Re: "Live Looping"

[Per Boysen <per@boysen.se>]

Hi,

Since I've been thinking a lot on this I'm finding this thread very
interesting. Thank you everyone for great posts!

On 04-04-12 00.36,  "Mark Hamburg" <mark_hamburg@baymoon.com> wrote:

> 1. Someone needs to come up with a definition of the aesthetics and
> experience from an audience perspective.

Yes, it's actually a bit bizarre that we, as musicians, should come up with
a name for the style of music we do. It has always surprised me how
different people experience "music" - it's obviously all in the ear of the
listener. When I listen to Andre's latest record I hear "fusion" and "funk"
played by a skilled musician using the meta instrument made up by a guitar,
an echoplex and a guitar amplifier - and delivered with a well defined
attitude. When I listen to Matthias Grob's record I hear "brilliant group
improvisation". When I listen to Rick Walkers records I hear "sophisticated
and funny beats". When I listen to Ted Killians record I hear "screaming
beautiful craziness".

I must say that it hardly passed my mind that looping plays a big part in
these four examples. And I guess a non musician listener couldn't care 
less.

The more you play the more you realise that listeners never experience the
music the way you expected them to. Here there is a big gap between the
musician and the audience and this is exactly what we, traditionally, need
record labels for. Record labels is an industry specialized in putting
understandable labels on artists output. In the modern society and market
this step is as important as the first step - the artist creating the 
actual
expressive outlet. 

Yes, it's true that the increase of styles and sub genres of today has
diminished the record labels role as "the curator", but the need for "an
interpreter" for the masses is as big as ever. And this is not a job anyone
can easily pick up right away to "pass over the middle man" and "go indie".
I think Andre's talk about "turntablism" is a brilliant example of a good
presentation trick. Not a musical style per se, more of a branding needed 
to
come across in public.



On 04-04-12 02.48,  "hazard factor" <artists@hazardfactor.com> wrote:
> Defining what *you* do is the hard part. For me, I usually tailor my
> response to the venue.

There's another strategy that works. But in the long run, and if putting 
CDs
out, I think it's better to have a name, with some staying power, for what
you're doing. Personally I agree with Phill Wilson (great post BTW) that
"live looping" is a technique or a tool.

(I'm using the four CD examples only because I have come across good
recordings from these peoples)

Best wishes

Per Boysen
-- 
www.boysen.se
www.looproom.com