Re: FIRST LOOPING MEMORIES

[landman@wco.com (Mark Landman)]

Warning: Fripp related posting ensues, also, ambient loopage worship,
consider yourselves warned...

I was aware of looping from "No Pussyfooting", but honestly remember not
being terribly interested in that record initially. Not enough "going on"
for my underdeveloped tastes, heavily influenced by the then current
"fusion music".

But seeing Fripp do his Frippertronics thing live at the Mabuhay Gardens
(an old punk rock icon) in July of 1979 was a powerful experience. The
sound of the loops was wonderful, ranging from haunting beauty to
screaming, raging power, the texture as the loops degenerated (the Revoxes
being high-qulaity, but not lossless digital recirculation) mesemerizing.

And the most important part was the soloing on top, at one minute building
and contributing to the loop, the next commenting and flying above it.
Parts of this remain on "Let the Power Fall", which presents the loops as
they were printed to tape, unfortunately, the soloing went into the void
unrecorded, save for my woefully inadequate memory...

My first looper was a Lexicon Prime Time II Model 95, with a extended
memory of 3.84 seconds at 16 khz, or 7.68 at 8 khz. With control of the
delay time, 2 tap outputs w/ separate feedback, and plenty of on board
mixing ability, it was very nice indeed.

Since then many different looping toys have come and gone, and currently
I'm trying to wrap my brain around a Kyma system (arrrgh, damn my lack of
math!). But that initial "exposure' (o.k., pun intended) colored my musical
sensibilities strongly.

Best-

Mark