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Re: Who uses "looping" in their promo material?



On 12 sep 2007, at 06.23, Krispen Hartung wrote:

> Consequently, I don't consider myself a looping artist anymore, but  
> just a creative performance and composition artist. That seems  
> fitting for what I do, even though looping technology is most  
> always present in some degree or another in my work. But because of  
> my passion toward the technology and this list, I still feel  
> tempted to call myself a looping artist.  And I feel a sense of  
> pride in this when I see other mainstream and well known artists  
> use looping technology, but only as a gimick or fleeting effect,  
> vs. somethin that I have really mastered and can use as a  
> composition tool.  We are among the few and proud, but how do we  
> position ourselves in the music industry?


Great that you brought up this discussion again!

At some point every creative artist has to pass the line where it  
matters more what others think you are doing then what you think that  
you are doing. After all, it's the audience that listen to the noise  
you're making. You can work hard on educating the masses but people  
will still keep their own views regarding your music.  The more you  
play out in public the less it matters whatever you consider yourself  
being - you will get "dubbed" in media as "a looping artist" or "a  
jazz guitarist" or something else. For musicians that play, or plan  
to play, professionally this is a constant issue - not unlike  
"branding" in other businesses.

My own view is to use the term "looping artist" on the same  
descriptive level as for example "a guitar playing artist", "a  
dancing artist" or "singing artist". But all of these epithets are in  
my opinion secondary to the major focus that has to do what kind of  
music you are in fact creating. Genre.

I also regard "philosophical" aspects at a higher descriptive level  
than the tools used (looping device, piano, electronics, drum etc). I  
this category go things like "extreme attitude", "political agenda"  
or real-time interaction with the audience or the musical processes  
related to composing and performing (this is where looping may come in).

As you're saying, in this community we tend to place much more  
emphasis on the use of looping in music making, compared to average  
listeners. You also mentioned "the industry" and this "the industry"  
is pretty equivalent to "average listeners" because those are the  
people the industry is working for (selling them the music as a  
product). Or rather, "the music industry" stands for the expectations  
on what the average listener will perceive the music as.

I prefer to simply call my own music "Instrumental Music". Eventually  
stating that it is "cross-over" and naming "Nu-Jazz" and "Minimal" as  
related genres. I don't even mention, on this highest level of  
abstraction, that it's improvised, since improvised or composed  
doesn't matter for how the average listener hears and perceives the  
music. If asked for a closer description of what I'm doing, I might  
says  "multi lateral improvisation" and if needed follow that up with  
something like:

"In jazz it is common that one musician improvises lead themes over a  
fixed chord structure background played by other musicians. In my  
music the same musician, or musicians,  typically improvises both the  
lead themes and the chord structures at the same time. This multi  
lateral improvisation is made possible by advanced live-looping  
techniques. It is a very intuitive way of  creating music."

I keep even more detailed descriptions handy, that goes into the  
nature of psychedelic music and deals with shared human archetypes  
regarding gestures and time... (SNIP! Off Topic Intelligence  
intervention)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)