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Looper's Delight
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Hi folks,
The question of "How did you get into looping?" got me thinking back
into my own musical development, and for a few moments I couldn't
remember how I came across the style. But it slowly came back to me, so
here's my penn'orth:
The first looping I heard was at the 1991 Greenbelt Festival in central
England, from two separate artists. During Steeleye Span's set,
violinist Peter Knight played a canon by Telemann, using a delay unit
to play the second violin part; soon afterwards, I witnessed a truly
astounding set by Phil Keaggy, playing a James Olson acoustic guitar
through a JamMan (I think - maybe it was another delay?). Keaggy is a
particularly fine player, and frequently uses a JamMan in live
performance and recording to this day; I think it was his show that
first got me thinking about loops in music.
Around 1994 I was discovering Eno's back catalogue with considerable
enthusiasm, mostly his 70s output ("Another Green World", "Before And
After Science", etc.). I don't remember exactly how, but I came across
"[No Pussyfooting]" about that time, and despite having heard it was a
challenging listen (to put it mildly), decided to give it a spin.
"Mmm... now this I like!" I've always had a soft spot for minimalist
drones, and "Heavenly Music Corporation" got me thinking that maybe,
just maybe, I could play this sort of thing. Easier said than done with
a Boss DD2 delay (800ms max) and no EBow or volume pedal, but... well,
I'll get round to that.
I made my first "looping" recording, "The Echoing Green", in early '95,
creating the main rhythm of the piece by cranking the time and feedback
settings on the DD2 up to max, and layering guitar phrases through it.
Someone who heard it said it reminded them of the Durutti Column, which
led to me discovering Vini Reilly's work not long afterwards (I'd never
heard of him before). Sometime in the intervening year or two I also
found Ed Alleyne-Johnson's two albums of looped electric violin,
"Purple Electric Violin Concerto" and "Ultraviolet", which convinced me
even further that looping was an approach I could make use of. These
CDs, and particularly the latter, are worth acquiring if you can find
them, though I can't speak for availability outside the UK. To me, Ed
epitomises what electric violin **should** sound like - if there was
any justice in the world, it wouldn't be Vanessa-Mae who sells the most
violin CDs...
I spent October 1997 in Berlin, working at a publishing house there,
and whilst there met a musician busking in the Breitscheidplatz (the
central square, just over from the Zoo Station). His name escapes me
(an Auatralian - Michael someone?), but he was playing a guitar synth
and didgeridoo through a JamMan, and it sounded glorious, the way he
was layering all these sounds and soloing over the top. I'd have to say
it was this guy who reawakened my latent interest in looping, and on my
return to the UK I started looking for a JamMan or similar unit. It was
about this time I discovered Looper's Delight, most probably via a
posting to Elephant Talk, and things just grew from there!
Finally, early last year, I learned that the Boomerang was being
stocked by my fave guitar store, Chandler in Richmond, and as I'd come
into some spare cash I acquired one. The rest, as they say, is history
- I've recorded one loop guitar "virtual album" for my Web site, and
have another almost ready for MP3.com as I write.
Looping has totally turned my playing style around; it's given me a
musical direction, as well as showing me all the areas of my guitar
playing I really need to improve! It's been a long and winding road
(sorry) to this point, but I'm very grateful to have found both this
musical style, and this community of musicians who employ it.
Thank you for sticking with me thus far, and good night from Staines,
England...
Best wishes,
Tim.
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+--------------+ Tim Walker
{ o o } Staines, Middlesex, UK
{ [] } tawalker@dircon.co.uk
{ \__________/ } http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~tawalker/
+--------------+
"You can't always wait for a composer to write the music you
want to play." (Derek Bailey)
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