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Looper's Delight
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In a message dated 6/7/99 6:05:28 PM Central Daylight Time, dennis@mdbs.com writes: << We're on the edge of looper religion here...but I'll continue even if I sound flaky... * I've been reading "The Power of Myth" by Bill Moyer and Joseph Campbell. Campbell says that there are two kinds of myth. The function of one type is to entertain. The other type teaches you things about the universe, helps you access the inifinite, etc. It's a ritual myth. It struck me that you can consider music in the same way. Most of the music I play with other folks is entertainment. Most of the looper-based stuff, the soundscaping, is ritualistic in Campbell's sense. In my earlier days, I found listening to such bands as Pink Floyd gave me a similar experience. * Some examples of early non-technological looping can be found in religious ceremony. I think trance dancing and shaman drumming are probably examples. In the Christian church, I think the "responsive reading" can qualify as a looping experience. Here, the leader recites varying phrases and the congregation responds to each phrase with (usually) an unchanging phrase. Consider this situation as the leader "soloing" over a loop! >> Yes!!! I don't even truly loop, as I don't have a true looping device, but this is the crux of the biscuit for me, and I am joyed to see it presented in a place where people discuss making music. I played for over twenty years, but until I started therapy and men's work, and accessed parts of me I hadn't before, music that I played sounded empty. It went into the head, perhaps, like bad prog (ok, flame away, but I know what I mean), but it didn't involve the body, nor, consequentially, the whole self. And part of accessing parts ot he humans psyche does involve ritual space. We love rituals. If you don't believe that, it may be that you just aren't aware of it. We have rituals around everything, from sex to drugs to rock and roll, to name the obvious. Today playing ALL music, whether it is in a church (sometimes I do that, yes), or with my 'jazz' group, I play music best when I enter a zone. Sorry, folks, I can't describe it to you, but time does get stretched there. As I get better at going there, the playing part becomes easier, and the listening becomes the real work. Go ahead, think I'm loopy too... I am sure I am. Kevin