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Re: Total Improv



Well I guess I started improvising before I got into looping, but the 
two certainly go together well.
I got into looping because of my love of Congolese pop music - 70s 
soukous, those sparkling guitars - & a 4-second delay pedal (Arion 
DDS-4) gave me an alter-ego to develop funky riffs with.
Mind you, before that I'd been messing with a couple of reel to reel 
tape recorders, magnetic pick-ups, electric fires, hacksaw blades (& the 
occasional guitar!), so there's history there. The advent of digital 
looping technology made it possible to do all that sound-on-sound stuff 
live, at the London Musicians' Collective, short-lived clubs in back 
rooms of pubs, occasionally in concert halls, on tour, but always 
completely, 100%, improvised.
Yep, starting a set with absolutely no preparation whatsoever is the 
preferred route for me. Once, at Hugh Metcalf's Klinker club, a music 
therapist approached me after a set that had admittedly completely got 
out of my control in a sort of 'noise/chaos' way, and asked me what 
traumatic episode in my childhood had caused me to create such painful 
music? She said she hadn't heard anything so distressing since 
Lutoslawski! I took this as a compliment!
I should add that I also enjoy listening to 'total improv'. For me, the 
process is often as interesting as the result. It doesn't 'work' every 
time, maybe, but I'd rather hear musicians taking risks & it not always 
happening, than just playing safely b& predictably. There's enough of 
that around. A musician once said to me after a rather free, improvised, 
definitely not jazz, piece at a Bimhuis 'jam session': "When you're a 
sailor, you have to go with the wind."
I couldn't have put it more eloquently.
Dave


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