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Looper's Delight
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As a classically-trained musician, I'd like to say a few words in the name of music. Many of the acts at the Portland Loopfest were more "performance art". Hearing wave upon wave of amorphous withering masses of sound, including unintentional (?) feedback, screaming, and cursing, was overpowering. Call me a purist, but the technology should be used to augment a performer's skill in their instrument of choice. Most of the time, what I heard was "look-what-I-can-do-with-this-cool-piece-of-gear". They probably had chops, but the opaque veil of technology had descended on their performances, covering up their true musical talents. (To be fair, I did not hear Admiral Twinkle Devil.) Let's use this amazing technology to create things that are articulate and wonderful. -----Original Message----- From: dgoat [mailto:dgoat@quik.com] Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2003 10:36 PM To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com Subject: Gig Report: Portland LoopFest A-Go-Go Greetings all! Well, the very first Portland loopers gig has come and gone, and it was a mad success, far beyond what I had dreamed it would be. We had a great crowd (over 125!) and actually made some money to distribute to all of the people involved! We had ambience, noise, rock, jazz, funk, spoken word, experimental, folk, minimalism, etc. Basically, just about something of everything! Improvization seemed to be the common thread throughout. List members Neil Goldstein, Dave Trenkel and myself all performed along with several other local Portland loopers. First up was Lecture, solo guitar and mic through a vintage tape echoplex (super-cool box!) into a vintage 4-10 tube amp. He generated beautiful/ugly lo-fi textures that were a perfect opening. Next was Non-Polar, another solo artist, who used 2 JamMan's, a microphone and a mixer to create wonderful dark textures from a ride cymbal. Lots of bass frequencies. A unique way to play a cymbal. He also did some guitar fine looping. Then Neil Goldstein took the stage with a Martin acoustic guitar, an EDP with Loop IV and a Vortex. He proceeded to demostrate his "stutter" loop technique, and other techniques that ranged from faux-California Guitar Trio sounds, to folk chord progressions, to squalls of noise. My band, the Darsan Trio, played a fully (-1) improvised set, with 3 DL4's used by the Guitar, Bass, and Drums/voice. We played giant dollops of rock/jazz/funk/noise and I improvised weird spoken word pieces throughout. We ended our set with a looped version of the Gymnopedie #1 by Erik Satie. One person I talked to compared us to Massacre :-) Great fun! My bassist colleque from the Divided (a pop band I'm in) then mesmerized us all as the Ascension Conspiracy with his ambient solo fretless bass skills, using a JamMan, ebow, and an old Art effects unit. Last for the evening (and best) was Admiral Twinkle Devil (Dave Trenkel) and the Turntable Enabler. Dave had an absolutely HUGE assortment of devices that he ran an electric piano and Nomad keyboard through, including a Repeater and a JamMan. His turntable co-hort used a Repeater and other devices on the turntables, and definately played them as a musical instrument. VERY impressive. Now, not only did they have the mounds of gear (a full music store's worth it seemed) but they also brought an excellent sax player with them, who squalled and melodied his way through the textures with tenor and soprano saxes. A fine, fine closing act. I'd like to again thank all the performers who played: Lecture Non-Polar Neil Goldstein my cohorts in the Darsan Trio The Ascension Conspiracy Admiral Twinkle Devil and the Turntable Enabler with special guest I'd also like to thank: The kind folks at the Jasmine Tree Noah and Kate who helped me set up the show Keith and Jaybird who handeled the PA board. A special separate thanks to Kate as the Admin Goddess who helped me set up, and ran the door. Jeremy of Lecture has kindly offered to set up the next show, and hopefully we will all be on our way to a monthly looping show! Thanks! D.G. The Darsan Trio The Divided