Re: Here's what I did on New Years . . .

[Steve Sandberg <stevesandberg@earthlink.net>]

Title: Re: Here's what I did on New Years . . .

Hey guys --
Wanted to share a really wonderful New Years experience I had that involved live looping.
I went up to a ritual gathering in Vermont (as part of the community), and brought all my gear with me.  Announced early on (it was a 3-day affair) that I brought some live ambient electronic music gear with me and was looking forward to providing a live soundtrack for the weekend as it developed.  People were appreciative and curious.
I set the gear up in a warehouse-type room where the New Years party (complete with sound system and djs) was going to be.  People were in that room setting up the space for the party and just hanging out over all three days, and I just played when I felt like it.  Really cool -- had never done that before.  I particularly liked hanging out with people, talking, being physical (it was a rather affectionate community), enjoying that experience, then getting up and playing a bit.  
Also played when people were drawing a big veve on the ground (ritual chalk drawing to create a sacred space).
One of the challenges was when I started playing and people would pick up drums to play along (these are VERY non-professional drummers).  My looping tends to be very rhythmically precise and intricate, and my first reaction was to be really bummed.  But in this context I didn not want to ask anyone to stop anything they were doing, so I just went with it.  I was actually helped a lot in this by the comment of Aki Onda, a composer who happened to be around.  When I told him about this problem, he said with a big smile, "Oh, you're in one rhythm, they're in another -- great!"  I don't know that i'd adapt this approach for a concert, but for the weekend it worked fine.  
New Year's eve was interesting.  The plan was for me to start the evening doing some drony electro-raga stuff, into some ambient stuff, then turn it over to the djs.  But it didn't work out like that.  One of the djs just started playing.  Of course, people started dancing so there was no way I could interrupt with a drone.  But I still wanted to play.  So I waited to a moment when her set seemed to peak, and told her I wanted to play.  She turned it over to me -- and one of those damned drummers started!  :)  
Well, it was magical.  I started a drone, let the drummers carry the rhythm and started playing and singing over them.  Eventually, I did loop a really obvious 4/4 rhythm over them that they could more or less follow.  People started dancing in a circle, and really got into it for a long time -- I added processed vocals (improvised lyrics on the theme of the weekend) and it was really great.  Much broader strokes musically than I would do in a solo set, but it was so great to be part of a living event.  Being flexible really made this possible (and knowing my gear) -- I didn't insist on "playing all my shit" for everybody -- in fact, I'd say I played a very very limited range of my music over the weekend -- but it worked!
Some thoughts on all this in re recent discussions:
I did not explain anything I was doing.  To my mind, instruments and loopers are just tools to an end, and my end in this case was to create music that would be an integral part of a community.  A few people came up to me afterwards and believe me, I went on and on and on about my gear -- but found it much more magical to just get up and play.  (a few people came up when I was playing and said, "are you playing all this yourself?" -- they were delighted).
I was nervous about playing opposite djs.  I have a certain sound I can make with my stuff, and they have infinite cds to choose from.  But I found people were really excited to have live music that was being improvised in the moment to go with the flow of the crowd.  The fact that I was playing and singing in the moment seemed to make up for the fact that my sound wasn't as slick as a produced dance cd.
And it's funny -- you never know what's going to work.  At one point, one of the djs wanted to put on guy lombardo's Auld Lang Syne.   So I looped some vinyl noise to segue into that.  They had a technical problem and couldn't get the turntable working, so to fill the space I sang the song over loop in a Milton Nascimento Brasilian falsetto style -- all the while feeling, basically, "what on earth am I doing?" -- and people later told me it was one of the most moving parts of the evening.
Anyhow, sorry for the long post but I hope this is of some stimulation --