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Wow, David's post about the Roland Space Echo for sale
really took me back and filled my head with memories of things
I haven't thought about in a long time.
I remember disengaging the erase heads on my Roland Chorus
Echo (which I just sold this year to
a Dub artist who wanted the 'real' deal for live dubbing)
so that I could get my first loops to repeat infinitely. This
was
in 1980. I was inspired by Michael Haumesser, who
had done the same thing to his tube Echoplex in our
band, Tao Chemical ( a theatrical new wave
band)
Our first 'looping' gig (not to be repeated for another
decade) was on a bill with list member Dr. Richard Zvonar
and Bob Beede ( an electronic mentor of
mine).
Booked as Tao Electrical, Michael, Jim Rutledge (the
bassist of Tao Chemical)
and I all recorded the last piece of our set into our
respective 'loopers' and then: one by one, walked off the stage and
left
the loops to play by themselves. The loops
were very long and dreamy and completely out of sync. To this day, I love
multiple loops that are out of sync with each other........causing different
rhythms and harmonies to emerge randomly.
I honestly hadn't heard of the
whole San Francisco tape center at the time and though I had
listened to Terry Riley, I had no idea that he had done a
lot of seminal experimenting with looping.
I thought we were making history at the
time..............................LOL!!!!!
How silly and narcissistic we can be at times, eh?
Well, reading about the Space Echo really brought up
some heady memories of that exciting and creative time and really made
me
smile.
Despite the ups and downs and the controversies we find
ourselves in here at Loopers Delight (and in the general looping
community) I really love this scene. It doesn't even
matter to me that it is undefinable. It has stimulated me, taught me
and inspired me. I love it and am grateful I found this place to hang out. Thanks, Kim.
I'm really looking forward to travelling to Los
Ossos in a couple of weeks and playing at Loopstock. Thanks, Hans.
yours, Rick Walker
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