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Looper's Delight
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My introduction to looping was Steve Reich's It's Gonna Rain, and Violin Phase, which I think I started playing around '86 or so. In 1992, after having spent a couple of years in a major symphony orchestra, and discovering that wasn't where I was going to get myself expressed, two important things happened for me, almost simultaneously... One was a grant that I won from the State Universities of New York, which amounted to a $7000 check to buy gear and experiment. That's when I bought my first set of Lexicons and Midi-pedals (midigators, both.) and when I made my first electronic tunes in the midst of Bulent Arel's studios at the SUNY at Stony Brook, where I got my Masters. Second was being hired as a member of Steve Reich's band and getting the best chance of all to be acquainted with the man and his music, both of which I happily relate continue to contribute great inspiration and influence. Now my sense of time fails me, but around then, I believe, I met Robert Black, (New Music Bass soloist for Bang On a Can and many others) who was then working with Richard Zvonar. He introduced us and during one or two visits to California, Richard graciously invited me to come make some music with him at his place, where he really expanded my head as to larger concepts of looping, much of which he explains in his own post to this thread. Richard also exposed me to MAX, and set me up with the folks at Eventide who welcomed me to their office to try the gear, and I even took an H-3000 home and made a piece relevant to grant I had received... So I always thank Richard... Then I put electronics down as I decided to cut my teeth on the jazz language, and about 7 years later chose to put it all together and now I find myself looping my ass off again, and even in my written, composed music, especially my string quartet, looping is always foundationally present. I'm finding as I think we all are, that our community is growing and I love these threads which expose our histories and thoughts on the loop... I've also learned so much from Torn and Phil Kline over the last few years... I now produce my own 'new music theater show' which includes my own loop-based music and music of others including phil kline, evan ziporyn, and theo bleckmann, a vocal looper. I'll include the sites below, if you are interested. Two bass clarinetists, two actors, and a vocalist, and me. I direct it from the inside and play as well. I use a technique called sound painting, a sign language for conducting improvisers designed by Walter Thompson. It consists of over 700 gestures to be used across disciplines to indicate the type of improvisation desired of the performers. As specific or general as called for, this real-time compositional method comes about as close to a looping aesthetic as I can imagine, which is probably why it's such a central part of my 'voice'. Thanks for reading, looking forward to the next posts... Todd Reynolds Links: http://www.theobleckmann.com http://www.ziporyn.com http://www.mindspring.com/~boombox http://www.toddreynolds.com -- Todd Reynolds 42-09 47th Ave 1C Sunnyside, NY 11104 Ph. 718 392-3773 Mob. 917 576-6166 Fax 419 781-5502 http://www.toddreynolds.com http://www.ethelcentral.com todd@toddreynolds.com