I'd always wanted to give looping a go, since hearing Brian Eno and Robert Fripp's album, No pussyfooting, which practically had me levitating, and is as blisteringly stratospheric now as when I first heard it. 

I used the money I saved on bus fares and lunch at work, thanks to the pandemic, to buy an electric guitar and some pedals and made this, my very first guitar loop. You can tell I had no idea what I was doing: it doesn't fade in, it has pops and crackles, it's not properly in stereo. But you've gotta start somewhere, right?

Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity/

loop 1

I never know how a loop's going to turn out. This one feels like that time of day when the sun's just starting to hit the horizon. I used an ebow for the lead. I played for 5 minutes over the loop, most of which was terrible and hit the editing room floor (i.e. the desktop trashcan).  The surviving bits remind me Robert Fripp's ambient music. If you've not checked out his 'music for quiet moments', there's your next stop right there.



I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Ebow. Edited in Audacity.

Twilight

I never know how a loop's going to turn out. The interplay between the two stabbing guitars you can hear is only in your mind. How so? The guitars are on two separate loops, one slightly shorter than the other. At the beginning the two are in phase, then slowly go out of phase, and fall back in phase by the end. I'd wanted to try something like that since hearing Steve Reich's seminal 'It's gonna rain' years ago. It reminds me of the liner notes from Frank Zappa's 'Shake Yerbouti' album about the track 'Rubber Shirt'. The subtle and exquisite interplay of the track's bass and drum 'never happened' says Zappa, explaining that the instruments had been separately recorded for different songs in different time signatures.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > Ebow > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity

loop 1001

I never know how a loop's going to turn out. This one turned out to have an 'In Every Dream Home a Heart Ache' (Roxy Music) vibe to it, which was a nice surprise.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield >  TC Electronic Honey Pot > TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 1010

I never know how a loop's going to turn out. This one turned out quite dystopian. The loop I made had a nasty click in it and my attempt to correct it through editing sliced out a sliver of the loop, which as luck would have it, created the rhythmic pulse at the beginning and end of the loop; percussion through the introduction of silence.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 1100

I never know how a guitar loop's going to turn out. I quite like this one. 
It's a bugger to change the stereo settings on the Boss DD8 delay pedal so I left it in 'panning' mode for both loops, which worked out alright. I also like the contrast of the squelchy screamy solo guitar over clean constrained loops. My soloing is still pretty rudimentary, mind, so some judicious editing was called for.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY-1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4.  Edited in Audacity.

loop 1111

I never know how a guitar loop's going to turn out. I'd started with the intention of alternating notes across two loops in order to pingpong the sounds from left to right, creating a stereo shimmer. That didn't work out. In the end I trashed one of the loops and kept the other, so what you're hearing is actually half of the originally intended stereo effect, but all the more spacious because of it.  Sometimes things work out in spite of  - rather than because of - your intentions.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY-1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 10000

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY-1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 1110

loop 10001

I never know how a guitar loop's going to turn out. About half way through this one,  I was surprised to hear a brooding repeating cello-like bow appear. Listen closer and there's an almost sub-bass teeth-rattling tremolo vibrating beneath it. That tiny combination punch of pulsating sound is reminiscent of that on Ryoji Ikeda's "Matrix", a micro-audio classic well worth seeking out if it passed you by back in 2000, or if you're lucky enough to be too young to have caught it first time round.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > Behringer tremolo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY-1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 10010

I never know how a guitar loop's going to turn out. This one turned out to be the longest loop I've made so far. I tend to keep loops to three minutes max as they can start to get pretty old pretty fast. For loop 10011 I created a number of loops which fade into one another so there is continual, if glacial change, picking you up in one place and depositing you elsewhere. 

Sometimes you don't know you're on a journey until you arrive at the destination,

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Boss SY-1 >TC Electronic Viscous Vibe > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 10011

I never know how a guitar loop's going to turn out. This loop is based on lots of single notes, each repeating at a different rate, so that, given sufficient time, they overlap and juxtapose, constantly shifting at a glacial pace. It's an approach pioneered by Brian Eno. I was lucky enough to see Eno's 77 million paintings at Selfridges in London back in 2007 and have been inspired ever since.

However, experimental ambient looping can easily transmogrify into muzak. As a palliative I had planned to end this loop with out-of-control squalling guitar feedback, but my manipulation of the Digitech Freqout infinite feedback machine fell short, creating instead icy shards of controlled  clinical feedback. A lucky failure, as it produces an arctic ambience, complimenting the glacial feel of this looooong loop.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Digitech Freqout > Boss SY-1 > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

And then a glacier appeared

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Digitech Freqout > Boss SY-1 > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

loop 10101

loop 10110

A mix of Boson Spin's A Life Melted in the Dewfall Deep: https://soundcloud.com/boson_spin/a-life-melted-in-the-dewfall-deep

Waking up in someone else's dream - Boson Spin & Peace Junky

loop 10111

I never know how a loop's going to turn out. This one is based on the the 'Mystic chord' hexatonic scale (C, F#. B flat. E, A, D) created by Russian composer Alexander Scriabin in 1910. The drone consists of all these notes except for A, produced by slapping the guitar strings then flooring the volume pedal. Scriabin was obsessed with the occult and all of his works towards the end of his life were based on the mystic scale; his final seven-day-long multi-sensory piece to be performed on the foothills of the Himalayas was never finished. 111 years later, I hope this little texture sketch doesn't do injury to his vision.

I made this with: Guitar Gretsch G2210 > TC Electronic Forcefield > TC Electronic MojoMojo > TC Electronic Honey Pot > Digitech Freqout > Boss SY-1 > Boss FV30L volume pedal > TC Electronic Brainwaves > Boss DD8 >TC Electronic Hall of Fame 2 > TC Electronic Ditto Looper x4. Edited in Audacity.

ᖶᕼᘿ ᘻᖻSᖶᓰᑢ ᑢᕼᓍᖇᕲ

If you would like the original files, let me know.

Uses elements of the following elapsed copyright recordings:

SOSPIRI (Op. 70) - Walter Goehr - Elgar (1939)
Dreamland - Kay Kyser and his Orchestra - Harry Babbitt and The Campus Kids (1947)

Time was (demo)

loop 11010

loop 11011

Thanks to Léone Doux (https://soundcloud.com/paulette-pinar) for the title. This was the first track I created on the TC Triple Delay. It's a live piece with some short stretches excised to remove string plucks, leaving just the beautiful decaying delays to linger and fade.

Liminal spaces

Constructed from elements of copyright-elapsed Steal Away to Jesus by The Southernaires (1941).
I created this entirely in Audacity using just the repeat, duplicate, copy, paste and reverse functionality.
I reversed the track, using track's opening three-note piano motif to create a metered-structure. From the vocals I created a new melody. To do this, for each note, I spliced a short extract of the reversed recording, made a copy, re-reversed it, then joined the two extracts together. I then arranged these half-backwards-half-forwards notes to create the new melody. 
Despite the fact that there are no discernible words (as the recordings are half-backwards), the beautiful timbre of the voices and the exquisite harmonies shine through, and there is a feeling of verbal communication nonetheless.

Everything will be alright (in the end)

This was all played on guitar - the bell-like notes were a product of the tape delay degradation of the TC Electronic Triple Delay and a lot of patience.

loop 11110

This was made by putting Brian Eno's Bloom (Version 2) through TC Electronic's Hall of Fame 2 and Flashback triple delay.

loop 100000

This started out as an acoustic piece in the vein of Salif Keita. It didn't work out and slowly disintegrated into this.

loop 100001

This track is constructed of various cutting-room-floor offcuts from other tracks that didn't make it.

Sleepy song

Loop16b

This is in standard tuning, with the D string raised to E.

If not now, when?

This is Little Bees by Mōv Raptor. Strings by Peace Junky.

Original  track:
https://soundcloud.com/movraptor/little-bees?si=291ec57337c943cd9fb94d6e849ad62d&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

For the children of mondy

Little Bees by Mōv Raptor with Peace Junky

My rendition of Bill Evan's Peace Piece played through Akira Rabelais' Argeïphontes Lyre.
Contains element of author William Seward Burroughs' speech.

Seward

deposition

a difficult decision

Remix of "For whom the beat rolls" by the great Mōv Raptor 

Track: https://soundcloud.com/movraptor/for-whom-the-beat-rolls

Artist: https://soundcloud.com/movraptor

It rolls for thee (Mōv Raptor remixed)

Peace Piece (by Bill Evans) played on piano and processed through Akira Rabelais' Argeiphontes Lyre.

Peace Piece by Bill Evans (cover)

𝙼𝚊𝚢 𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚠𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜, 𝚖𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚊, 𝚎𝚗𝚗𝚞𝚒, 𝚍𝚒𝚜𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚞𝚍𝚎, 𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚑𝚛𝚢𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚒𝚊 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚕𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝.

𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝚍𝚘𝚠𝚗𝚕𝚘𝚊𝚍𝚊𝚋𝚕𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 C𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚟𝚎 C𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚞𝚛𝚎. 𝙵𝚎𝚎𝚕 𝚏𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚡, 𝚊𝚙𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎, 𝚘𝚛 𝚌𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚋𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚎 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚗𝚘𝚗-𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚒𝚊𝚕 𝚞𝚜𝚎. 𝙲𝚘𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎.

𝙿𝚎𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝙹𝚞𝚗𝚔𝚢

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