(CT) new found sound chain-letter tape ideas

[Matt Davignon <mdavig@sfsu.edu>]

Hello everybody. This is an invitation to all for participation in a 
"chain letter
tape" project. The basic premise behind these chain letter tapes is that 
we send a
tape around to people who add their own tracks. When the tape gets back to 
me, I
make a CD out of it and send it to all the participants.  Credit should go 
to
Michael Klobuchar for having the wonderful idea and managing the first 
completed
chain tape project.

I currently have a "found sound" chain tape going around. I expect that 
that
project will be finished in about 4-8 weeks. After that, I'm going to be 
eager to
start a new project that delves a little further into the whole 
sampling/finding
aspect of music making. At the moment, I'm planning on doing either the 
first or
second of the projects listed below. The third is kind of an afterthought. 
I'm
mostly into experimental music, but I'm hoping to get a variety of
sampling/reworking styles with these projects.

I'm very tired at the moment so I don't know if I'm providing enough 
details. Let
me know if you or anybody you know would be interested in participating.

IMPORTANT: please write to my other e-mail address, which is

mattdavignon@hotmail.com

The email address I'm using right now (mdavig@sfsu.edu) is going to be 
cancelled
in a few days, and hotmail is way to slow to get the mass Loopers' Delight
e-mails. (I'll sign up again when I get e-mail that i can use with Netscape
Messenger.) When you write to me regarding these projects, please start the
subject line with (CT) so I know what it's about. We'll figure out a new 
header
when we know which project we're doing first.

OK, here are my ideas

1) SOURCE/PRODUCT: All participants send me a certain amount of "source
material". This could be just about anything, instrumental tracks, drum 
tracks,
singing, talking and so on. I'll make a "source" CD that is made up 
entirely of
these tracks and send it back to all of you. Then we all make music using 
only
the source CD for material. The idea is that we'll all have different 
ideas of
what to do with this source material, and it will be interesting to hear 
what
different
musicians do to be different when they're using the same stuff. We'll 
collect your
"PRODUCT" contributions with a regular chain tape. I'll then compile your
tracks and make the "PRODUCT" CD and send it back to you. The CD's will 
come
packaged together, but I'll only have to send everybody the PRODUCT cd 
because
you'll all still have the SOURCE cd.

2) CHAIN REMIX: Ok, I know this has been done before, but it seems that 
it's
only done by drum 'n' bass and techno people. I'd like to see a project 
done where

all the musicians come from different musical stances. The basic premise 
is that
we
start with one song, preferably something accessible yet creative. We send 
both
the entire song and the seperated tracks on a tape or CD to the next 
person.
[For example, the tape would have 1) whole song then 2) just the drum 
track then
3) just the guitar track and so on.] The second person makes a remix or a 
new song
out of the old song by using both samples of the most recent track and new 
samples
and instrumental (or programmed/looped?) material. Basically, he's allowed 
to do
whatever he wants, as long as the previous mix is still recognizeable as 
the
source. The second person then sends ONLY HIS version of the song to the 
next
person in line, both in complete form and with tracks seperated. This way, 
each
person in line only has the most current version of the song to 
remix/create
from. I think it will make the project more interesting if, for example, 
the 5th
person in line only hears the 4th version of the song. That way, he can't 
hear
what the original was and is not tempted to remain faithful to the 
original.
This will be a study of a songs evolution through reworking/remixing. Each 
step
will
be new ideas mixed with old ideas. It's possible that by the 4th version, 
any
sign of the original may have dissappeared. Then again, tracks very 
similar to the
original could keep coming back accidentally. It's hard to tell from the 
beginning
what the result will be on this one.

3) MUSIC OF ERRORS: This is kind of a side note, but while listening to the
messed up version of the East Coast CT disc (Mr. Fodder and Rafter won't 
know
what I'm talking about), I started to really like the strange mutation of 
Tim
Nelson's song,  sounding completely different than it should've, but 
somehow
really beautiful and worthy of listen and appreciation. All of the messed 
up
songs (was it a "buffer underrun error"?) sound radically different than 
the
originals, but Tim's almost sounds like a whole new creature that could 
walk by
itself. I'm curious to know how many of you have had this happen, where 
some
fatal mistake caused your song to become some strange mutant with a whole 
new
sense and purpose. If there's enough of you, and enough different errors, 
I'd
like to make a compilation of just the error versions of the songs.


I will probably make these CD's available through mail-order for really
cheap ($4 per regular CD, or $5-6 for the 2 cd set "Source/Product", 
postage
paid). It would be really complex for me to charge $10 and send everyone a
profit, so we'll make it cheap advertising where nobody makes a profit. 
This is
the cost of raw materials and postage. Just a chance to get heard by new 
people
and exchange ideas.

As much as I appreciate any participation, I'm much too poor to provide
the CD's and postage to get you guys all free copies. (For anyone who 
wasn't
here for the last go-around and doesn't already know,) we'll divvy up the 
costs,
which will probably come up to $6-8 for "source/product", $4-5 plus one 
blank tape
for the chain remix, and just $4-5 for "Music of Errors".

best,

Matt Davignon