RE: looping and the public and categorization

["::Yellow6::" <jon@yellow6.com>]

Hi

Coming into this a bit late, but I am also someone who like Zoë (but on
a more primitive un-tutored level) composes music based around loops,
but not using a looper as a studio tool (but in a way maybe as I use
Cubase to loop things, part from laziness).

I have been using loopers live for 10 yrs but purely as a way to create
the parts I can only play with one pair of hands, and at times to play
pre-recorded loops I can't create live.  

I would certainly make a distinction between live looping as a way of
making music, and looping as a way of performing music live.  In the
years I've been playing this way I've had quite a few people ask how I
do it and what I use to perform, showing that even people into the genre
of music I make are unaware of how it is made/performed.  As for how to
promote a live-looping festival, I guess it would have to be done based
on some sort of genre approach, tho what you would do with that I don't
know as I have myself been described variously as post-rock, ambient,
electronica, shoegaze and drone (amongst others) and don't think I fit
with any of them.

On the 'loop-station' subject, if you look at the Roland site and see
the videos of the contestants in their looping competition, there's a
huge variety of styles from beatboxing to singer song writer and most
things in-between (not all good!).  It has made the concept of looping
more widely known, but tells you nothing of the sort of music to expect
from a 'looper'.


On a bit of a tangent, but with a link, the trailer of the new George
Clooney movie features music from Charles Atlas, who both Zoë and I have
played with (at different times) and who use looping both in the studio
and live (there's one song in the trailer and another in the movie I'm
told)... Highly recommended.

That's my ramblings for today.

Jon.

  
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