Re: The Feedback Machine story

[David Myers <dmgraph@bway.net>]

Hi there Dirk-

Glad to see you on the loop list, which I always find pretty stimulating
(but over 100 messages today--jesus!).  Thanks for the note of
appreciation.  I will shamefacedly admit that I primarily work in the dark
and hear but little of the music around me, though of course I know of your
stuff, have heard a bit over the years, and am aware you also have worked
with our friend Asmus.

My current relation to "looping" is a bit strange.  I of course am on the
list (the only one I follow), and the Arcane Device material was heavily
into looping.  After a long while I've begun some new work, and although it
doesn't seem (to me at least) light-years away from that music, I'm
actually not "looping" at all; I don't even really have any outright
looping gear at the moment.  Maybe I've begun to view the concept
differently.  I did a release called "Envoi In Cumin" which you just might
have heard, where I used a bank of delays--none of which had a delay time
of over 1 second, yet the perceiveable "loop" varied between 7 and 15
seconds!  I credit this to the tangled routing scheme employed, and perhaps
that concept is informing my present approach.  Rather than the
"Frippertronic" tape loop which is fed a solo voice and is perhaps akin to
live multitracking, the "loops" I now employ are perhaps more conceptual,
or schematic, if you will.  Let's say that six different multiprocessors
are fed through several mixers with many effects busses, and all the inputs
and outputs are intermingling everywhere.  There are loops alright, but
rather than a single circle, it's more of a maze.  Naturally some, or most,
of the devices include time delay, so there is inevitably an audible "loop"
effect, but I guess what I want to say is that my concept of the loop is
something which might be (literally) drawn better than heard, is behind the
sound rather than evident in the outward form.

Maybe we could swap a recording or two?  I have a discography listed at:

http://www.bway.net/~dmgraph

A lot is out of print, natch, but I could burn you a CD....

Regards,

David Myers


>Dear David,
>
>Perhaps not the best place and moment to do this but I wanted to share my
>appreciation with you for your body of work you've done in the past (from
>the outstanding 'Penetrating black ice' to my favorite collaborative works
>with Asmus).
>
>We both seem to have an affection as well for the perception of Asmus
>Tietchens as well, as I also took up with him the chance to record a new
>double album together wherein we expand the possibilities of the
>'recycling' method.
>Here again, the looping technique remains the most important and
>multi-functional aplication.
>
>Good luck on your future recordings.
>
>
>Dirk (aka Vidna Obmana)