How far does looping go back? Farther than you think....

["Krispen Hartung" <khartung@cableone.net>]

Wow, what next? A hand drum made by yourself in the rain forest, with the 
skin of an animal you slayed yourself for nourishment, and the wood of a 
tree you cut down for shelter? :) Back to basics.

What is the most primitive looping technique and experience in the world? 
One might imagine a Homo Habilis (~2.2 to 1.6 million years BCE), Homo 
Erectus (~2 to 0.4 million years BCE), Neanderthal (~200,000 to 30,000 
years 
BCE), Cro-Magdon (~40,000 to 10,000 years BCE) shouting, singing, or 
banging 
an object in a cave (in Europe) or a large canyon (in Africa), and being 
amused by the echo (loop).  I'm quite sure some human/hominid ancestor 
experienced this phenomenon and the intrigue with hearing our voice or 
some 
other sound repeat by means of a power outside our control.

So, did looping start with Terry Riley or Steve Reich? Maybe from a modern 
technology standpoint, but certainly not in principle as a human 
experience 
or even from a general technological standpoint (given that tool use is a 
form of technology and goes back to ~2.6 million years ago). I'd say it is 
very likely that the proto-humans experienced their first looping 
experience 
over 2 million years ago.

BTW, what's the longest delay time you've experienced by shouting in a 
large 
canyon or cave?

Kris



I'll do you one better...

I haven't turned on my rack of gear in about two years.  Instead I've been 
playing flamenco, just me and my guitar.  There's something beautiful in 
the 
simplicity of fingers moving strings, strings moving wood, wood moving air.

I still like hanging around here listening to you folks grip about gear, 
though. ;)

Todd



On Nov 28, 2007 12:00 AM, Krispen Hartung < khartung@cableone.net> wrote:

It's liberating isn't it?  For the last month, I have been looping with 
just 
my clean jazz guitar sound, and my max/msp looper. I have been 
concentrating 
on what I can do with just my instrument without the aid of tone mangling 
effects, just the tone of the guitar and the power of the looper and its 
features. It occured to me how easy it is (at least for me) to make decent 
sounding music with loads of effects as a artistic crutch...a few lush 
ambient fripp like patches, some long delays and modulation, granular 
synthesis, layers of effects and pitch, etc. After a while, my primary 
instrument is overshadowed, the love of my music life that has been with 
me 
for  28 years. I find it much more interesting and challenging to work 
with 
just my guitar tone now, and see what limits I can push, what boundaries I 
can leap without the aid of the all so seductive tone mangling effect 
crutch.  :)  We'll see where this goes....

Kris

----- Original Message ----- 



wow, so many good threads at the moment.

I would totally agree, adding in more loopers, then a handsonic, then a 
guitar synth, then loosing two multi fx for six pedals....i only realised 
yesterday i ha`nt played a single one of my songs through to completion 
for 
litterally two months,thats just how caught up i am in all the 
possibilities 
of all this new gear (plus i am learning to hand drum which is a whole new 
game)

in the end i went out last night with nothing more then my guitar and DL4 
and couldnt had a more fun night...i actually played songs!!!!!!

Phill MyOneManBand

www.myspace.com/myonemanband


> If we can get used to compartmentalizing those roles into their
> chosen times, I think we could be much happier overall. That means
> dedicating scheduled time to building and tweeking all the bugs out
> of a setup until it works just how it's supposed to. Then WALK AWAY
> AND LEAVE IT ALONE. Later, come back and work on mastering making
> good music on that setup. If something goes wrong, make a note but
> leave it until the next build slot comes up.

>




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