Re: Paul Dresher / Was Re: essential loop recordings

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

Title: Re: Paul Dresher / Was Re: essential loop recordings

At 2:37 PM -0400 6/26/03, ArsOcarina@aol.com wrote:

> He employed a single 8-track reel-to-reel
> machine

It was a four track: TASCAM 40-4.

> He had also constructed a "bank"
> of foot pedals

24 control voltage pedals that regulated a VCA mixer build by Paul Tydelski at UCSD.

> One of the really neat tricks he would do
> involved his post-loop processing through an early Eventide
> Harmonizer. Somehow (this was pre-MIDI, I believe),
> he was able to, at certain points, change the pitch of his loops
> (without changing the tempo) by pressing keys on a small,
> one-octave
> keyboard. This was the first time I'd
> heard (or seen) anyone do that.

He used an Eventide H949. The keyboard would have had a control voltage connection. He later moved up to an H3000.

> his music had a lot in comon (in my
> thinking) to groups like Tangerine Dream and Ashra

I've often wondered about influences on Paul's loop music. I never heard him listen to TD, Fripp, or any of that era's "space music" but that doesn't mean he was unaware of it. Steve Reich (and to some extent Terry Riley) were probably more direct influences, and I expect Ingram Marshall and Daniel Lentz inspired the tape system.

Bit of Dresher trivia: The first version of "Liquid and Stellar Music" was a class exercise for Robert Erickson's tibre seminar in the winter of 1978. It was realized on an Ampex 1/2" 4-track. The intention was to create a musical texture that was perceived as a continuum, without individual "sound objects" popping out in the mix.

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Richard Zvonar, PhD    

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