Tracks & Artists
Michael Peters 1 On The Move
Dave Stafford 2 Spider's Web
Matthias Grob with Bira Reis (percussion) 3 Sete
Matthias Grob 4 The Fool's Dance
Andre Krikula and Conny Sommer 5 Es geschah
Renato Rizzo 6 Salina
Matthias Grob 7 Grama Para Todos
Mike Stevens 8 A Walk In My Dream
Doug Michael 9 Helix
Doug Michael 10 Trance (edit)
Fingerpaint (Patrick Smith and Steev Geest) 11 Sirens Of Titan
Doug Michael 12 Feed
David Talento 13 Just Give Up And Marry The Boss's Daughter
The Outside Loop (Wayne Hamilton and Chris Zimmerman) 14 Bag In A Tree
Kuno Wagner 15 Intermedium

1
Michael Peters http://listen.to/michaelpeters
mpeters@csi.com

I played guitar (and contributed to a number of CDs) in ambient music bands, punk groups, experimental orchestras, mainstream cover bands, Guitar Craft ensembles, and solo with my looping devices.

In 1996/97, I did many very different guitar/electronics/loop improvisations to get familiar with and explore the possibilities of the digital LoopDelay. I collected these improvisations on DAT tapes which became something like a book of rough sketches from travels through an unknown terrain. My first solo CD, "Escape Veloopity" (1998), contains the 15 most interesting sketches from this collection.

On The Move
4:51
A loop improvisation from the CD "Escape Veloopity".

Instruments: a Fernandes Sustainer Guitar, played through a Boss SE-70 effect processor and looped with a Paradis LoopDelay.

The short Saturn V countdown at the beginning was stolen from "Murmurs of Earth", a CD version of the Voyager Interstellar Record which can be bought from the Planetary Society.

2
Dave Stafford ambient@adnc.com

Studio Seventeen Productions
P.O. Box 461363
Escondido, CA 92046

Dave Stafford is a guitarist working in the New Standard Tuning for guitar, specializing in the use of the energy bow as an alternative to picking. He works with electric and acoustic guitars, synthesizers and found/looped sounds, all in the context of a large customized dual-loop music system. The primary sound is "ambient", but hazard allows for works of a more active nature as well. He currently has 5 solo CDs available, as well as 3 with the ambient looping duo "Bindlestiff".

Spider's Web
3:29
"Spider's Web" is the first track from 1996's "Other Memory/Sand Island" CD.

The genesis of the piece was a very short (about four seconds) loop of a pizzicato string voice played on a Yamaha DX7S synthesizer. That short loop was then locked in and the multiply function of the Oberheim Digital Pro was utilized to add live energy bow guitar (of longer and varying durations). After a minimum of energy bow parts were established, the loop was again locked and allowed to play for a short duration. Then the loop was stopped suddenly, into a lush reverberation.

The inspiration for the title came from two factors: The pizzicato string loop was reminiscent of a spider busily making it's web, with rhythmic precision. The theme of the "Other Memory" album was inspired by the final book of Frank Herbert's "Dune" series, and the term "Spider's Web" refers also to a growing conflict between the two main protagonists in the story. This piece also makes the suggestion (as do many of the loops Dave Stafford creates) that loop pieces, which are traditionally lengthy in duration, can succeed well in much shorter duration formats.

3
Matthias Grob
with Bira Reis (percussion)
http://matthias.grob.org
matthias@grob.org

Matthias Grob
Loteamento "Parque São Gonzalo" 160
Federação
40235-360 Salvador/BA
Brasil

Since '74, Matthias was playing in progressive rock bands and developing electronics for them, especially guitar sounds. In '83, after graduating as electric engineer, he cofounded PARADIS (CH) and developed piezo pickups and polyphonic electronics there to complete his concept for a versatile, independent in-line guitar for all styles. In '84 he restricted his music to improvisation only. In '86 he discovered the LOOP and went to Rio to play New Age music. In '91, back in Switzerland, he develooped the LOOP delay and then licensed it to Oberheim as Echoplex digital pro.

His music brings peace and harmony but also some strange feelings sometimes. The longer pieces represent a process of tuning into a question, battling through it and gratefully relaxing to come back to the real world.

Sete
1:03
A short and heavy tribal beat in seven, all recorded in real time on two EDPs, one for Bira Reis' percussion and one for the guitar. All sessions were recorded on DAT, each instrument on a track. Then on the computer, we had the chance to move around phrases to make it all tighter.
4
Matthias Grob artist info: see track #3
The Fool's Dance
3:33
Hexaphonic Paradis Guitar with PolySubBass extension, looped with a Paradis LoopDelay
5
André Krikula with Conny Sommer André Krikula
Hellkamp 41
D-20255 Hamburg
Germany
0049/40-491 84 51

After studying classical guitar, André Krikula spent some years in Rio de Janeiro where he studied with composer Joaõ de Aquino, guitarist Rosinha de Valença, and singer Maria Helena Imbassai. He toured with his own Brasilian group Cachaça, worked as a studio musician, and played gigs with Caetano Veloso, Jazz singer Betsy Miller, Russian Tango virtuoso Efim Jourist, performance artist Christian von Richthofen, and many others. André Krikula lives in Germany.

André's first solo CD "Criaçaõ" was released in 1994. The CD "Historias", a collaboration with Matamá, was released in 1998.

Es geschah
6:44
In addition to loop based improvisation with myself, I was always very interested in the combination of loop music with conventional musical structures, especially in ensembles with other musicians.

Inspired by my experiences with Afro-Brasilian music, I wrote a number of compositions for percussion, marimba, and guitar. Their main characteristic was the integration of jazz harmonics, classical melodics, and African grooves - exotic loops, so to speak. One of these compositions, which are also being performed live, is "Es geschah" (it happened).

6
Renato Rizzo Renato Rizzo
Pappelweg 3
CH-4800 Zofingen
Switzerland
0041 62 752 2124

Renato Rizzo studied classical and jazz guitar in Switzerland, took courses with Allan Holdsworth, Jeff Richman, and Wayne Brazel, and played solo and in various groups. His solo CD "Il tempo va" (time passes) contains nine of his own compositions for solo acoustic guitar - some quiet and impressionist, some featuring fast, rhythmic, and virtuoso playing. In his solo concerts, Renato uses a LoopDelay to create backing tracks.

Salina
4:44
  Salina is one of the Liparic Islands in Southern Italy. A couple of years ago, I spent my vacation on Salina. I wrote the piece during this time, deeply impressed by the beauty and atmosphere of the island. The percussive elements in the music represent sea and surf, the different parts of the improvisation represent variations of the landscape.
7
Matthias Grob artist info: see track #3
Grama para Todos
3:08
"Grama para Todos" means "grass for all" which doesn't mean the drug - it rather reminds of the millions of people that insist or are forced to live where not even grass grows...

Hexaphonic Paradis Guitar with PolySubBass extension, looped with a Paradis LoopDelay

8
Mike Stevens stevens@ebtech.net

Mike Stevens Music
1595 Blackwell Road
Sarnia, Ontario
Canada N7X 1A4
phone/fax: 519-869-8175


I play harmonica for a living. I have 5 CDs out and an instructional book (distributed by Hal Leonard). I am accredited with putting harmonica in bluegrass music where it's never been accepted before. The majority of my bluegrass shows are with Grand Ole Opry legends "Jim & Jesse". I have played over 300 Grand Ole Opry shows and have been named "The Central Canadian Bluegrass Entertainer of the Year" for 5 consecutive years as well as having the album of the year for my first project "Harmonica"; this is all very strange for a harmonica artist.

A Walk In My Dream
2:43
The track is off of an experimental CD entitled "Normally Anomaly".

I applied and received a grant from the Canadian Art's Council to produce and record this CD. I feel very fortunate. The track on the loopers CD is just harmonica, no other instruments.

My rig consists of a EV 619 bullet mic, plugged into a RANE FMI14 with a BOSS SE70 and on that record a Lexicon JamMan plugged into the insert of the FMI14. I then split the signal to a PA cabinet which was mic'd and ran a direct to the console. I'm actually getting booked to play a lot of festivals using this rig, it seems I am getting airplay on CBC radio even though I have no distribution for the project.

A Walk in My Dream is actually exactly what I heard in my dream and I couldn't explain it to anyone so they would get it, but musically I seem to get my point across.

9
Doug Michael http://www.ccnet.com/~dmic27
dmic27@ccnet.com

Doug Michael
2889 Seville Circle
Antioch, CA 94509

Doug Michael is a composer/guitarist who, in 1996, completed his music degree at San Jose State University, enrolled in the Electro-Acoustic Music program under the direction of Allen Strange. He has studied composition with Dr. Brian Belet, Daniel Wyman, Dr. Aldag and guitar with Ted Greene. Doug has won various composition awards and his music has been performed at many music festivals throughout the world, most notably the 1996 International Computer Music Conference in Hong Kong and The Novum Events in Dresden, Germany. Doug's composition "Radio Sky Part II" has just been released on the Frog Peak Music CD entitled "The Frog Peak Collaborations Project."

In addition, Doug has been heavily involved in composing instrumental music that has influences from Rock, Jazz, Progressive, Psychedelic, and Ambient genres. His music also appeared on Gajoob magazines' first compilation CD entitled "The Smell of Success." Since 1989 Doug Michael's solo project "The Outer Darkness" has released five cassette albums and enjoys radio airplay on progressive rock shows like "The Progressive Underground" out of Vermont, The "Gagliarchives" Show in New Jersey, and "The Musical Transportation Spree" in Minneapolis, to name a few. 1997 marks the beginning of Doug's record company "Angular Momentum CD's." By the end of 1998, Angular Momentum should have it's first Outer Darkness CD completed and released with many more to follow.

Helix
2:10
Helix is the third and last movement of my composition entitled "Clarinet for One." This solo clarinet piece was initially inspired by the Edgar Varese piece "Density 21.5." Helix is based on a strict twelve-tone construct and utilizes a digital delay system which loops the music at two second intervals. When the loop captures all twelve notes of the chromatic scale the player reroutes the signal path so the twelve note loop continues independently. At this point a harmonizer set to a minor third is used in conjunction with the player's natural clarinet sound. The Clarinetist then performs over the continuing loop.
10
Doug Michael artist info: see track #9
Trance (edit)
5:49
Trance began with the MIDI loop between the organ and the log drums. Although the first loop is 9 measures long, Trance settles into a 7 measure repeat for the rest of the tune. The loop was set up all within the sequencer with various instruments and ostinato patterns subtly fading in and out of the mix. Once the loop was completed, I added a melody and an electric guitar solo.
11
Fingerpaint
(Patrick Smith and Steev Geest)
http://www.fingerpaint.net
patrick@his.com

FNGP
P.O. Box 5364
Takoma Park, MD 20913


FingerPaint is a guitar-synth looping duo of dark illbience and dreamy ambience.

Sirens of Titan
6:39
From the FNGP release " Enormous Swirling Sound".

I was using two Lexicon Jam Man at the time as well as the Lexicon LXP-5 and a Roland GR-1 Guitar Synth. Steev was using two Jam Man, the LXP-5 and a Roland GR-300. Both of us had one loop each going and one machine set on long delay for Sirens of Titan.

12
Doug Michael artist info: see track #9
Feed
2:03
Feed was created live with no overdubs using the Electro Harmonix 16 second digital delay. I had the guitar amplifier turned up very loud and with the Electro Harmonix captured some of the feedback. The guitar was also plugged into a Boss DM-2 Delay. By playing around with the repeat rate and the intensity knobs of the Boss delay some interesting sounds resulted.
13
David Talento http://www.helpwantedproductions.com
loop@helpwantedproductions.com

Help Wanted Productions
P.O. Box 39808
Philadelphia, PA 19106


David Talento is the founder of Help Wanted Productions, a music label dedicated to creating and selling unique organic/electronic music. He has released over a dozen albums with various groups and under the band names Music For Isolation Tanks and Altruistic Suicide and is a founding member of the Electronic Music Project, a collective of DIY electronic musicians who have released one CD compilation so far. He also runs the internet Linn 9000 homepage and the Unusual Instrument and Recording Gallery. For more information, ordering, samples, pictures of Binky the windup monkey, and other important things visit the HWP web page.

Just Give Up and Marry the Boss's Daughter
3:10
My track "Just Give Up and Marry the Boss's Daughter" was initially done as an inside joke and experiment. It's a collection of answering machine messages I sampled with a backing track of some electronic nonsense I was working on at the time. I used an Ensoniq ASR10 sampler, Oberheim Echoplex, and an Arp Odyssey synthesizer for the sample and hold parts. I layered two separate tracks from the sampler and played another track "live" through the echoplex looping things and playing them backwards manually over top of everything. When it was all done it turned out a bit more interesting than I had envisioned so I spent some time mixing it and such and sent it in to the Loopers CD#1 never really expecting anything to come of it. I'm thrilled to see it made the cut with such fantastic musicians and loopers. Special thanks to Tracey who never knew what she helped create.
14
The Outside Loop
(Wayne Hamilton and Chris Zimmerman)
wayne@pil.net

The Outside Loop is a textural experiment by Chris Zimmerman and Wayne Hamilton. Chris runs Short Hair Studio and is a member of The Furniture Band (Chester, PA). Wayne has played with Brother J.T. and Vibrolux, Suffacox, and most recently Duran, Duran, Duran in Philadelphia, PA.

Bag in a Tree
3:10
  This piece was created using 3 analog tape loops on old tube reel to reel tape machines (in various states of dis-repair) accompanied by live banging on a lamp. We have hours of this stuff if you're interested...
15
Kuno Wagner http://home.t-online.de/home/Uta.Til/1lebenkuno.htm
kuno.tap@t-online.de

Kuno Wagner plays concert- and electric guitar, Chapman Stick, and Warr Guitar. His compositions are a blend of free form improvisations, techno and dance-music driven beats and looped or sampled soundscapes.

In collaboration with Thomas Wieberg (graphics & texts) he created the multivisional piece "Four cities" (1995), the CD release "Relict" (1996, with the band Moonfool) and the dance-performance "Rapid eye movement" (1998). He also released The CD "Acoustick" (1994, with piano player Achim Brockhausen).

Intermedium
4:44
"Intermedium" was played on a 12 string Stick, an Ensoniq DP 4, a Paradis LoopDelay, a DigiTech Time Machine, and a Lexicon PCM 70 Reverb, and recorded directly to DAT. The distortions were done with a SansAmp.

The LoopDelay was employed as a composition tool in this piece. The CD version consists of 4 or 5 loop layers which grow into a soundscape towards the end.

The piece began just for fun and eventually grew into something serious. In 1995, I composed the music for a theatre play called Four Cities/One Journey. Intermedium became a leitmotiv in this play. There were also versions for wind instruments and string quintet.



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