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Looper's Delight
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Yes, we are getting into loop religion here, and it's probably a good idea
to consider some form of "grounding" whenever one begins to diddle with
these higher states. It is decidedly NOT a good idea to zone out on the
overtones while navigating the Autobahn (or the Long Island Expressway, or
Interstate 80, or while tending the tribe's fire, or when sawing wood with
a
radial arm saw, or... you get the picture) I begin by focusing on my
breathing and my physical presence if I feel a little too light.
Contrariwise, I've maintained that if one really wants to know what
psychotropic drugs can do, just stay awake for twenty-four hours drinking
coffee, then don a set of headphones with some seventies-era Steve Reich
and
go to the local shopping mall on foot.
Another important lesson for me has been to learn to enjoy the moment,
and walk away, letting go of it. If I chased down every sound that caught
my
ear, I'd get nothing done! Sometimes it's more important to do the
housework
than to capture sounds which should remain free.
That having been said, one of my all-time favorite tapes is of sunrise
in May, the birds riffing big-time. I can put it on almost any sound system
and it recreates the environment beautifully.
-----Original Message-----
From: James Pokorny <j.pokorny@worldnet.att.net>
To: Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com <Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 9:22 PM
Subject: Re: It just goes...
>Stephan said:
>
>>I often notice (or maybe
>>just lapse into a particular state) that when in a "noisy" environment
such
>as a
>>crowded restaurant, an effort can be made to treat all of the various
>sounds
>>(snippets of conversations, clinks of glass and silverware, etc., at
>various
>>frequencies) in a detached or homogeneous way. The result is a rather
>smooth
>>cacophony that rises and falls with bits of recognizable verbage coming
>>occasionlly to the surface. It takes a little effort to treat all of the
>sound
>>sources in such an environment as totally equal with no intrinsic meaning
>in
>>terms of language, etc., but the result is a very interesting and
>somewhat
>>exhilarating, "sound collage" experience.
>>
>>This is probably brought on by many years of intense listening to music
>of
>>various sorts (including my own)
>
>I think we're getting back into the realm of "loop religion" here! I've
had
>similar experiences where I tend to zone out by intensely concentrating on
>and/or suddenly becoming aware of all the surrounding sounds. I realize
>that this is recommended within Buddhism as an exercise in centering and
>focus. I'm no student of Buddhism, but I always liked this idea, at least
>in theory. And I believe that this was the basis of John Cage's
>experimental "composition" called 4'33" (performer sits behind instrument
>and remains silent for 4 minutes and 33 seconds -- the point being that
>all
>the ambient sounds of the hall [papers rustling, throats clearing,
>overhead
>fans whirring, etc.] ARE the music.)
>
>But to be honest, I get a little frightened when I realize that I've been
>driving on an expressway at 75 mph with the windows down and enjoying the
>"musical content" of vehicles rushing by in the opposite lanes, horns
>honking, all the pings and buzzes that emanate from my dashboard, etc. It
>makes me think -- OK, it's great that I can think of this as "music" --
>but
>I should be concentrating more on my driving! I wouldn't want the
>performance to end with squealing brakes and crunching metal.
>
>A month or two ago I was walking down several flights of stairs in my
>building at work. The steam pipes starting hissing and giving off a
>fairly
>strident, screechy sound. But then a second tone arose, quickly followed
by
>a third. Despite the unpleasant texture of the hiss, the resulting chord
>was really quite lovely. It made me wonder how often this sort of thing
>occurs. I had the idea that I'd wind up sneaking away from my desk and
>spending hours loitering in the stairwell waiting for it to happen again.
>But common sense prevailed and I haven't started this practice. Yet.
>
>A rather more pleasant experience occurred last week. I woke up at about
>4:30 in the morning because all the birds outside my window were waking up
>(these birds are LOUD). Usually when this happens I get angry since it's
>hard to get back to sleep for another hour until they calm down, which is
>when I'm getting up anyway. But this one morning I sort of slowly drifted
>into wakefulness, suddenly realizing that each different bird was singing
>it's own "looped" melodic pattern, which would come around again and
>again.
>There must have been six or seven different species of birds, because
>there
>was a real sense of order -- one "loop" running and interacting with
>another, some moments of silence, more "loops" entering, etc. It was a
very
>full sound altogether, and also much more soothing than I'd ever thought
>possible. I had always regarded the use of bird sounds in recorded music
as
>being extremely trite, but this was music enough in itself and didn't need
>any human interaction (except for the listening). I don't know that I
would
>ever have come to this realization if I hadn't been involved in looping.
>
>So I'm having somewhat of a dilemma here -- am I evolving as a listener to
>the point where random sound can be as pleasant and meaningful as
>"structured" music, or am I just losing it big time?
>
>James
>