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Looper's Delight
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I thought I would try to bring us back to some more
germane list topics, very particular to looping.
For a while last year, my personal website
referred to me as a looping "artist." I was rather proud of that
description because of all the effort I put into using, researching, and
promoting looping technology. However, this year I had second thoughts on
referring to myself as a looping artist. It seemed to me that looping was just
one element of my whole performance approach, but not the defining element. For
example, there were many so called "looping performances", especially those
where I played as a duo or trio, where I made minimal use of looping
technology. Looping technology was just one out of many devices I used to
express myself - but easily over-used in a duo or trio context. And then I
started thinking about looping relative to the concept of genre. I don't really
consider looping a genre, because we have all seen that there are musicians from
many typical genres (jazz, pop, ambient, experimental, fusion, classical, etc)
all using looping technology. Now that looping technology is so prevalent in the
industry, it seems odd to consider looping a genre...YET, I still feel a strong
sense of attachment and community to this list, a feeling of solidarity that
perhaps one can confound with genre Out of all the lists that I am a member
of, LD is the only one that gets close to a sense of "family" and class
membership. I have deveoped many, many productive and enuring relationship
as a result of this list. Now, I get totally excited to go to a Y2K event and
see many of you in person. It is a powerful community, and I thank Kim for
starting it.
Consequently, I don't consider myself a looping
artist anymore, but just a creative performance and composition artist. That
seems fitting for what I do, even though looping technology is most always
present in some degree or another in my work. But because of my passion toward
the technology and this list, I still feel tempted to call myself a looping
artist. And I feel a sense of pride in this when I see other mainstream
and well known artists use looping technology, but only as a gimick or fleeting
effect, vs. somethin that I have really mastered and can use as a composition
tool. We are among the few and proud, but how do we position ourselves in
the music industry? Are we are our own worse enemies? What sort of
influence do we have as a social network? Does the music industry give a
damn about this list? When is the last time any manufacture has used this list
to do user research on a new looping device? We are a powerful group. Is the
industry recognizing us for our accomplishments? (Granted, that Guitar Mag
article on Y2K7 was a NICE deal).
Thoughts?
Kris
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Krispen Hartung www.krispenhartung.com / www.myspace.com/krispenhartung Performance Calendar: http://www.musi-cal.com/search?performers=Krispen%20Hartung info@krispenhartung.com / 1.208.724.5603 Discography - http://www.krispenhartung.com/catalogue.htm CD Baby Discography: http://cdbaby.com/all/khartung |