Re: essential loop recordings

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@zvonar.com>]

At 8:25 AM -0700 6/30/03, Tim Nelson wrote:

>Brian Eno and David Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts"

One of my favorites as well, though I'll have to say that it's really 
a takeoff on Jon Hassell's combining of live and recorded materials 
(JH had been playing live against tape loops since 1959).

Of course in "Bush" the customary relationship of live soloist 
against recorded accompaniment is turned on its head. Another seminal 
example of this sort of thing is Gavin Bryars' "Jesus Blood Never 
Failed Me Yet" (1971). For those not familiar, Bryars took a 
recording of an old tramp singing the hymn if the title, looped it, 
and composed a rather sentimental accompaniment for chamber ensemble. 
The vocal part continues throughout without variation while the 
ensemble arrangement grows gradually more ornate. I prefer the 
original 1975 recording to the 1990 version. The latter features Tom 
Waitts growling and moaning through the final passages, rather 
breaking the mood.
-- 

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Richard Zvonar, PhD
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