Essential loop recordings

[kholmhud@nwu.edu (Kevin Holm-Hudson)]

>Responding to The Man Himself's post, I agree that _No Pussyfooting_ and
>Fripp's recent soundscapes work are essential for any looper's
>library--Torn is another obvious choice. I'd like to share perhaps some
>_non_-obvious choices from the "art-music" (whatever that is) realm:
>
>Daniel Lentz--a great and sadly neglected West Coast composer, does some
>very intricate stuff with cascading echo systems. IMO his finest is _Missa
>Umbrarum_, which is on CD on the New Albion label. Lentz's singers sing 
>the
>text of the Roman Catholic mass a syllable at a time into looping systems
>of various durations, and each movement of the mass is also in a different
>style--eventually they all combine seamlessly. Accompanying the voices, by
>the way, are tuned wine glasses (filled with wine, natch), which are
>struck, rubbed, bowed, etc. like one big glass pipe organ. (The singers
>also drink specified amounts of the wine during performance, to change the
>pitch--naturally adding a fun element of inebriation to the performance
>praxis.) Other Lentz albums that explore interlocking synth loops in a
>quasi-Reich way are _On the Leopard Altar_ (probably out of print) and 
>_The
>Crack in the Bell_ (definitely out of print--it was on Angel records, and
>you can still find cut-outs from time to time.) He's also recorded several
>piano pieces that use massed pianos and loops.
>
>Is there room on this list for looping not supported by technology? I'm
>thinking for example of Erik Satie's _Vexations_ (a slow piano phrase
>repeated 840 times--taking some 17 hours; I participated in a group
>performance of this in the early 80s) and Terry Riley's seminal _In C_,
>which certainly involves looping although manually played.
>
>Glad to see this list is up and running so quickly!
>
>Kevin Holm-Hudson
>Department of Academic Studies and Composition
>Northwestern University School of Music
>711 Elgin Rd.
>Evanston, IL 60208
>
>"The mind should wander long before the pitch begins to." -Khh
>
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