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Re: is using Pre-recorded Loops Cheating



Richard very well put amn,thank you kindly for turning
me on this guy as well what a voice!
cheers
Luis


--- Richard Sales <richard@glasswing.com> wrote:

> As you may have noticed by my lack of emails, I'm
> trying to spend less 
> time writing and doing email and more doing music
> and pursuing a 
> sustainable life.  But this is a great topic and I
> have a thought:
> 
> If it works it works and if it doesn't it doesn't. 
> Music isn't 
> mathematics or something that can be codified at
> all.  We ALL try to do 
> it - to explain the inexplicable.  I remember
> learning music theory in 
> college and realizing this is what people who aren't
> standing in the 
> river do.  They describe the physics of swimming. 
> But it's just what 
> we do when the Muse isn't speaking to us.  When She
> speaks, it doesn't 
> matter if we're pre recorded, over or under dubbed,
> playing advanced 
> guitar or primitive digiridoo or what.  If the music
> speaks to the soul 
> and smile etc of the listener (and, more importantly
> the artist) then 
> we're all, to complete the metaphor, swimming home. 
> Or maybe floating 
> home.
> 
> So the goal is to draw the listener into the water
> with us.  For some 
> it will be unrehearsed, totally spontaneous, never
> thought of before 
> stuff and for some it will be completely ironed out
> highly polished 
> diamonds.  I'm guessing most all of us have done
> both.
> 
> It's the spirit and inspiration that count.  I and I
> don't think most 
> listeners care HOW the music is made.  Musicians of
> course do care but 
> I still think that's describing swimming.   And, as
> someone so wisely 
> once said, "I don't think any one walks down the
> street whistling the 
> sound of a $30,000 Telefunken mic."
> 
> As someone wisely pointed out, even karaoke can turn
> some folks on.  
> American Idle and all that.  Not my cup of tea but
> I'm too busy to 
> worry about that.  We're all evolving at light speed
> and you gotta 
> start somewhere!
> 
> To me, really great music is nearly - no - TOTALLY
> impossible to 
> describe or codify.  I recently worked with a new
> very young artist who 
> is dazzling good.  His/our recordings just got a
> rave hot pick in Spin 
> Magazine. 
> http://www.spin.com/articles/catch-buzz-joe-pug
> 
> What makes his music and lyrics stand out?  I don't
> know.  But I know 
> it when I hear it.  And the same applies to loops
> and loopers etc.  I 
> do have my fave loopers and their music has this
> mystery factor.  I 
> have my fave looper pundits and analysts and their
> minds and passion 
> for purity etc is so fun and really inspiring to
> read.  But that's 
> concepts, and concepts can be crippling when it
> comes to art and 
> (devil's advocate) concepts can be the key to the
> highway in art.  
> Plenty artists in the 20s thru the 60s made a big
> splash with their 
> culturally advanced minds as opposed to their fine
> art talents.  
> Depends on the level of passion and timing etc.  
> For the record, most 
> conceptual art doesn't speak to me but that doesn't
> mean it's not 
> wonderful etc.  To me, it's intellect.  That's
> something else.
> 
> Music is like the spiritual world.  The people who
> spend so much time 
> trying to define God (or deny God's existence) are
> standing by the 
> pool, in pressed slacks and wingtips, dry as a bone,
> pontificating on 
> the people in the water.  Of course God doesn't
> exist!  Just like you 
> can't codify what makes music some music great and
> some music great 
> background stuff.  The difference is intangible! 
> But of course God 
> exists.  Just like some music just hits you in the
> face and knocks you 
> down.
> 
> If we really knew how it worked, it wouldn't work.
> 
> So pre recorded or not doesn't matter to me.  It's
> whether the music 
> moves me, stops my mind dead in its tracks.  I call
> it the God Moment.  
> I think it was Thomas Aquinas who first pointed this
> out.  When the 
> mind stops, eternity touches the earth.  If it stops
> long enough and 
> for enough folks, history is made... Hendrix, Dylan,
> Robert Johnson, 
> Beethoven, Beatles etc.
> 
> After 40+ years of trying to figure out music and
> God, I'm realizing 
> that it's all a mischievous paradox that teaches,
> humbles, mystifies 
> and bamboozles us into pushing forward.
> 
> For me, if it does that, it's real and it works. 
> The core of the 
> answer is a mystery.   I really love how it humbles
> me.
> 
> All I really know is, I like the feeling of water on
> my skin.  I've 
> dedicated my life to it.  I don't get in the pool
> all that often, but 
> when I do, all the sit ups and training suddenly
> seem worth it.
> 
> So - here's hoping no one sees this as a dis.  It
> isn't.  It's the rant 
> of a man who loves music and no longer knows why.
> 
> richard sales
> glassWing farm and studio
> vancouver island, b.c.
> www.glassWing.com     www.richardsales.com
> www.hayleysales.com     www.joannesales.com
> www.blueberryfieldsfarm.com
> www.broombusters.org
> On 16-May-08, at 5:57 AM,
> kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com wrote:
> 
> > Quoting Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>:
> >>
> >> Matt Davignon wrote:
> >> "Things that are not OK:
> >>
> > The OK/Not OK issue is a test that I apply only to
> myself.  It occurs 
> > to me that what I would consider "cheating" for me
> (a 
> > composer/performer/improviser) would be "ok"
> within someone else's 
> > artistic space.
> >
> > For every thing that I can think of that I
> personally wouldn't do, 
> > there is at least one celebrated artist who has
> done those very 
> > things.
> >
> > I have to conclude that the only thing that is not
> OK for me is to: 
> > try to be someone that I'm not and/or try to be
> all things to all 
> > people.
> >
> > Whether I happen to compose a work that uses my
> own pre-recorded 
> > material or is entirely live, I simply do what is
> necessary for me to 
> > realize the result that I want.
> >>
> >> John Foxx was really
> >> interested in emotions and lack of emotions: 
> machines interacting 
> >> with human
> >> beings.
> >>
> > Yes! Yes!  Often when I perform a work, I look for
> a crescendo of 
> > emotion the same as I look for dynamic, tempo,
> texture, and rhythmic 
> > changes.
> >
> > Often times, there is more excitement and tension
> from "holding back" 
> > than from "giving 100% emotion 100% of the time".
> >>
> >> To me, the artificial was far more exotic and
> enticing.
> 
=== message truncated ===


www.myspace.com/luisangulocom