Re: Dr. Z Loops the Classics

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

At 8:39 PM -0800 1/14/03, Clayton Gary Lehmann wrote:
>Thanks Richard, very much what I was looking for.  Question, tho--why 
>don't
>you loop vocals live?

I have done. A lot of my early tape work used voice as source 
material. Some of this was looped, some layered and processed in more 
of a through-composed way. Then in 1980 I got involved with Diamanda 
Galas and did a lot of work with voice and electronic processing. 
Most of this was not looped, but there was a lot of delay processing, 
both live and in the studio. The one piece that did feature prominent 
looping was Panoptikon (1982). The backing tape is made almost 
entirely of processed voice, and there are some rhythmic layers 
constructed from tape loops pitched down one and two octaves.

In the period A.D. (after Diamanda) I did some live looping with 
actors and singers. I first started doing this in a 1990 performance 
of Stockhausen's "Originale" in San Francisco. There were several 
actors whose voices I could capture, harmonize, and loop at will. 
Electro-chanteuse Pamela Z was also in this production and her voice 
also went into my digital hopper. Ms. Z and I performed together 
twice more after that, in the joint project that also included David 
Zicarelli - "The Z Concert" in San Francisco (1991) and in the 
SonicWorks Festival in Houston (1992).

During the late '90s I was part of an electroacoustic band called 
Cosmic Debris in Los Angeles. We called our performance "bag" Ambient 
Groove and Spoken Word. I processed the other members through my 
Eventides, and since the front person was an actor I had plenty of 
opportunity to disasterize his voice. One of the more successful 
pieces combined a "bed" of long (10-11") regenerating delays of his 
voice along with on-the-fly sampling and playback of spoken phrases. 
Unlike much loop music, this was quite dynamic and interactive. I'd 
capture phrases of different lengths and I'd bring the recycling 
delay layers in and out to match the dramatic phrasing of the vocal 
performance.

That group dissolved a few years ago and I haven't found a vocal 
performer I'd like to work with, though I did do some off-the-cuff 
sampling of Rick Walker's voice at Woodstockhausen summer before last.
-- 

______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com