Re: animal intentions and random 'looping' in nature

["Ritchie" <r_domain@hotmail.com>]

Yes, that has been a favourite of mine for many years.  There is also a
track by a lesser known band called Stump.  Theres a track on their 1988
album 'A fierce Pancake' called Charlton Heston where they use all these
frog sounds to generate the bed rhythm and it sounds great!
Ritchie
http://www.mp3.com/rdomain

----- Original Message -----
From: Ryan <Rynolee@mindspring.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2001 11:18 AM
Subject: RE: animal intentions and random 'looping' in nature


> About other animals making music...
>
> Pink Floyd made this song on their Double Album entitled Ummagumma
>  (check the spelling on that) and Roger Waters put this song together
> called Several Species Of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together In A Cave
> And Grooving With A Pict
>
> give it a listen and that will answer any question
>
> ryan
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rick Walker (Loop.pooL) [SMTP:GLOBAL@cruzio.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 5:07 PM
> To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
> Subject: animal intentions and random 'looping' in nature
>
> Matthias wrote:
> Do animals have intentions? I think so. But I would not consider
> their noises music, would you? Or is it that just some species have
> the ability?
>
> Rick Walker replies:
>     Interestingly enough, I have just read an article in the science
> section
> of the San Jose Mercury (which is actually a pretty informative lay
science
> resource) where some modern biologists and zooologists (jeez:  are there
> three  'o's in zoologist?) are beginning to think that there are actually
> several species of animals who they think are actually making 'music' as
> opposed to direct communication.   I threw the article out but they
> mentioned whales and dolphins and some species of birds.
>
> and to bring back to topic (looping that is),
>     Several years ago during the summer cricket season I was on my porch
> late at night, just thinking, and listening to the 'song' of the 
>crickets.
> I love when random events sometimes sound like funky syncopated patterns
> (like listening to a sample and hold function on an analogue synthesizer,
> something I used to do to get inspiration for  funk patterns).    Anyway,
> the crickets were really going at it and in a seemingly random way.    
>All
> of a sudden they coalesced into this really funky sequence which then 
>fell
> apart after about five seconds or so.   It caught my attention because I
> had
> not really been listening to it.   Anyway, I went back to musing again 
>and
> a
> couple of minutes later I heard the same damn syncopate sequence, 'note'
> for
> 'note'.   At this point I started listening intently and sure enough, the
> same sequence occurred a couple of minutes later.   At this point I
started
> listening for other rhythmic sequences and began to notice them.    Sure
> enough I started hearing an emerging pattern that was repeating perfectly
> every 2 minutes or so.   At this point using the random '16th notes' of
the
> first pattern I tried to see if I could figure out the periodicity of the
> pattern.   It took me about half an hour but I finally figured out that
the
> crickets were in a perfectly predictable and very, very slow 19/4 time
> signature.  I was so  blown away by this randomness that I sat out there
> for
> two more hours until I had completely memorized the sequence of perfectly
> repeating multiple cricket clicks.    I was astonished and I have never
> incountered anything similar in the ensuing years.
>
>       The only other experience that I have had is that (and this repeats
> every summer at about the same time) there is a large and long shrub tree
> in
> the front of my brothers' home.
> Every summer two sets of crickets live on different sides of the shrub
> (which is about 15 feet long)  Each group
> chirps in unison but the speed of the chirp is just slightly off.   What
> happens is that when you stand in the
> very middle of the shrub, you hear the two repeating chirp patterns cycle
> away from each other and cycle back
> (as in two loops with slightly random speeds) the amazing thing is that
> when
> the two patterns overlap, psycho acoustically it sounds like the crickets
> are right in front of your face in dry 'mono'.   As they start to go out
of
> phase, it suddenly sounds like a beautiful ambient reverb has been 
>applied
> to the chirping until finally you start to hear the two sides as separate
> chirps.  Then you can hear then pass the equidistant point (perfect 8ths
> notes for 5 or 6 repitions and then move to the percieved 'shuffled' beat
> at
> 67%, then the last 16th note at 75% and finally into flamming and then
> tight
> flamming before they sync up again.   It is a beautiful and peaceful
> phenomenon that I look forward to every year.    Loops out of sync.
>
>      I dont' have an ounce of anthropomorphism in me (it having been
beaten
> out of me by my skeptical, cartesian logic medical doctor father) so i
> don't
> think any of these things were intentional. They weren't making music but
> they sure as hell were looping.
>
>      I just am in love with how the random becomes rhythmical to our
> perceptions.    I personally love to set up to loops that are at randomly
> different speeds and let them interact.   A fun trick is to set the
Windows
> Media Player (or Mac equivalent) on repeat mode and open up several
> different drum or transient sounds at once and let them cycle in and out
> with each other.
>
>