Soundscapes/Frippertronics debate

["Peter Badore" <pbadore@rochester.rr.com>]

Hedawa7 has written:

> scott,
> when peter b said,
> >> >I've noticed whenever someone attempts Soundscapes they're really
> performing
> >> >Frippertronics.
>
> and i then replied:
> >> cchhhhwwrauugh, now *there's* a (dinosauric) crock of shite..... 
>again!
> >> so many years later, this minor ignorance still gets up my nose.
> >> what exactly is a 'soundscape'?;
> .....well..... i meant to pose a rhetorical question, in order to point
out
> that not everyone who uses looping-instruments employs
> 'soundscapes'/'frippertronics' as their 'model' or 'base'.
>
> regardless, thanks for your response.
And then...
> that's what i think; again, i was responding to how i perceived peter b's
> root-assumption, which seemed to imply that all loopists are attempting
> 'soundscapes/frippertronics'..... which, imo, is erroneous if merely
> uninformed.

I did not say that "all loopists" were "attempting" anything!  I'm 
referring
to an occasional download from either LD or Elephant Talk by those, like 
me,
who have their creative roots in Crim-related material.  What I meant was,
on occasion, when someone features their work as Soundscapes (which, from
listening to RF's CDs, employs a less repetitious pattern with drastic
fading after only a few repeats at most) it sounds more akin to
Frippertronics (which employs constant repetition with almost unnoticable
fading until you realize it's almost gone several minutes later).  Got it?
Just those people in particular, not the entire looping community!  But, as
I implied, I don't have a problem with it; just an observation.  No offense
was meant to anyone regarding this; nevertheless, if you have something bad
up your nose, by all means grab a hanky and blow!

And to Chris Muir:  I'm fully aware of the works of Riley, Reich, and
Oliveiros.  However, no one has brought out this technique to the public at
large better than Fripp & Eno, for obvious reasons.  Just as Jimi Hendrix
innovated electric guitar techniques even though he didn't invent the
instrument or D.W. Griffith innovated storytelling in the movies without
inventing cameras or film (though his praising of the KKK leaves a lot to
doubt), F&E took this invention and turned it into their own separate
entities.  So I must disagree that RF "didn't innovate" (you'll have to
refer to your own letter as I've already quoted the above).  He is indeed
worthy of the term Frippertronics (and, yes, I'm also aware that the term
started as as joke).  I also hope Soundscapes is becoming the new
fashionable term as "ambient" has now lost its original meaning when Eno
first conceived it.  Yeah, yeah, two different things.

Finally, thanks Mark Sottilaro for your advice and to those who recommended
the Repeater.  I'm going to try one out now!

Your minor ignorant,
Peter Badore