Re: "Live Looping"

[Dan Soltzberg <d.ans@rcn.com>]

Title: Re: "Live Looping"

beat, warhol’s factory, der blaue reiter, cubism, impressionism, rock, harcore, grindcore, glitchcore, idm, dub, roots, 

Mark’s post and this whole topic has me thinking about how movements happen. Seems like a combination of self-promotion, audacity, and right-place-at-right-time-ism. And/or by having/being/doing something that is genuinely vibrant and touches people somehow in a way that can’t be ignored. But not by committee, I don’t think. 

Jimi Hendrix came along and blew the world away. He was definitely an electric guitarist, and he wrote lyrics about the instrument and you could see in much of how he presented himself that it was a huge aspect of him.

But he didn’t have the impact he had because he played electric guitar, rather than tuba (well maybe he wouldn’t have gone quite so far had it been tuba). He had it because he had awesome music and human depth and he put it out there into the world and lived large. A tool’s a tool. Tools are great— they let us make the things we dream.

Loopers, hammers, guitars, paintbrushes. That’s it— imagine a “Paintbrush Festival.”   You wouldn’t do it that way. You’d call it an art festival. My friend Pia says it best-- “describe how the music will make me feel when I listen to it.”


d


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d.ans@rcn.com






on 4/11/04 6:36 PM, Mark Hamburg at mark_hamburg@baymoon.com wrote:

> I've been pondering Andre's departure while away from my e-mail for a week.
>
> Andre may or may not be uncomfortable sharing a genre with Matthias Grob and
> Rick Walker, but I think there is a fair amount of overlap and in ways that
> are distinct from a singer-songerwriter using loops on a DL4 for
> accompaniment and in ways that are pretty distinct from others I've heard at
> looping festivals such as Richard Zvonar, Matt Davignon, or Amy X Neuburg
> (who are all relatively distinct from one another). I think that similarity
> is potentially apparent to people who aren't familiar with the technology.
> Andre is more aggressive and less ambient in his playing than some but there
> are some core similarities stemming from a musical style that grows and
> evolves the music as the audience listens.
>
> But that's where I think the "Live Looping" movement got itself in trouble.
> There is an aesthetic similarity, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone
> express what it is. This leaves us with "Live Looping consists of people who
> use loopers live". But that includes the singer-songwriter with the DL4 who
> doesn't think of himself as a live looper per se. As Kim (I think) has
> pointed out, it makes knowledge that something is a looping event be about
> as informative as knowing it's a guitar event or a trombone event.
>
> So, to really be successful as a promotional tool -- which I think is the
> basic reason for trying to define a genre -- there are a couple of things I
> think should happen:
>
> 1. Someone needs to come up with a definition of the aesthetics and
> experience from an audience perspective.
>
> 2. The name needs some consideration. If there is real audience knowledge of
> live looping then that name may be worth keeping, but it also carries with
> it the problem that to use a looper live may not make one a live looper per
> se. Mark Sottilaro and I started toying with the name "Cycletronica" last
> time this came up. He seems to have done more with it than I have.
>
> I've also been thinking about Loopstock and wondering whether the
> potentially anemic showing in Los Osos is symptomatic of a bigger problem.
> Maybe it's just that like me other people have schedule conflicts. I'm
> trying to resolve those conflicts, but I haven't managed to do so yet.
>
> Or are Andre's frustrations taking hold at a broader level? I've found the
> festivals extremely valuable to me as a player because without them I
> wouldn't be playing publicly. But I've also found them a bit frustrating
> both as a player and an audience member. For example, as a player, I become
> paranoid about getting my rig into a form that will set up and strike very
> quickly. That probably results in some useful focus and keeps me from
> spending a performance playing with too many toys, but it is also a bit
> stressful. And I really would like a soundcheck though the audience
> presumably wouldn't. As an audience member, I find it annoying when others
> haven't worked as hard and the festival turns into a festival of technical
> difficulties. (As a performer, I can think "there but for the grace of God"
> but that wouldn't cut it if I were just an audience member.)
>
> Is it time to evolve beyond the marathon festival model? To what? How do we
> keep bringing the community together without the stress level burning people
> out?
>
> Mark