RE: Fripp's loop technique -- what's

[jprice@intcpi.com (John Price)]

I can't stand Fripp's ramblings even though I see his goals and intent as 
pure. His music puts things in better perspective. 

Simplicity has never been one of his strongest suits either.

Re; Soundscapes. Good gracious I lost count of the loops he had going live 
at the Painted Bride which floated in and out all at once where he somehow 
intuitively seemed to know where it all ended and began simultaneouslyu 
expanding them and subtracting from them at random.

His soundscapes are on the surface a lot less intricate and sparse than 
his other Frippy Stuff but that is quite deceiving. Its just as 
complicated and intricate as some of say Bruford's busy or odd metered 
Drum Patterns by virtue of quantity of ideas he juglles simultaneously.

You really have to listen because not all of the ideas he's juggling are 
that interesting or exciting but they are all quite deliberate and 
related. (IMHO) 

-----Original Message-----
From:   David Kirkdorffer [SMTP:DKirkdorffer@exapps.com]
Sent:   Thursday, February 05, 1998 3:11 PM
To:     'Kim Flint'; Loopers-Delight@annihilist.com
Subject:        RE: Fripp's loop technique -- what's 

Here's a little something from the DGM website, about Fripp's
Soundscapes.
For more, surf to: http://www.discipline.co.uk/news/news.htm

Liner notes to various Fripp soundscape records are also reproduced at
the site.


David Kirkdorffer


The Soundscape performances are part of an ongoing series which has the
aim of finding ways in which intelligence and music, definition and
discovery, courtesy and reciprocation may enter into the act of music
for both musician and audience. 
These performances often take place within a commercial culture in which
the act of music is inescapably ill-placed. Better, if possible, that
performances take place outside that culture. Better, if possible, that
performers and audiences drop the demands they carry and which
relentlessly accompany the commercial culture. 
The series is itself part of an ongoing exploration of how one might be
a musician, professional musician and human being simultaneously; and
how music might enter our sorry world, despite all our efforts to keep
it out. 
Soundscapes continue to evolve, surprise, excite, educate and instruct
me. They are true to the moment in which they appear.nsoundsc2.htm
nsoundsc2.htm

It is far easier to give a technical explanation of SOUNDSCAPES than a
musical one. The basic technique of SOUNDSCAPES is the same as
Frippertonics. This involved two REVOX tape recorders linked together so
that a note was recorded onto the first machine and then played back on
the second machine. By feeding the output of the second machine back
into the first machine, a note could be made to repeat many times, as it
was recorded back onto the first machine, played back on the second
machine, recorded back onto the first machine, played back on the second
machine etc. The overall effect was that any note you played would come
back after a set amount of time and keep repeating itself. By adding new
notes, a repeating phrase could be built up. 
In SOUNDSCAPES, the REVOX tape recorders have been replaced by digital
delay units, TC2290. These units will allow a maximum delay of 64
seconds, so that the space between playing a note and it being heard
again can be over a minute. This delay time is variable, so that a piece
can start with a short delay time, with notes repeating quickly, and can
then be lengthened so that any new notes will repeat over a longer
period. In addition, Robert Fripp uses not one, but four delay units, so
that different phrases can be played into different machines and cycle
over a different period of time. The combined output of these delay
units is played through a series of digital processors, and the net
result is SOUNDSCAPES. 
All Soundscape performances and recording are improvised, with Robert
Fripp both controlling and reacting to the output of the delay units. In
Robert Fripp's words "Soundscapes are based on delay, repetition, and
hazard" and are "improvised and largely governed by the time, place,
audience and the performer's response to them". He usually adds the
rider that "this remains the best way I know of making a lot of noise
with one guitar".