"Live Looping in italy"

["L. Angulo" <labalou2000@yahoo.com>]

Folks,
I just want to share my expierence playing last
thursday in Italy with you.It usually takes about 5 to
6 hours to drive from konstanz Germany to Brescia
Italy but due to a nightmarish eastern traffic jam
driving through the city of Milano(and getting a bit
lost upon arriving) it took me about 9hrs.!
I got there just in time to basically connect all my
gear,wash my sweaty face have a drink and a quick bite
and start playing.I personally felt a bit exhausted
and unconcentrated during my performance but somehow i
got through it.
But what made this a very special night was the
support and hospitality of Luca Formentini and his
lovely girl,they guided me,waited patiently for me,and
made everything run smooth once i got there.He also
made me relax before the show and made everything
possible for me to get the best italian treatment!
He is truly a wonderful host and i recomend anybody
planning on playing in northern italy to get in touch
with him.
But basically the point i would like to make here is
how he is organizing this movement in italy.He is
bringing individual looper-musicians with press
publicity,acomodations and freedom to perform your set
however you want to present it.This give you also the
opportunity to set all the gear you need to feel
comfortable, and the audiece get a chance to recognize
you better as an individual artist.
The publicity that was made on the flyers by the Club
owners described the show as unguitar,ambient and
lounge music.Weather i accompish this, you should
probably ask Luca who was in the audience,but is
obvious that the club owners are using this terms to
draw their people because unless there is an
expanation of it,it is uncertain how people are going
to interpret the term looping in a flyer.

Anyway instead of going into a discussion of a term i
would like to rather give a few suggestions and ideas
i am buliding from personal experiences that might
help our presentation:

-make sure you get an idea in what kind of club you
are playing i.e. a bar,Disco,theater etc. and find out
what kind of audiences they draw.

-Send your promo material describing what you are
doing briefly and to the point simplified enough so
that even your grandma can understand it;-)Remeber
that a lot of times club owners might not exactly know
what you mean and they wonīt risk putting an abstract
term in there. The club hast to get the people in and
make money.This is the reality!

-make yourself flyers that explain briefly the concept
of looping,history etc. so people start getting
informed about what we are doing. On the livelooping
website there was a very good description of
this.Print it out take them with you and ask the club
owners if you can just set them on every table.

-Try to get them to send you the already printed out
promo flyer description of your show.This may help you
know what audiences have read about you and
expectations and plan you concept better before the
show.
 
-Try if possible (and donīt kill me for this) to adapt
your show to this audiences.If there is a word in the
publicity that says "lounge" well what a hell, give it
a try even if you didnīt plan on it or is not on your
set list!(Luca sorry if i forgot this!)

-Find out before you drive far away (or to another
country) how the traffic is going to be there and what
hours to avoid.Find out the weather conditions as
well.Sitting in a traffic jam for an hour an a half
with heat and exhaust gases from trucks cutting it
close before your show can drive you nuts!(i Have
learned my lesson;-)

-Print out all telephone numbers,hotel directions,
etc. and donīt go anywhere without a mobile phone!

-prepare your gear for the least amount of
hassles,xtra cables,foreign adaptors etc.

-record your performances or ask the Soundtech to do
it for you.

And last but not least know that "success is piece of
mind knowing you did your best"

Cheers
Louie













> But that's where I think the "Live Looping" movement
> got itself in trouble.
> There is an aesthetic similarity, but I don't think
> I've ever heard anyone
> express what it is. This leaves us with "Live
> Looping consists of people who
> use loopers live". But that includes the
> singer-songwriter with the DL4 who
> doesn't think of himself as a live looper per se. As
> Kim (I think) has
> pointed out, it makes knowledge that something is a
> looping event be about
> as informative as knowing it's a guitar event or a
> trombone event.
> 
> So, to really be successful as a promotional tool --
> which I think is the
> basic reason for trying to define a genre -- there
> are a couple of things I
> think should happen:
> 
> 1. Someone needs to come up with a definition of the
> aesthetics and
> experience from an audience perspective.
> 
> 2. The name needs some consideration. If there is
> real audience knowledge of
> live looping then that name may be worth keeping,
> but it also carries with
> it the problem that to use a looper live may not
> make one a live looper per
> se. Mark Sottilaro and I started toying with the
> name "Cycletronica" last
> time this came up. He seems to have done more with
> it than I have.
> 
> I've also been thinking about Loopstock and
> wondering whether the
> potentially anemic showing in Los Osos is
> symptomatic of a bigger problem.
> Maybe it's just that like me other people have
> schedule conflicts. I'm
> trying to resolve those conflicts, but I haven't
> managed to do so yet.
> 
> Or are Andre's frustrations taking hold at a broader
> level? I've found the
> festivals extremely valuable to me as a player
> because without them I
> wouldn't be playing publicly. But I've also found
> them a bit frustrating
> both as a player and an audience member. For
> example, as a player, I become
> paranoid about getting my rig into a form that will
> set up and strike very
> quickly. That probably results in some useful focus
> and keeps me from
> spending a performance playing with too many toys,
> but it is also a bit
> stressful. And I really would like a soundcheck
> though the audience
> presumably wouldn't. As an audience member, I find
> it annoying when others
> haven't worked as hard and the festival turns into a
> festival of technical
> difficulties. (As a performer, I can think "there
> but for the grace of God"
> but that wouldn't cut it if I were just an audience
> member.)
> 
> Is it time to evolve beyond the marathon festival
> model? To what? How do we
> keep bringing the community together without the
> stress level burning people
> out?
> 
> Mark
> 


=====
www.luis-angulo.com

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