Dig if u will my research paper Chapter 10

[Geoff Smith <geoff.smith15@btopenworld.com>]

Chapter 10
Concluding Thoughts
Writing a history of Live-Looping has posed a number of quite significant
problems. The first problem being that Live-Looping hasnıt been recognised
as a genre of music, only as a tool for the composition or performance of
music. This has meant that there are almost no written historical lineages
about it. To write its history has therefore been a huge undertaking of
finding and linking relevant information. Also because Live-Looping has no
status as a genre this has affected the quality of my resources. Interview
material of itsı artists seems to have been conducted by journalists who 
are
unaware of Live-Looping as a genre of music, or its history. This has meant
that most artistıs interviews and articles have been a very shallow source
of information. The second problem I have faced has been having no 
reference
point to base or guide my research upon. I have had to make subjective
judgements about those artists who have been the most important to the
movement based almost solely upon my research. This lack of other formal
sources of information has made my work a unique insight into an 
alternative
history of a possible musical genre.
My research has yielded a large amount of material that I would have liked
to have put into this research paper but space has prevented me. This
includes material generated from interviews with Jim Fulkerson, Steve 
Lawson
and in-depth email correspondences with many artists. There has also been
insufficient time for me to look at all of the sections of Live-Looping. 
For
instance, there were a significant amount of other artists I would have
liked to look at e.g. Matthius Grob, Richard Zvonar, Daniel Lentz, Paul
Dresher, Carl Stone etc. I also wish to look further into the use of 
Max/Msp
for Live-Looping as my research uncovered a large amount of activity in 
this
area, but due to its underground and obscure nature its something that 
would
take me a long time to fully research.
Live-Looping as a Genre
After completing this research paper I believe that there is a strong case
for Live-Looping to exist as a musical genre and for history to relate its
unfolding story. On listening to a large range of music produced by the
process of Live-Looping I have found that pieces from contrasting musical
genres have remarkably similar qualities. For example on listening to Terry
Rileyıs Poppy No Good And The Phantom Band, Fripp and Eno No Pussyfooting
Around, Jim Fulkersonıs Co-Ordinate Systems No.10, David Tornıs Suyafhu 
Skin
back to back, reveals huge similarities in the overall listening 
experience.
I think it is fair to say that in some respects these works seem to be more
related to each other than the music of the genre each artist has been
positioned in. Even listening to very contemporary music of Andre Lafosse 
or
Amy X the music seems very attached to the idea of a Live-Looping genre of
music. If genre is taken as indicating a style of art or music then I
believe that Live-Looping stylistically has a greater effect on an artistıs
sound than the genre their style of instrumental playing puts them in. For
example I would say that Robert Fripp and Brian Enoıs No pussyfooting 
Around
has more in common with the idea of a Live-Looping genre than with the
art-rock genre they are placed within. This idea can be applied to the 
music
of most Live-Looperıs to similar effect.
The Future
The falling cost of Digital equipment has opened looping up to the masses.
Live-Looping is now a common occurrence across a range of musical genres.
Software Live-Looping has recently been available to the masses thanks to
the increase in the processing power of computers. Live-Looping has become
so integrated into musical technology that its use is now commonplace. The
increasing power of digital processing has seen a rise in the complexity of
looping devices and with software like Max/Msp also the user configurable
nature of it. This has in turn led to an increasingly diverse output from
Live-Looping with Live-Loopers now able to access a range of aesthetics 
from
other musical genres. What we are currently seeing is a new generation of
contemporary Live-Loopers applying the musical aesthetics and attitudes of
their era to Live-Looping with very immediate and striking results.
New technology is also influencing the direction of Live-Looping via to the
communication revolution. Live-Looping as a musical movement is still too
obscure to exist as a scene with a sense of location and social contact.
However the communication revolution of the Internet has allowed for a
vibrant virtual Live-Looping community to emerge. The centre or focus for
this movement is Loopers-Delight.com, which is a resource run by Kim Flint
the software programmer for the Echoplex. The interest group is
characterised by the sheer diversity of its members, with not only the
premier developers of looping hardware contributing to discussions but also
many of the premier artists. This creation of a community environment is
clearly having a large effect on the communication of the technique and
hence the music of Live-Looping. With this framework for promotion in place
it has become easy for an interested person to look into this previously
obscure genre of experimental music. This environment of communication is
having a strengthening effect on the genre as professional Live-Looping
artists are now able to co-ordinate their efforts collectively to gain
exposure for this little known form of experimental music.