why we founded this list

[Matthias Grob <matilists@gmail.com>]

Hi
I don't post here very often any more, but I did a lot in the past and  
I consider myself one of the founders of this list.
List owner Kim does not seem to be much interested in looping any more.
My interest always was of a deeper nature and I think I brought the  
initial spiritual content.
I was fanatic and I still think of livelooping as a healing method and  
would like to improve the world with it.
In 1992, when I wrote the folder for the LOOP delay, the first  
dedicated livelooping tool, I started the "loop groop" as "Forum for  
loopology and repetitive hapenings" and defined its purpose as:
"Exchange of ideas about composing, recording and distribution of loop  
music.
Establishing a place for it in the media and in the record market.
Simplification of development and distribution of specific equipment.
A record label ?
A specifically equipped studio ?"
The "condition of membership" I imagined as:
"Introduction of a loop music recording or any other related work  
(like optical effects, computer programmes, special electronics,  
psychological discoveries etc). Members can receive as much  
information about the others as they present about their own work.  
Spiders handle the information exchange in the net and try to connect  
people of similar interests. "
(I don't know how this would have been possible, I did not know about  
mailing lists at the time)

When Keith discovered the LOOP delay and called me to Gibson, Kim did  
his first job as EE there and learned about looping when one of the  
units hit his lab desk to improve it! So we worked together on the EDP  
long before we worked on the promotion. And when the web became  
spread, he knew how to setup a site and a mailing list and did it his  
way...

Thats why I still feel a fatherly responsibility to support this  
movement until it grows by itself and the information about the deeper  
use of looping tools becomes spread.
We are not there yet as I want to discuss below.

Some hours ago, I was going to answer a mail from Rick about the  
festivals and once again thought about what has come out of this and  
where we are heading for. I thought about it almost every day since  
1986, and since february, I am writing on the livelooping theory, and  
collect videos on youtube and discuss strategies with the most  
involved looping friends.
So Marks post makes me say something about it all to all.

This paragraph is about the personal situation, you can skip it:
I am a true friend of the Walker brothers and I also had a good time  
with Mark when we have been neighbours for some fantastic coincidence,  
when I lived in Gary Halls house on Alameda island. (Gary is one of  
the fathers of livelooping, now retired in Tailand)
Mark and me did not maintain contact, so we may not be friends in the  
closers sense - thats live as he said correctly. He is an intense  
poster with strong opinions, honest but sometimes hard...
I would love Bill and Rick even if I thought of their festival as  
useless or whatnot. its love, I find them of the most good willed and  
tender and talented persons I ever met!

To question the festivals and the group purpose here:
Why do we do all this?
There is a big deep question why we like to play music and why looping  
is even more fun, we discussed this over years and I am trying to  
write an abstract about it, just wait, I will want to discuss that,  
too, but now its about playing live:

Most of us don't want to make a living or become famous, but have fun  
and grow with their music and get a feedback from some listeners  
sometimes. Some enjoy the exchange of this music and fascination so  
much that they buy over sees tickets to get to the meetings - thats an  
amazing power! It helps to make the festivals days of big expectations  
and joy and the festivals I attended were completely dominated by  
love, tenderness and spirituality.
So there is not the slightest doubt that the festivals are useful and  
should go on and we can only be very thankful to Rick and all the  
other organizers for their huge effort to make it happen.

Still, some of us also want to make it a living. For them it would be  
great if the public would come to the festivals and the producers of  
events and movies and such would call them up and say: "we decided  
that some livelooping music fits our production best, can you do it?"
And those producers would like to just write "livelooping" on their  
banner and get the house full of livelooping fans.
So how and when can we get there?

Anyone is free to say on this list that they don't like to travel or  
play live or exchange their music and only want to exchange tech infos  
or have fun... but it may not be very useful...
... or don't you agree that this list should mainly serve for those  
who do want to play in public and spread their music?
... or should we create a separate list for the professionals?