Re: What would loopers do without power?

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Much has been bandied about in this thread about whether one uses the 
instrument of most proficiency
or the least and it provoked some thoughts I wanted to share.


One of the beauties of the live looping movement is that inventors' of 
much 
of the innovation, technologically
are actively involved in performing in that movement.

This means that there has been a lot of innovation in creating new 
techniques (or delightfully misusing mistakes
in new techniques) because the intruments have been evolving quickly.

There are musical techniques and sounds that  one can use with an EDP,  
Max 
MSP,  a Looperlative, Mobius using Bidule that
truly have never been heard before.

There are whole improvisational styles evolving  (witness Per Boysen using 
Mobius and Bidule or Jeff Kaiser using MaxMSP)
that are creating music that hasn't been heard.

Because a lot of these new techniques are technology driven, it means that 
ordinary (and unordinary) sounds sources
have much more potential to create new timbres and new musics to respond 
to.

That's why I delight in taking on instruments that I'll never be competent 
on in their original intended styles and genres
because they have the potential to create new timbres that haven't existed 
before in music.

As an example,  I performed a long piece for Baritone Horn at a recent 
Noise 
Festival,   using a looperlative, a Boss intellishifter
and multiple and serially hooked up multi-distortion pedals.

I've played enough brass instruments to understand the paradigm for 
learning 
how to play this instrument, but I'm so far away from
being able to play the simplest John Philips Sousa march in a band that 
it's 
not even funny.

But it SOUNDS FANTASTIC.

In a way,  I used the loopers in my rig with more precision and skill than 
I 
did the Baritone but whatever I did,  it
created something new, I think.

So,    all wonderful kudos to the blistering, fantastic bass players, 
guitarists, cellists, tubists, etc. out there.
I love your music and admire it (and I"m not such a lame trapset drummer, 
too...........lol)

At the same time,  I find that the marriage of advanced  techonology and a 
primitivist approach to music making
can also yield really valid and interesting music results.

Rick Walker