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Looper's Delight
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Interesting thread and I wanted to add my thoughts to the "Art vs Process" remark of Miko because I have been thinking about this many times the last year. The first thoughts which came to mind were: it all depends on what your goal is, your interest and your role. What do you want to achieve? Who's the public? Are you a professional musician yes or no? Btw: I'm speaking as a festival organizer now. It's my ambition to show the "regular" public the power of live looping as an art form. And let me be honest, my personal interest here is to provide myself a platform to play and do my thing. Building a network in the music scene is a 3rd element and that's something you need to get the most out of what you do. But how do you sell a live looping festival to the public? First of all, you have to know what you are selling. For me, personally, live looping is about sound sculpture, a great way to create improvised music. After the Antwerp loopfest of last May, I've done some research to find answers on the very same question and others like "Who's interested in live looping", "Who is going to watch a live looping festival", "How do you sell live looping". In general, you are talking about a niche, a technique not known by the general public or press, only known by a small number of musicians and not related to any specific genre or style. Most people who came to the festival were personal friends and musicians, fans of musicians and people interested in experimental music. Not a surprise, my conclusion is that this concept is almost impossible to sell ;-) Why? 1) The public, at here here, usually is not interested in what gear or techniques you use on stage, but what the result is of what you do...the music. It's a cliche but people don't buy a ticket because Mr. or Mrs. X is world champion the live looping of 2009, but because he makes interesting music. 2) Live looping is not a genre like rock or jazz. So imo, if you give your festival a direction in terms of the style/genre of your acts, I think you reach more people who share a similar interest. That's why I have turned Antwerp into an live looping festival with "Ambient" as main genre and keywords such as soundscapes, drones and live improvisation. I might even change the name in the future if that serves the goal. 3) If you want to bring live looping to the masses, you need a few known artists, with good reviews and a good reputation. Not necessarily famous, but musicians with a fan base means there's public out there for your festival. The thing here is how to finance it but I'm seriously thinking about bringing a "big name" to Antwerp in the future. It's simply a matter of "revenue - costs" so if you can find someone to finance it, it can be done and you might be able to organize an a event with 5 support acts + a big name. Everything is possible and this might sell better than the current approach. Stupid question: what would Fripp ask for a gig? ;-) -- Sjaak Overgaauw http://premonitionfactory.com/ http://livelooping.be/ http://euroloopfest.com/