Thing I'd like to see in 2008

["Rick Walker" <looppool@cruzio.com>]

Rainer wrote:

* Rick Walker finally stops all this improvised livethingie stuff and does
an album of composed music, involving lots of postprocessing, for which he
uses Krispen's now unused computer. The lineup for the album features 
(among
others) Jeff (Kaiser), Erdem, Per, Kevin Kissinger and Michael Manring.


LOL,  yeah, that tiresome improvised found sound livethingie stuff I do!!!

Actually,  in point of fact,   my last CD,  Purple Hand,  which had zip 
sales,
I'm a little embarrassed to say,  was not only what I think (and what a 
couple of reviewers
thought) was the best single record I've ever made in my life and was
COMPLETELY composed with no found sound (of if I used any, it was so 
heavily 
processed
that you didn't know it) and made entirely in a computer.

I'm really, really proud of that CD and I'd love to sell it cheap to 
ANYONE 
at loopers delight.

Also,  suddenly,  I'm just in love with string and brass instruments and 
have , on a daily basis,
been playing and composing really minimalist songs on altered tuning 
Strumsticks,  Dulcimer,
Mandolin (trying to really teach myself tunings in 5th to prepare myself 
for 
next year's forays
into bowed instruments),  Saz,  Oud,  Nylon String guitar,  12 string 
Acoustic guitar,  4 string
fretless bass,  12 string electric bass,  pocket trumpet, flugelhorn and 
my 
latest love in life,
a Euphonium.

It's so ridiculously audacious to take on all of these instruments with 
such 
a remedial skill level,
but I may be the happiest I've ever been in my life, creatively speaking 
and 
just in love with the
concept of 'beginners' mind.

I've been really inspired, lately, by very simple musics from Niger, Mali 
and Mauritania.
My good friend, the late Ali Farka Toure, once entertained me in my living 
room for an
hour and a half on a one string crude violin that he played and sang 
against.    There was something
so satisfying about that experiences (and I couldn't believe that I"m the 
only person who got to hear
it before he passed last year).

There is a fantastic concert DVD , called 'Concert in the Desert'  that 
brought Taureg musicians from
all over West Africa (along with some wonderful European musicians and the 
inimitable Robert Plant)
that I've been watching.

Some of those repetitive single line guitar figures (ala  Toure,  Baaba 
Maala, Mansour Seck, Issa Bagayogo)
are so entrancing...........................loop music, if I ever heard it.

Anyway,  I don't know where it's all going except that I gave myself a few 
months off before I begin
my long tour in Europe, the British Isles and Asia this coming year 
(another 
fulfillment of some of Rainer's wishes).

It's the most time I've taken off in 25 years and it's letting me fall in 
love with all music again.

I'll let you know if a CD comes from it.

Happy New Year all and, Rainer,  thanks for that cool list.

Rick