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Looper's Delight
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>>The point was that many of you are clearly influenced by Robert Fripp and >>admire him. Many others here never even heard of him before, as shocking >as >>that may sound. Some people are in between and have heard him a bit and >>might want to learn more about what he is doing with looping and why some >>people think so highly of him in that regard. Since this list is about >>looping, it would be really great if some of you RF experts could teach >the >>rest of us about his looping techniques, looping conceptions, loop >>approaches, etc. You asked fer it.... I'm going to quote bits from my collection of Fripp interviews, going back to 1969... well obviously the loop bits don't go that far back, but you get the idea. Here are a couple of nuggets; there's also a box in his 1986 GP interview, but someone else can type that one in!!! Beat instrumental, June 1979 "'Would you like to pick a note?' asks Fripp. The gent seated opposite asks for E. Fripp begins to pluck Es. In a matter of seconds his first note has been through the tape system and sets up a swelling, repetitive rhythm. Fripp throws in other notes, vaviations, snatches of melody. Within minutes there's a symphonic swell filling the room." ..... " Towards the end Fripp leans over to the line of recording tape poised between the two recorders and gently taps it with his index finger. The tune distorts slightly and the distortion part is repeated on tape." ... "The atmosphere remains relaxed. Fripp talks to anyone who wants conversation. The three kids from the Cure rush up and pelt him with questions. Fripp answers, carefully and patiently." .... "Is Frippatronics necessarily a solo performance art? 'Because it's often so dense that the range covered is akin to a small chamber ensemble. By the time you've had the thirtieth generation coming in, there's quite a thick layer. Which doesn't always provide room for other instruments. In the field of applied Frippertronics, it's not something that can exist outside of a recording studio. Pure frippertronics can, but applied - on "Here comes the Flood" where there's twenty-nine separate loops I did at home, edited, spliced, notated and transferred onto the song in the studio. That takes a lot of work and is specifically designed to allow for other instruments. But it's not a spontaneous situation.'" Guitarist (UK) August 1986, interview with Tony Arnold, Fripp's tech: "The term Frippertronics is the name Robert gave to a tape loop system he adopted from Brian Eno. Essentially it's an echo-delay tape system which Robert uses both for live work and in recording to slowly build up miniomalistic chords and notes on tape. It's basically just a Robis rack. There's a foot box which controls all the separate units at the moment and Robert will touch these button on each effects panel, then earthing them down will actually put them into the computer which, if he hits the button, will be stored in that order and will be recalled by footswitch one which he pressed to save te effects. I'm modifying it all the time and am working at the moment to give Robert five minutes of Frippertronics without having to take two Revoxes. What I'm doing is putting a playback head after the tape's gone all the way through, so you get an erase head, then a record head, then it goes all the way around and is five minutes long. It crops up for him again and I've got another head that sequences." Does that help any? ;) Michael