year since I founded Disquiet.com in 1996 — this month having been its 25th anniversary — that I posted at least once each day. Today, the last day of 2021, marks the first time I’ve done so two years in a row. I imagine evolving priorities may change things at some point, but the habit got me through these two tough years. […]

I’ve learned that the publication Art Practical is no more. I used to read it regularly, but only contributed once, back in April 2012. I’m posting the full text of my piece, “Sonic Infrastructure,” here for archival purposes. The essay was part of an issue devoted to sound. The issue included an introduction by Tess Thackara (who invited me to contribute), an interview with Paul DeMarinis by Renny Pritikin, a […]

Sebastian writes: LondonJazz News, the site, our social media feeds and our Wednesday morning newsletter only make a difference if what we produce is actually read, so I have gone through an […]

Long chided for its lack of narrative, L'Avventura was awarded the Jury Prize at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival and made Italian actress Monica Vitti an international star. Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, the film starred Gabriele Ferzetti as Sandro, Vitti as Claudia, Lea Massari as Anna and Dominique Blanchar as Giulia. In short, the film is about the disappearance of a young woman (Massari) during a boating trip in the […]

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. 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. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, […]

Before big-beat pop became the rage in London in 1963, jazz was still hip music for young adults. In 1961, All Night Long was filmed in London and released the following year. The neo-noir drama directed by Basil Dearden starred a range of British and American actors: Patrick McGoohan (Danger Man, The Prisoner), Marti Stevens, Paul Harris, Keith Michell, Richard Attenborough and Betsy Blair. The story is a reboot of […]

I'm a big fan of English spy films shot during World War II. With Britain at war with Germany since 1939, the film industry there had a huge responsibility to raise spirits and keep the nation's morale up. There are many of these films, often focused on espionage, presumably to keep the population on guard and aware of the presence of danger and to encourage people not to talk to […]