10q part2

[bryan.helm@dinosaur.com]

 Dear Loopers, 
                            Here is Part 2 of my 10 questions for Bill 
Forth.


PART 2:

>6.  What are your current musical pursuits and how would you
>      define the role of looping as it applies to them?
 
I am not interested in hearing anything that sounds like it came out of a
computer.  Ten Seconds experimented with combining slamming grooves and
ambient textures; I'd like to go further, in a darker vein.  I currently
use looping as both a composer's sketchpad and as a device for coming up
with textures with a guitar that wouldn't fall out of the sky otherwise.
I'm working more quickly these days, but I am also trying to consider the
notes.
 
The fun part of looping is that it's all about play.  I will often just
begin with a simple idea and try to squeeze some movement out of it, for
example, the following pandiatonioc sequence:
 
C / E / G / A
C / E / G / B
C / G / E / A / D
 
I'd might then play that in three octaves, then reverse the recording, then
play the same sequence of notes in reverse, reverse that recording, then
improvise further.  Or, turn it off.
 
 
>7.   What instrument would you most like to hear undergo a
>     "good looping", as it were?
 
I would most like to hear a clavier =E0 lumi=E8res.
 
 
 
>8.   Do you find looping to be a valuable pursuit in regards to
>      developing composition skills and playing technique?
>
It can be very helpful as a compositional sketchpad.  Regarding "playing
technique" ...looping may force you to play more carefully, since hearing a
mistake repeated ad infinitum can be especially painful.
 
 
>9.    What in particular appeals to you about looping and do
>        you find that appeal translates for other listeners and
>         players and why?
>
 
Does it translate?  Sometimes.  While a piece may become trance-inducing,
even transcendant, at other times, the same piece might bore the pants off
you.  I would suppose that the appeal of loopage will depend on the mood of
the listener, on the quality of effort the listener is willing to make, and
the quality of the performance.  I am certain that the  ear can absorb only
so much repetition stimulus and complexity; at some point one begins to
hear things that aren't there.  When the texture and patterning become
sufficiently complex, it becomes an aural field of projection... the
listener then attempts to organize the information that is, very often, all
too much.  The ear naturally makes it's own choices, and perhaps opens a
pathway in the brain one wouldn't get to otherwise.  That's when things
begin to get really interesting: if we are listening at that point, we may
possibly hear something real.
 
 
 
>10.   What question in relation to looping would you most like
>         to have asked of other loopers, and how would you
>          answer?
>
Who has the best price on DAT tape in L.A.?
 
 
 My thanks to Bill Forth for his time and thoughts.

                                                          Bryan Helm
                                                     Techno-primitive
                                                      Tantrum Boy