what's cookin' lately

STOMPY BOOTS CHOIR RECORDING POSTPONED

looppool — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 06:28:40 GMT

Due to the fact that I've had a bad cold for the past week and also the fact that many people who had wanted to be on this recording can't be here this weekend, I"VE DECIDED TO POSTPONE the PUT ON YOUR STOMPY BOOTS CHORAL RECORDING SESSIONS that had been schedule for tomorrow night (SUNDAY) at STATIC (at the Blue Lagoon) I'll be demonstrating the LOOPERLATIVE next weekend in Anaheim, as well, so I'll try to reschedule some time after I return from that. My apologies, but I can't even speak myself, let alone sing and I was going to have to be the one to teach everyone the words and melody. Yours, Rick Walker

WOOHOOO!!! I just reached 10,000 profile views today here at tribe.net

looppool — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 04:50:25 GMT

it's a silly, relatively meaningless milestone, but I really love the tribe.net community and am proud of this little accomplishment. I'm also really happy that tribe.net has finally been taken over by people who truly love it and they're rapidly working out the kinks and coming back Let's go get a beer!!!!!!

Videos from Translucent Dayglo Orange live looping tour in Scandinavia, Germany and the UK

looppool — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 02:12:35 GMT

I just created a youtube page to put up some of the videos that I'm recieving from producers of the many looping festivals that I headlined in Europe and the UK this summer. www.youtube.com/DaygloOrangePlastic First ones up are videos from the Oslo Looping Festival and the Koln Looping festival, including one from Oslo where I am playing the frame drum in this picture). By the way, I should mention that I met an amazing photographer on this tour, Oslo's Janne Marie Fatland. Check out her website, she has amazing sensitivity in her photography and in all my years working with really professional photographers in the music business, she's one of the most artistic I've experienced. Please go check this wonderful artist out. Buy prints from her.........she'll be famous one day. http://www.flickr.com/people/jannemarie/ More videos are on there way and I'm trying to assemble the companion volume to my Translucent Dayglo Lime Green Plastic live looping CD from the tracks from this wonderful tour. It will be called Translucent Dayglo Orange Plastic and I'm hoping to release it in time for the annual Y2k8 International Live Looping Festival in Santa Cruz and San Jose on October 16-21st

SC NOISE FEST: 7-22 Meta Music 7:30 pm Free!

looppool — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:19:44 GMT

I'm proud to announce a little mini SANTA CRUZ NOISE FESTIVAL celebrating the surprise visit from Japan'sTait R (of the wonderful Junk Sick Dawn) featuring: TAITO (from Tokyo's NOISE CLINIC) No, I see (rick walker's electro-acoustic noise) A Funeral for Love (brian from Rapeshower) META MUSIC Tues 7-22 7:30 p.m. All Ages Free

Performing my European Tour Show, TRANSLUCENT DAYGLO ORANGE PLASTIC TONIGHT (FRIDAY) at the HIDE GALLERY in Santa Cruz

looppool — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:30:11 GMT

I have just returned from headlining 15 live looping festivals and events in 8 countries in Scandinavia, Germany and the British Isles during a long 2 month tour. On that tour, the TRANSPARENT DAYGLO ORANGE PLASTIC tour I came up with an unusual found sound/live looping show that utilizes a lot of Dayglo Orange Plastic under black lights (and bells and tuning forks and vibrators and trumpet and overtone flutes and extended vocal techniques and beat boxing and and and...... I will be performing this show at the very final performance at the HIDE GALLERY in Santa Cruz, tonight (FRIDAY, July 11th) from 10-11 p.m. The HIDE , in case you don't know, is in the 2nd block of FRONT STREET just South of LAUREL STREET downtown. FRONT STREET curves to the right as you approach the hill and that's where I'll be performing along with an amazing electronica/pop band from LA, WOVEN (11 p.m.-12 a.m.). They are one of my very favorite musical groups and they rarely play in Northern California. There will also be painters and airbrushers and dancers all performing and creating while I play so it should be a wonderful send off to one of the most creative institutions that this town has seen in a long time. I hope you can make it. Great to be back in Santa Cruz, I hope to see you at the show tonight. yours, Rick Walker

....leaving this morning to headline in 8 countries in Scandinavia, Germany and the British Isles

looppool — Thu, 08 May 2008 13:35:26 GMT

The sun is rising and in a couple of hours, Chris (my intrepid tour manager, road technician and spouse) and I are taking the Airporter up to San Franscisco to fly to Goteborg, in the south of Sweden for the first gigs of a two month tour of 8 countries. I'll be headlining 15 different Live Looping Festivals and gigs on this tour in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, Wales, and Northern Ireland, finishing up in the first week of July with a three day vacation in Dublin, Ireland. This means we'll travel to four countries we've never been to and add three more countries to the list of places that have had Live Looping Festivals. By the end of this summer, there will have been 70 live looping festivals in 20 countries in the last five years and since we kick started this global movement in Santa Cruz in 2000. I'm blessed to be getting tour support from the Swedish, Finnish and German governments and from Looperlative, the fantastic live looping device that I am using and helping to design software functioning for. I'll be blogging and sending pictures to my own website if anyone is interested in following this tour. It's at www.looppool.info Just look for the link on the homepage to the BLOG. See you all in July!

NUMB GUMS WALKER

looppool — Thu, 01 May 2008 04:36:09 GMT

Today I went to the dentist for the first time in at least 10 years. I got a really heavy deep cleaning and my mouth had to be completely anaesthetized because of all the grinding that the dentist did. He told me that he was amazed at how strong my immune system was considering how infected my teeth and gums were and the fact that I wasn't on my back from it all. It was continual sinus infections that prompted me to go in the first place. He said I'd probably feel sick off and on for about a week as my body tries to get rid of it all but that I"d probably feel better than I have in 20 years once it all got sorted out. Afterwards, with a ton of bleeding and mouth that would not work, I woozily made my way home and took this video of me trying to say tongue twisters. I really am as out of it as I appear..................lol. I find it kind of amusing. www.looppool.info/NUMB_GUMS_WALKER Oh, and by the way, it's a hefty 57 megs so don't try this without DSL or BROADBAND or a relatively fast computer.

Yungchen Llamo and a perfect day

looppool — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:54:37 GMT

After a really hard week (I have my main harddrive with my next two records and all my recent video work bite the dust and discovered to my horror that my backup drive had folders on it that were all empty), I had a nearly perfect day today: you know, one of those days that Native American cultures have called, "a good day to die". My dear friend (and renaissance man, Craig McCoullough) helped me to recover my hard drive data in the middle of a very busy week) and I just finished an amazing rehearsal with the 'Voice of Tibet", the fantastic singer, Yungchen Llamo tonight. I was asked to put together a band to help her do the concert tonight at the Rio Theatre in Santa Cruz and I was very lucky to get Dana Massie on guitar, Daniel Robbins on uprigtht and electric fretless bass guitar and Peter Cor on keyboards. We just had an amazing rehearsal. There were several times where the hairs went up on the back of my neck. During a break, Yungchen came into my living room and asked me to play a few of the many instruments that are in there. I explained to her about my career in live looping and played for her on a Native Amercian double drone flute and a chromatic Strumstick. She enjoyed what I played and asked me if I would do a duet improvisation with her tomorrow night. After the rehearsal, I spent some time and tuned my Cooperman Kanjira and Hadjira to the fundamental pitches of the Native American Flute and then tuned the Strumstick to it as well. I'm very, very excited and privileged to play, creatively with such an amazing singer. We are even going to do a little overtone singing together tomorrow night. She has the sweetest vibe, too. She said, "don't worry about making mistakes tomorrow night. This is not about competition. It is our karma to be playing together and we should enjoy it." I felt so calm and relaxed and centered after the maelstorm of my earlier week (computer woes and booking snafus on my upcoming trip). Everything got worked out though and tonight we'll have a two camera crew filming the results. I am having a hard time sleeping because I"m so excited.

Excited about doing a purely exploratory experimental show for my upcoming tour of Scandinavia, Northern Europe and the British Isles

looppool — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:49:59 GMT

I’m basically going to try out a whole bunch of different musical and found sound scenarios in an attempt to decide what my repertoire will be for my upcoming 10 country tour of Scandinavia, Great Britain and Norhtern Europe. I'm going to be playing an odd and fun assortment of instruments and found sounds , including clitoral vibrators and bar glasses, amplified massage toys, bullhorn feedback, purple pocket trumpet, xaphoon, strumstick, frame drums, altered tuning kalimbas, conch shell, prepared guitar, extended vocal techniques, harmonicas and other odd things that strike my fancy on the day of the show. Wonderful Norwegian live looping guitarist, Tellef Ogrim, all the way from Oslo will be performing a solo set and then we will have an duet improvisation at the end of the evening. I go on at 8 p.m. at METAMUSIC and it's this Wednesday, March 26th. I don't get a chance to do this kind of show with unlimited creative freedom so I hope you can make it. It's free, what the heck?

I just had a sad and sweet memory

looppool — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:36:53 GMT

I just started a new tribe tonight based on a project that I'm starting with a talented group of international composers called the CT Collective. It's called the WEIRD MUSIC BOXES tribe. http://tribes.tribe.net/weirdmusicboxes We are all going to make music using a programmable Mechanical Music Box for a project called CT TOY MUSIC BOX (using it as the only source of sound for each composer's track) Anyway, I was posting a first thread on suitable acoustic resonators for these devices when I just had a sweet and sad thought: I had plans to go over the hill to San Jose build a wooden resonating box for my Kikkerland programmable music box with my father. He didn't return my calls and I found out that he had passed away. We sat that last night and he picked up the beautiful swiss music box that he had purchased for my mother 50 years ago and thumped on it and looked at it very intently trying to figure out what kind of wood it was made of and what kind of construction we should use when we were to meet the next week. It was such a testimony to his wonderfully inquisitive and inventive mind that, at the very end of his life, he was excited about how to build the right resonating box for me.

I'll be demoing the LOOPERLATIVE at the NAMM show in Anaheim this coming Jan 18,19 and 20

looppool — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 11:25:17 GMT

I will be demoing the LOOPERLATIVE at their booth at NAMM. The Looperlative will be featuring some brand new software that I designed that users can download and install for free on the hardware loopers proprietary ethernet connection. I feel really honored that Bob Amstadt the inventor of the Looperlative has added me to the Looperlative family and also been so open to creative new software ideas. Please come up and say hi after the demo's question period is over if you have the chance and let me know if you are from tribe.net. Here's the demo schedule of both myself, my brother (the amazing guitarist, Bill Walker) and UK bass phenom, Steve Lawson LOOPERLATIVE DEMONSTRATION SCHEDULE Thursday: 1pm Steve Lawson 4pm Steve Lawson Friday: noon Steve Lawson 1pm Bill Walker 2pm Rick Walker 3pm Steve Lawson 4pm Bill Walker 5pm Rick Walker Saturday: noon Bill Walker 1pm Rick Walker 2pm Steve Lawson 3pm Bill Walker 4pm Rick Walker 5pm Steve Lawson Sunday: 1pm Steve Lawson 2pm Bill Walker 3pm Rick Walker

My Dancing Washing Machine

looppool — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:03:31 GMT

I was playing Mandolin through some weird digital effects tonight when I realized that our washing machine was kicking out a pretty consistent groove (randomly, of course) in 6/8. I took a short lo fi video with audio of it jamming. I just love when machine noises sound sentient............this is one of the better examples of this phenomenae that I've heard. Check out the dancing bottle of TIDE while you are at it. Caution: this is a hefty download (100 megs.) so only attempt this if you have a good DSL or Broadband connection, otherwise it will take forever and your stolen music downloads will slow to a crawl . www.looppool.info/washing_machine_six_eight oh...............................and Merry Christmas everyone (if you celebrate it). Here's to a wonderfully creative, healthy and happy 2008!!!!! love, Rick

Henry Kaiser and I will play a night of duets at the Luggage Store Experimental Music Series this Thursday, October 11, 8 p.m.

looppool — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 18:57:13 GMT

I'm excited and a little nervous to announce that eclectic guitarist, Henry Kaiser and I will be improvising together as a mostly acoustic duo at the LUGGAGE STORE Experimental Music Series this coming Thursday in San Francisco (1007 Market Street) at 8 p.m. I'm in absolute crazy mode with the Y2k7 Looping Festival which will begin in just a week's time with artists arriving from 12 different countries. I haven't had any time to make music or clean my house which is a complete and utter pigstye right now As frequently happens before a complete improvisatory show, I haven't had an idea in my head but suddenly yesterday, I had a very creative photo shoot with a photographer from the Santa Cruz Sentinel for a profile on the loopfestival and he inspired me to play a bunch of spontaneous music that they video taped. I've been so in the looping mode, as well, in past months, that I'm considering whether or not to take a small portable rig with me to the gig. I know that Henry will be playing entirely acoustically, so I'm debating whether to leave it all behind and do the same. Oh well, I'll probably know what I'll do when I load my car. Whatever happens , I consider it a great honor to even be on the same stage with Henry, who I have immense respect for, let alone sharing a bill with him. Excited, hell yes. Nervous? absolutely..................

the DRIVE

looppool — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 11:48:38 GMT

I took a melancholy early evening drive to my jazz gig in Morgan Hill the other night and shot some footage with my camera. Tonight I got very inpsired watching a documentary on the very unusual and creative Daniellson Family and wrote this piece of music to accompany the footage that I mangled a bit. This is a work in progress but I'm getting close to finishing up my next project, called ORANGE which will have a lo fi toy video cam animation for every track of Abstract Electronica that I'm composed and I may add this to it. If you care to, you can see all the films from that project at www.youtube.com/looppool

Inventor of the DOORSTOP-A-PHONE passes away

looppool — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 06:24:14 GMT

One day at my father's house in San Jose, I discovered that the doorstop in his bathroom was a particularly old and very musical sounding one. It was attached to a hollow door so it really resonated quite a bit. I spent several minutes in the bathroom listening to it and when I emerged my dad asked, "what the hell were you doing in there for all that time". And I said, "Well, Dad, you have a particularly musical doorstop." He was intrigued by that notion and came into the bathroom and sat down on the floor. He pulled the doorstop lightly.......he pulled it very hard. He opened the door and listened to it resonate and then closed the door and did the same thing. He openend the door up and then stopped it's resonance with his hands. He kept cocking his head and listening intently. I just sat back amazed and so pleased that he was getting off on one of the weird things I get off on in life and I felt very happy. Anway, time passed and I was performing at the San Jose Museum of Art doing a found sound show. At the end of my show, my father pulled up in his car. He was bummed to learn that I had already finished the concert (he had gotten the start time wrong) and pulled out the world's first doorstop-a-phone, that he had built for me. He put a lot of work into it and it even has a curved bottom (difficult to accomplish in wood working). He also told me that he had gone all the way down to L.A. to find different kinds of doorstops because there weren't all that many kinds available commercially. Then with pride he showed me that he had dismantled his own doortop and put it dead center on the doorstop-a-phone. I was just floored and have played it in several concerts since that time. ******** My father passed away this past January 13 after a long and wonderful life. He was 81 years old. He dropped in his tracks and didn't feel a thing according to his doctor which is the best kind of death anyone could ask for. I will miss his incredible joy for living. I'll miss his fierce intelligence, intellectual curiousity and encyclopedic command of many, many things. I'll miss everything we shared about photography, movies, music and literature. I'll miss his sense of melancholy about life that I share as well. I'll especially miss his incredible sense of humor and his amazing laughter. The last time I saw Dad, we had gone to a late movie after dinner and I was preparing to drive across the mountains; back to Santa Cruz. He walked me out to his porch and something I said really cracked him up. He was laughing that amazingly infectious and powerful body laughter and he said, "Drive safe tonight, Ace, I love you very much..............I'll see you next Wednesday" I felt so thankful for his love and support and smiled most of the way home. I will miss him.

Today I Celebrate 40 Years of Drumming!!

looppool — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 14:46:02 GMT

Exactly 40 years ago, on Christmas Day, I recieved a snare drum, sticks and a practise pad from my parents for Christmas. I was, frankly, really dissapointed that they didn't get me a drum set (as I'd asked for one) , but I had been sent through 2 years of piano, a few months of cello and 5 years of clarinet and had dropped each instrument one by one. I know my parents were skeptical about whether I would last with this instrument or not. LOL, so much for skepticism. For four years, we had lived in San Jose, longer than anyplace we had ever lived in the first 9 years of my life. My father had been a doctor in the United States Airforce and had been through residency and medical school as well so we moved almost once a year during my early years. Consequently, I had never formed any lasting attachments with friends until I met Bob Murphy a couple of months before this. He became the first 'best friend' that I'd ever had in my short life. In a very white subarban school where the Beach Boys won popularity contests against the Beatles and that's as funky as people's musical tastes got, Bob Murphy and I sheepishly confessed a love for Motown and James Brown (who I sadly, just learned passed away today at the age of 73) and we had decided that we would ask our parents for drums and an electric guitar, respectively; start a band and become famous Rock and Roll stars. We were dead serious. His parents bought him a Fender Mustang guitar and a Fender Champ amp and I had my little snare drum kit. I ran over to his house right away that afternoon, which was several blocks away and we started my first band, by learning how to play "Sonny" which was a light R&B hit of the day. I just tapped out the hi hat pattern on the rim, playing the two and the four on the snare drum. We practised every single day for almost three months, learning "Just Like Me" by Paul Revere and the Raiders and other Brit pop rock and roll songs. I practically lived at Bob's house because we practised so much. We were so into it that my mom prevailed upon my dad to go out and buy a $300 Stanford (no name Japanese) drum set and I was off to the races. Bob and I played together for three years in the "Concave Image", the name of our new hippy band. I made bass drum artwork that had a big blue eye with the letters looking like they had been projected by a , well, concave lens. A little later, David Handloff (who had true talent and now owns More Music in Santa Cruz) joined our little band on Fender VI string bass. We had no vocalist and everyone was to scared to sing much. All of this happened right at the very inception of the hippy era. It was a magical time...........an intoxicating time..............a time when it felt like music could change the world. I was just in love with music. The band broke up two years later when Bob walked home one day, holding hands with my first ever girlfriend, A Mormon girl whose name was Linda Brammer. She had broken up with me the day before after 3 months of blissful and magical record listening, handholding and light kissing. She broke up with me because I had tried to 'feel her up' (as we used to say so innocently in those days) at a Janis Joplin concert at the San Jose Fairgrounds. She called the next day and broke it off because we were 'getting too serious'. Bob walked home holding hands with her the next day and I had my first ever romantic heartbreak of my life. I stayed in my room after school for several days and cried and cried. As it turns out, three years later, Bob came to me and confessed that she dumped him the same way and that he realized that he had lost the best friendship he had ever had because he wanted to go out with her. For the last few months of high school, we laughed and referred to her as 'The Spoiler' but the damage had been done and we were never close again. He gave up music and became a Dentist and I haven't heard from him in 32 years. I never really stopped drumming and I can remember every single instruments part in the song 'Sonny' to this very day. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Shoutout from FROGGY BOY

looppool — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 14:00:47 GMT

When I was touring in Sweden I bought a pair of weird dayglo green alien hands. As Chris and I walked around Stockholm with our host Per Boysen and his wonderful boys, Leo and Ludwig, they started calling me Froggy Boy. At one point, I followed an old lady pretending to be a frog. At one point she turned around and was NOT amused........................but Per and the boys were dying trying not to laugh. I was remembering this zany experience fondly tonight and I made a short greeting for them using a $10 digital Pen Cam (for video) and Text Aloud, a strange little voice to text editor that allows one to have text spoken in several ersatz foreign dialects (sounding very old school robotish) I had so much fun I thought I"d share it so if anyone wants to check it out, it's at www.youtube.com/looppool SHOUTOUT FROM FROGGY BOY

nO thiN-g INDUSTRIAL BELLYDANCE project this Friday in SC

looppool — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:04:44 GMT

I'm very excited to announce that my project nO thiN-g will be playing Heavy Industrial oriented traditional Belly Dancing music for any and all to dance to at this week's DEFIANCE, Friday (midnight performance), November 17th at Club Caution (516 Front Street, Santa Cruz) I will be joined by Switchblade Symphony founding member, Robin Jacobs on guitar and the amazing John Connell (multi-instrumentalist) on bass guitar. I've been disappointed that a lot of tribal and gothic belly dancing music always seems so ambient and new-agey at times so I wanted to do something a little darker and aggressive yet till use rhythms that anyone who's ever even had a beginning belly dancing class would be able to dance to. All the rhythms will be traditional......................all the sounds will NOT be. I hope you can make it, I hope you feel like dancing. Urceus Exit from Vancouver ( www.UrceusExit.com ) a band in the strong tradition of Vancouver bands Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly will be opening the show. This is a strong live industrial band. Don't miss them! yours, Rick Walker aka nO thiN-g aka |()()p.p()()| aka Ultra Violette

PRIME NUMBER REVOLUTIONS AROUND THE SUN

looppool — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:07:26 GMT

Despite the fact that i'm a little insane with the final preparations, logistics and publicity for the Y2K6 International Live Looping 5th Anniversary Festival (50 artists from 5 countries for 5 days in 4 cities in Northern California), ----------------------------- www.y2k6loopfest.com ---------------------------------- I'm going to take time to celebrate my birthday at The BOX (at the Blue Lagoon in Santa Cruz) this coming Monday evening, October 2nd. I'll be there about 10 p.m. Come on by, join me and celebrate my 53rd orbit around the center or our solar system.

NEKO leaves the BOX: an appreciation

looppool — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 08:45:16 GMT

About five years ago, I began playing pool at the Blue Lagoon on Monday nights because I noticed that there were no people on the pool tables. As I played, I noticed that they were playing this really great music that I had never heard and then I began to watch all the stylish goths come in in all their finery. One night, I screwed up my courage and wore all black and went into the back room. I was a little intimidated because I thought the Goths would be really snooty, cliqueish and, what made me most afraid, ageist (as I figured I'd probably be older than everyone). That first night I had every single assumption proved wrong as I met a whole lot of people who were kind, friendly, intelligent, talented and non-aegist, homophobic or sexist. I had already met Chris Yanulis, who did singer songwriter gigs on the same bill as my wife and was relieved to see him there (just someone I knew and could go up to). Well, he introduced me to his gorgeous, tall and amazingly stylish DJ girlfriend at the time, NEKO. I complemented her on her set (which was just phenomenal, as I danced my ass off that evening) and she was very sweet in her response. I was shocked to learn that such a talented vision was a bit shy. I certainly felt shy talking to her but she really was friendly and put me at ease and I left the club that night thinking that I had a buch of cool new friends. Anyway, I was hooked and began coming religiously to the Box and later to Dominion, the wonderful monthly parties they through at Vets Hall. NEKO turned me on to a whole bunch of music that I had completely missed because I was so ensconced in the world fusion/world beat scene for twenty years). In addition to loving the whole new brand of synth goth bands like VNV Nation, Assemblage 23, Wolfsheim and Apop Berzyrka (what the fuck ever happened to Apop?) she seemed to have an unerring sense of how to keep the dance floor packed that seemed to be unrivaled by other DJs in the scene. In that sense, she really changed my musical life as I now am making all kinds of music with dark themes (EBM, Dark Ambient, Synth Goth, Industrial, Noise, et. al.) and it was getting so turned on to dancing to this amazing music that made me make that transition. NEKO has really had big impact on me as an artist and I wanted to acknoledge her influence. Anyway, NEKO just got her first full time teaching job (way to go, girl!!!) teaching 11th graders over in Cupertino and will be leaving her post in the main room. This will be an exciting time as all kinds of new blood and new music will enter the scene at a time when it will be great to get some new blood. We're lucky that Gobo (Sean) and Syndael are taking the helm and I'll be there religiously to cheer them on and support the scene. At the same time, I will also be really sad to see NEKO go (as happy as I am for all the hard work and sacrifice that she put into her new love, teaching). I'll really miss seeing her impeccable sense of fashion gliding by in the club like some kind of anime queen and listening to the tunes that she loves. Our scene in Santa Cruz owes a lot to her dedication and consistency over the years. I just want to salute her................wish her Bon Voyage and let her know we'll miss her. with much love and appreciation, Rick

An explanation of my contribution to the Loopers Delight 10th anniversary 30 second looping project

looppool — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:15:18 GMT

Loopers Delight, the mecca website for the International Live Looping movement started by Kim Flint is celebrating it's 10th anniversary this summer (We will probably have an official party in Oakland on Friday, October 20th for the Y2K6 Interntaional Live Looping Festival). Anway, my good friend, Krispen Hartung set up a webpage so that everyone could contribute one 30 second long live looping piece to commemorate the occasion. I just went there and there is some really amazing music that was contributed. Lasting only 30 seconds each, it is really a quick way to check out some of the truly stunning artists associated with this movement world wide. I just started a thread at the Loopers Delight daily digest asking people if they wanted explain how they created their pieces of music. Anyway, I thought it might be interesting to share with you how I made my particular piece, taken from a concert here in Santa Cruz. Here's the page where everything is: http://www.box.net/public/i8mm09190d#main So here 'tis: How I made "RATTLE & HUM" for the 10th Anniversary LOOPERS DELIGHT celebrations 30 second loop project: I record a lot of my live improvisational shows and for the last seven years I have only improvised live and not done any compositions (though I revisit sets of instruments and will have set scales/modes/rags/maqams and rhythms that I'm in love with for a while). Frequently, I'll go back to those shows and hunt down loops that I do want to use in my abstract electronica CDs (I have a tendency to alternate composed, computer driven abstract electronica recordings with live looping recordings). I did the same with this particular piece, throwing it into ACID to manipulate the loops I 'sampled' from my self. Anyway, this particular track was from a one off theme show that I did (I love to do theme oriented shows just once or twice) called 'Weird Kalimba" where, for the first time since the turn of the millenium I used only traditional West African, North African and Middleeastern instruments and did a very avant garde show with them. On this piece I used just West African rattles (several different kinds from bamboo rattles to seed pod gourds to even a South African set of rattles made out of the husks of Moth chrysalises). I then used the Echoplex with INERT equalling SUBSTITUTE (one of my favorite techniques) and rounded to 8th notes so that singing long tones in a particular scale the EDP would grab individual 8th note values of long tones I was singing, randomly. I love to play this game randomly because the piece starts sound really weird and without form and the more you play the game, the more all 8 notes (or however many you choose) will fill up. By singing in falsetto, I can effect a loop that sounds as if the Pygmies of the Ituri Forest had accidentally drunk some on LSD spiked punch. The 'melody' is just me using a couple of different extended vocal techniques (warble singing and trill singing) along with a couple of interesting technique where 1) I pound rhythimically on my chest with my fist which causes very quick comb filtering effects to change the timbre of my voice as I also manipulate the overtones of my falsetto notes and 2) I grab the loose skin just above my adams apple and shake it rhythmically and quite rapidly, which causes a very interesting modulation effect on the voice. both of these techniques look really strange (as it does when I play my Fillipino nose flute or manipulate the overtones of my horribly phallic looking toy voice changer) and the audience will sometimes laugh when I do this but I think it produces really cool vocal effects. http://www.box.net/public/i8mm09190d#main

My new Purple Custom Hollow Body Rennaisance Fretless Bass

looppool — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:55:05 GMT

My brother blew my mind today and presented me with a custom made Purple hollow body Rick Turner Fretless Bass guitar as an early birthday present (which isn't even until October 2nd). He has been having it made at Turner guitars over the past several months and wanted me to have it in time for the big Y2K6 festival coming up on October 21 and 22. I don't think I"ve ever owned such a fine instrument as this. It is just amazing. It has beautiful tone. The fret board is a dream and it is incredibly lightweight. Once can play it acoustically as well as amplified and from all of my touring and recording with the fantastic bassist, Doug Robinson (with Martin Simpson, bob Brozman and many different CD projects) I know it to sound as much like an acoustic upright bass as can be had in a guitar styled bass guitar. And it's freakin' purple!!!!!!! I feel like I just one the lottery!!!!! I'm so excited I can't sit still. I guess it's time to make some beautiful music with it. Wish me luck...............and thanks, Bill. This is an amazing gift that is humbling and makes me feel so appreciative. I love you!

MASSIMO LIVERANI, and two wonderful performances upcoming

looppool — Sun, 02 Jul 2006 12:00:27 GMT

I've had the distinct pleasure of hanging out with Italian looper, Massimo Liverani and his wonderful family all week long in Santa Cruz preparatory to performing with him at a mini Guitar Looping Festival. I feel really blessed because this week has two unique opportunites for me to be creative in public and to do it with people I love and respect. Tonight, Massimo, my brother Bill and I will perform at a mini guitar looping festival at ALCHEMY in Santa Cruz. I have met and become close with Massimo because he originally hosted my wife and I when I headlined the 1st Firenze Live Looping Festival which was one of the stand out highlights of my European looping tour. Massimo has tirelessly been a force for new music and live looping in Florence with his Officine Chroma group performances. It's been great, hanging out..................driving and seeing sights.................talking about music and philosophy .................eating homecooked authentic Italian food (mmmmmmm) and tomorrow we get to play music. I'll be honoring the theme of the show by doing an experimental show utilizing toy guitars, prepared guitars and toy processing gear (cheesy plastic voice changers, echo machines, distortions). I'm not a guitarist but I play guitar a lot in unusual ways and I"m looking forward to just following my nose aesthetically in front of a crowd. It's a bit spooky but I've really begun to learn to relish pushing myself to scarier and scarier places onstage in front of an audience. It gets good when you can surprise yourself with what ever comes up. Then, to top it all off, I have my first headlining gig at the prestigious LUGGAGE STORE EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC series this coming Thursday, July 6th in San Francisco (8-10 p.m.). I'll be playing (with my friend Lx RUDIS opening with a set of out of the box Synthesizer music) concentrating on Found Sound and Experimental Vocal and Electronics work. The LUGGAGE STORE (at 1007 Market Street) has the schlepp from hell..................no place to park in front of the venue and a long series of stairs to get equipment up, but I want to risk it and bring my two Toy PIanos for one piece I've been working on and hope that someone can help me get all this stuff up the stairs. I've also really been working hard on a series of new vocal techniques (including some Uvulal singing that has been very difficult to learn but that I've been getting much better at in recent months). All, in all, to have two complete experimental and 'out on a limb' live performances in a week is both a blessing and a bit daunting. I'm fortunate to be on the bill with such good musicians.

I just can't explain it. I went into my bathroom, there was a bright white light and suddenly it was 8 hours later

looppool — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 02:48:55 GMT

god, I hope I wasn't probed or anything.

György Ligeti, composer RIP 1923-2006

looppool — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:36:14 GMT

Hearing the beautiful ethereal and haunting almost alien sound of the choral vocals during the Monolith scenes in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey opened up an entire world of avante garde classical music for me personally when the movie came out in 1968 when I was 15 years old. That music, excerpted by Kubrick without the composers knowledge, was written by Gyorgy Ligeti a complex and brilliant musician who had an amazing life story. He just passed away. György Ligeti, composer, was born on May 28, 1923. He died on June 12, 2006, aged 83. Here is an excellent obituary of this important force in 20th century Avante Garde Classical music. www.timesonline.co.uk/article...,00.html I have to say that hearing his music was a complete and utter revelation to me and ushered me into a world that I fell in love with at the time......................from the beautiful haunting dissonance of Penderecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima to alien beauty ofhis ownLux Aeterna to the new electronic music of Stockhausen and others, the musical world became, for me, a much more complex and deeply emotional place. It also began a love affair of mine with the avante garde use of human voice in music which I have to this day. My CD FAUX VOIX is dedicated, posthumously, to Gyorgy Ligeti. Go out and buy a copy of Lux Aeterna if you don't know it and be prepared to be amazed.