Essential loop recordings

[kholmhud@nwu.edu (Kevin Holm-Hudson)]

Responding to The Man Himself's post, I agree that _No Pussyfooting_ and
Fripp's recent soundscapes work are essential for any looper's
library--Torn is another obvious choice. I'd like to share perhaps some
_non_-obvious choices from the "art-music" (whatever that is) realm:

Daniel Lentz--a great and sadly neglected West Coast composer, does some
very intricate stuff with cascading echo systems. IMO his finest is _Missa
Umbrarum_, which is on CD on the New Albion label. Lentz's singers sing the
text of the Roman Catholic mass a syllable at a time into looping systems
of various durations, and each movement of the mass is also in a different
style--eventually they all combine seamlessly. Accompanying the voices, by
the way, are tuned wine glasses (filled with wine, natch), which are
struck, rubbed, bowed, etc. like one big glass pipe organ. (The singers
also drink specified amounts of the wine during performance, to change the
pitch--naturally adding a fun element of inebriation to the performance
praxis.) Other Lentz albums that explore interlocking synth loops in a
quasi-Reich way are _On the Leopard Altar_ (probably out of print) and _The
Crack in the Bell_ (definitely out of print--it was on Angel records, and
you can still find cut-outs from time to time.) He's also recorded several
piano pieces that use massed pianos and loops.

Is there room on this list for looping not supported by technology? I'm
thinking for example of Erik Satie's _Vexations_ (a slow piano phrase
repeated 840 times--taking some 17 hours; I participated in a group
performance of this in the early 80s) and Terry Riley's seminal _In C_,
which certainly involves looping although manually played.

Glad to see this list is up and running so quickly!

Kevin Holm-Hudson
Department of Academic Studies and Composition
Northwestern University School of Music
711 Elgin Rd.
Evanston, IL 60208

"The mind should wander long before the pitch begins to." -Khh

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