It’s been nearly two weeks since I
got back from 5 weeks in Europe, and I had a
great trip. I stayed in Zurich
for the better part of 4 weeks with my host and brother in arms Bernard Wagner,
who gamely recorded several hours of my loop improvisations, and also played with
me on several as well, successfully clocking my LP-1 with his EDP, not to
mention making killer muesli for breakfast. He also was kind enough to score me
a couple of clinics, one at a music school in Winterthur, and at a music shop in Will. The clinic
at the music school was to an audience of mostly twenty year olds, and I did an
hour of playing and talking about lap steel and slide playing, covering open
tunings, and slide techniques, palm harmonics, a little history, a bit of recommendation
of players to check out and influences, and some gear talk. The other hour I devoted
more to looping, and looping techniques, but tried to focus as much on what can
be done on basic entry level units as I did showing what my state of the art
LP-1 can do, Demonstrating guitar beat box techniques, and promoting the benefit’s
of looping as a practice tool for developing instrumental skills, as well as
covering how I use looping to compose and improvise.. I invited people up
afterward to take a crack at my Lap steel and loop rig, and spent the remainder
of the session answering questions. The music store clinic in Will was a much
wider demographic and I did a more condensed clinic and also actually demoed an
RC-20 and a Dl4 in series. At both clinics I was struck by how relatively
obscure the lap steel is over in Europe, even
more so than in the states, and it was gratifying to experience peoples
reactions to the sound and expressive possibilities of the instrument.
The first week in Switzerland, we traveled to Bern where Bernard had arranged a trio gig
with trumpeter/ looper/soundscaper Werner Hasler and drummer/percussionist
Gilbert Paeffgen. We did two sets of free jazz/ electronica in a cool
underground bunker club, and what looping we did, was more abstract, non linear
and not synced, and worked really well.. Many thanks to Werner Hassler,
for inviting me to play and putting me up for the night
Nearly three weeks in to my trip my wife Nancy
joined us and she and Bernard and I took the night train to Berlin for the Berlin Looping fest. It was a
great event in spite of my own sub par and tired set, and it was great to re connect
with everyone and meet some new friends as well. Many thanks Leander for all of
his work and his gracious inclusion of Bernard and I late in the game. Also many
thanks to the great Andreas Willers who hosted us at his home in the “Eastern
Sector”, and invited us to his cool outdoor gig the next evening where
they played Hendrix tunes with a more free jazz aesthetic., and I got to hang
out with my looping buddies and drink beer..
The day after we returned from Berlin, Nancy and I flew to Istanbul where we were guests of Erdem Helvacioglu
and his lovely partner Esin, and spent a week recording with Erdem, and doing
some sight seeing. I’m very excited about the project Erdem and I did and
will be continuing to work on over the next several months. We had a great time
in Istanbul, a truly amazing city, and got to
witness such things as a crowded Taksim square going crazy the night Turkey beat the Czech Republic
in a qualifying round for the Euro football championships. This was a qualifying
round and people were acting like armistice had been declared ! I can’t
thank Erdem and Esin enough for extending the invitation to visit a place I had
not been to since I was 3 years old, back when my father had been serving in
the air force stationed in Libya. One evening Nancy and I took the opportunity to
spread a little vial of my Dad’s ashes in the Bosporus.
My dad was a man of the world.
We spent one more week in Switzerland
where we did the afore mentioned clinics, some more recording and spent a night
outside of Will in a little hamlet at the home of Bernard’s dear friend Damien,
and took a drive and hike in to the eastern Alps the following day. I
think my favorite audience on the whole trip where the group of village
children who gathered to hear our impromptu patio jam at Damien’s house
the evening we spent at his house. A perfect evening and coda to a great trip.
I am determined to get an earlier start on
doing this again next year so this is my official letter of interest to anyone
thinking of organizing a looping festival in Europe next summer, or better yet,
late spring. I would love to come be a part of it.
Thanks again to everyone who showed
me tremendous hospitality on this great trip.
Bill
PS my gear for the most part performed
with flying colors, with the one exception being my monster power strip that
couldn’t handle a step down transformer in Istanbul and fried, taking the
transformer with it in a hail of black smoke. blowing a fuse on my preamp but
other wise not harming anything else, I got charged about 90 euro
for over weight on the connecting flight fro Switzerland to turkey but not on
the way back which was curious.
