Re: recording methods - what's your approach?

[looppool@cruzio.com]

Gareth wrote:
"So I've decided to informally record a lot of my "jams" and treat the
editing of them together as another part of the compositional process.
Does anyone else work this way here? I'm curious..."

Honestly, Gareth, that is almost entirely how I work when using live 
looping
recordings.   I, too , love the spontaneity of just going for something
(frequently
completely unplanned) and then using modern digital sound manipulations
(including
the generous resampling and re-looping of passages in my improv) to create
new composition.

To me,  this process is as akin to sculpture as it is  to music and having
a high degree
of visual aesthetic in my own work,  I just love to work this way.

Also, as a great lover of the use of form and repetition of  leit motifs ,
 this way suits
me well.

I think of it as the intermediate process between pure improvisation
and my more formal abstract electronica compositions which are done purely
in the
computer and are not real time aproaches.

Schoenberg is credited as saying that all composition is just very slow
improvisation.

I'm fond of telling my students that improvisation can, conversely, be
thought of
as very rapid composition.

Indeed, when we use sophisticated tools in modern loopers like replace,
syncing, bouncing
slicing, dicing, complex and simple feedback manipulations we are just
experimenting
with form.

This is, of course, not the only way to use looping (Matthias Grob's
beautiful pieces that use
constant use of feedback to morph his loops in a seemless ambient way
comes to mind or Sjaak Overgauw or Fabio Anile's gorgeous approaches to
ambient live looping) but it really appeals
to me.

Best of luck,  I can't wait to hear your new record and hope you have it
finished in
time for your performance at Y2K-X this year.

warmly,  Rick Walker