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Looper's Delight
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I'd like to echo (hmmm, that seems appropriate) everyone else and thanks Hans for his hard work, a truly wonderful job! The trip down from north of SF was well worth it, a fine day of music with many memorable moments, a few thoughts- Stan- Enjoyed the Surf music, and was gassed by the PCM being cranked to minimum delay for a closer, a great finish. Mark Hamburg- I hereby dub you "King of Swirl", wonderful textures that sometimes developed slowly, and other times surprised me by seeming to come from nowhere. I assume you were fading 'tween loops, but it was very effective. Steven Rice- I'm surprised to hear this was your first public looping performance, it seemed to go very smoothly. I'm impressed with the "bravery" of acoustic loopers, as this surely adds to the already heavy load of technical difficulty involved in setting up and performing. Sleeping- Mark, you shouldn't have told us you were re-connecting power cables, I was convinced that you were a "processing madman" re-patching on the fly... What was that nice high-pass filter effect you used on your loops? Jon and Matthias- Another great set, especially fun as Jon had essentially changed his approach to what he intended to do at the proverbial 11th hour. Needless to say, it worked very well. Matthias's guitar playing was, as many have commented, quite wonderful, beautiful harmonic loop fade-out at the end, unintentionally accompanied by ambient cell phone ringing. Especially impressive as Matthias didn't have his own processors and presets to work with. Max Valentino- Very, very, musical and tasteful set despite dreaded technology gremlins attacking. Bonus points for suckering entire crowd into believing Jamman had died again, then bringing back loop on the downbeat! A gorgeous bass sound and style... Rich and Cliff- Varied and deep processing, heavy bouncing of loops with mucho processing, I wish you guys had a cd of this... Richard Zvonar- Uh, WOW! It's funny how the maxim is an artist who is essentially playing dials and knobs isn't visually interesting, yet by the end of Richards set he had us stacked like cordwood along the sides of the wall so we could watch him release his sonic mayhem. Richard, if you're in the mood and have the interest, I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts on signal processing and treatment, algorithms, etc. Rick Walker's Loop.Pool- Despite the return of the dreaded technological gremlins, an outstanding set. Rick is exceptionally musical and creative, and knocked everyone out despite losing "the machine my whole act is based on..." I suspect Rick could make wonderful music with 2 tin cans and a long piece of string, and think this is a good lesson for all of us who tend to be somewhat gear obsessed. Ted Killian and Dr. Bob- Ted absolutely "snarled" on his guitar. His loops, especially combined with some of Dr. Bob's more "ambient" Handsonic playing, created very powerful sonic textures. Tom Heasley- I had heard that Tom was good, but was flabbergasted by the beauty of his piece. By that point in the evening I was tired, cold, and my back was aching terribly no matter how I positioned myself (one of the hazards of reaching 48 years of age), but once Tom started I just laid down on the floor and was transformed, totally and blissfully lost. A beautiful, gauzy, haze of timbre. The only two disappointments of Loopstock for me were 1), Tom's set was too short and 2) Andre didn't play... Bill Walker- Another big WOW! Very musical and intelligent playing (I guess these are Walker family traits), Perhaps the most effective use (for me at least) of Repeater's capabilities. Bill, you absolutely have to get this recorded, and let us know when you do! And lastly, Armatronix. Perhaps the most impressive in terms of seamlessly manipulating a truly HUGE amount of gear, and a definite rhythmic powerhouse! FutureRetro analog synth, Jomox analog drums, loops, guitar, turntables and vocoders. I was fairly exhausted at this point and desperately wanted to retire to the motel, but I enjoyed Armatronix too much to leave! You guys were all great, and I wish I had a chance to meet and talk to all of you. As it was, I believe I benefited from many diverse lessons in musicality, taste, and approach. Best- Mark