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Re: What got ya to where you are...



Hi Loopers,

I've been lurking long enough - and what an active list this is - amazing!

Apologies for what may seem like blowing my own trumpet, but I'd like to
refer to one or two of my recorded works here as it may be relevant.

I got into looping first when I had a few weekly private lessons in
electronic music in a small but very creative London institute in about
1979 - my kindly and knowledgeable Swedish teacher introduced me to a
VCS3/twin-Revox setup which blew my mind - I soon got the same setup
myself, after a few limited but successful experiments using a Sony stereo
tape deck and pulling the tape away from between the rec/play heads and
looping it round a mike stand (a good way for those who only have one
tapedeck).

Later I saw a Stockhausen piece for string bass and tape delays in a church
- another mind-blower!

Later again I saw Frippertronics at the ICA in London - mind now in
tatters! Got to know Fripp at that time and he kindly provided a piece for
my "Miniatures" album (which had 51 one-minute pieces by all and sundry).
At first he said he would tape Queen Elizabeth's voice then slow it down so
it would - as he said - sound just like Prince Philip! Finally he sent me a
tape of him playing a cheesy little organ in what sounds like one of his
early polyrhythm experiments - probably the only piece on record of Fripp
on the organ. By the way, I am just putting the finishing touches to the
sequel, "Miniatures for the Millennium" - no release set as yet. Fripp is
on there again, jamming with Trey Gunn. Other loop-type stuff on this album
includes Terry Riley, Dagmar Andrtova (a Czech lady blasting an acoustic
guitar through echoes), a one-minute version of Gavin Bryars' epic "Jesus'
Blood Never Failed Me Yet", Daniel Figgis (Irish minimal grunge), Chris
Hughes (producer of McCartney, Tears for Fears, Robert Plant, etc., and a
Reich fan - his piece loops his 3-year old daughter's voice), and things
that are completely played or sung but sound looped by Piano Circus and
Meredith Monk.

One of my best looping projects was a 1980 album "Slow Music" with the
wonderful soprano sax player Lol Coxhill. Lol played a free version of
Handel's Largo. I then slowed down the tape of that to half speed, ran it
through the VCS3's filter (sweeping) and then through long tape delays, and
he played unerringly over that.

On moving to Japan, my Yamaha SPX1000 inspired me to see what happens when
you have two delays going (with a lot of feedback - say 90%) that are
almost the same length - e.g., 5 secs and 5.001 secs. It's interesting -
after a few repeats the echoes take on a thin metallic quality, emphasising
certain harmonics. By adjusting the second delay by a millisecond or so,
different harmonics can be emphasised.

I've always loved dub, since the heady days of '76/'77 when most of the
punk shows in London clubs also featured reggae/dub DJ's - a nice mix of
cultures very reminiscent of ten years earlier when it was soul (Otis,
James, Motown, Stax) plus rock (Who, Kinks, et al). So I am now the proud
owner of a Roland Space Echo which has plenty of nice wow and flutter and
filthy tape head noise. Also just picked up a Dynacord Echocord which is
similar but has an Echoplex-type slider to control the delay time.

My newest love is my TC2290 which goes up to 64 secs delay. Had to buy a
used one as, unbelievably, due to the unavailabity of a small part (some
kind of internal cable I believe) one can no longer buy upgrades to extend
the delay time over 10 sec, although the 2290 is still on sale. I am just
getting to grips with this monster. If anyone knows of a 2290 mailing list
please would you post the address here?

Another fine experience of looping which stands out in my memory is jamming
at my home studio with a flamenco guitarist. He was unlooped but I invited
him to play repeating short phrases in the same tempo/key as my Roland
electronic piano, and once he felt totally comfortable with it, to add or
subtract a note and keep on "manually looping". To keep the tempos together
I ran my piano through a short delay - 1 or 2 secs. I found that I stayed
on one (fairly fast 16th-note) phrase for almost the whole of the 30
minutes we played. All I could vary was finger pressure and the sustain
pedal. Limiting myself to these two very simple modes of expression
gradually opened up a whole new feeling in me, a continuing rush of energy
and on-the-edgeness that was extraordinaarily invigorating. As my friend
Jose and I left the studio soon after and headed for a bar I felt amazingly
strong and balanced - the feeling persisted throughout the evening.

To slightly digress, I had a similar experience with a camera! At the time
I was experimenting with taking long exposures (2 or 3 mins) of city lights
at night while moving the camera (handheld, or rotated on a tripod, or even
dangling from my neck as I bicycled) - a kind of "painting on the film" if
you will. One evening on a train from Osaka to Kyoto I stuck my lens up
against the window and took photos of the passing lights, hoping that the
lines thus drawn would be visually interesting. It really raised my
perception of things that I normally ignore - the quality, colour, size and
distance of the various lights. After I while I started slowly rotating the
camera on the axis of the lens so the lines would become spirals and waves.
This completely engrossed me for the entire journey (regardless of the
strange looks I was getting from the other passengers!) and, like the
previous example, I felt amazingly vital and yet peaceful afterwards.
Without getting too corny, I also felt a lot of love for all my tired,
hardworking Japanese fellow travellers as I walked through the crowded
Kyoto station.

It would be interesting to know what other "inner" experiences fellow
loopers have had. The focus and attention required for this technique can
be, I find, very uplifting, clarifying, and feels damn good!

With thanks and best wishes,

Morgan Fisher

>From Morgan Fisher, Tokyo, Japan

Email address: morgan@gol.com
Second email address: Morgan_Fisher@ringo.net