Analog looping in L.A.

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

This afternoon I saw a very interesting looping performance by 
William Leavitt and Joseph Hammer, at an American Composers Forum 
Salon at Rocco in Hollywood. Leavitt played cello into an analog tape 
loop system that was in turn performed by Hammer. "Performed" is the 
operative word, because Hammer was interacting directly with the tape 
itself and with the transport mechanism of a 1955-vintage Ampex tape 
deck. The loop was about 24 seconds long, running at 7.5 ips; the 
tape machine was full-track mono.

Hammer's performance practice is truly marvelous, and very pure. By 
eschewing the newer generations of digital gadgetry and focusing 
intently on the physical nature of a vintage electromechanical 
recorder, he is able to perform an idiomatic music that produces 
sounds comparable in some ways to others' digital loopisms but which 
has an organic subtlety of its own.

For example, Hammer "punches" in and out not by tapping a footswitch 
that controls the record mode, but by physically moving the tape in 
and out of the magnetic field of the record head. Similarly, he can 
create a kind of multitracking by twisting the tape so that one an 
edge is in the field. Vibrato is created by pressing rhythmically on 
the capstan shaft, and pitch changes are done by pressing on the 
drive belt.


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______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
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