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Y2K7 International Live Looping Festival - USA 2007

Y2K7 Musician Biographies

 

Musician / Picture / Bio Instrumentation email / website
HEADLINERS

Arild Andersen (Norway)

Upright bass http://www.arildandersen.com/
Born in Norway October 27 -1945 . He has been one of Europe's leading bass player since the early 70- ties. Andersen started out as a member of Jan Garbarek Quartet(67-73) . The group also included Terje Rypdal and Jon Christensen.In the same period he also worked with Norwegian singer Karin Krog and played in the rhythm section for visiting American musicians such as; Phil Woods , Dexter Gordon, Hampton Hawes, Johnny Griffin, Sonny Rollins, and Chick Corea. He also worked with Don Cherry and George Russell in this years.

Erdem Helvacioglu (Turkey)

Guitar www.erdemhelvacioglu.com
www.myspace.com/erdemhelvacioglu
Erdem Helvacioglu is one of the most renowned electronic music composers of his generation in Turkey. His music has been performed and broadcast all around the world. His compositions have been included in prestigious festivals such as: The San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Sonorities Festival of Contemporary Music, Seoul International Computer Music Festival, Musica Viva Festival, Primavera en La Habana and Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival. He has received numerous international awards for his electronic music including prizes from Luigi Russolo, Insulae Electronicae and MUSICA NOVA Electroacoustic Music Competitions. His album "A Walk Through The Bazaar" was judged "outstanding" by a number of music magazines. Besides this album, his compositions have been included on various labels like chmafu nocords, quiet american, and/OAR, vox novus for various compilation albums, such as "ctrl-alt-del", which also included works by Scanner, Kim Cascone and Merzbow. He has collaborated with artists Mick Karn, Kevin Moore, John Wilson, Kazuya Ishigami, Ros Bandt and Saadet Turkoz.

He has received commissions from artists and organizations such as the 2006 World Soccer Championship, Bang on a Can All Stars, Todd Reynolds, Kinan Azmeh, Margaret Lancaster and Cem Duruoz. His sound installations have been included at galleries like Los Angeles Track 16, Indonesia Soemardja, Köln Museum für Angewandte Kunst, London Menier and the 10th International Istanbul Biennial. His film music has been included at Cannes, Sarajevo, Locarno, Seoul, Sao Paulo, and Sydney film festivals. Helvacioglu received the "Best Original Soundtrack" award in the 2006 Mostramundo Film Festival. His latest solo album "Altered Realities" has been released by the US label "New Albion" in august 2006. Besides his electronic music works, he also continues to compose for theatre, film, multimedia productions. Helvacioglu performs his music worldwide and produces major acts in Turkey.

Leander Reininghaus (Germany)

Guitar www.myspace.com/lealoop
Leander Reininghaus aka Lealoop currently lives in Berlin and works on his Cymatics project.

The world is sound - and driven by sound he is, who was a student of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft Circles before he developed his unique character of guitar play. Though the guitar is his instrument of choice, it seems as if Lealoop is capable of playing any other instrument within a short time only, so I look at him as a gifted multi instrumentalist as well, having heard him on drums and percussion, on the piano, the cello and the erhu, though he always denies that this was of any use and he won't have me mention it here, still I do.

During the past years he worked as a composer, producer and acoustic/electric guitarist for several CD-, movie-, dance- and theatre productions, as well as for exhibitions and multimedia events, covering styles form progressive rock, fusion, pop, electronic and ambient to Eastern European, Asian and contemporary classical and minimal music.

As I see it, there's no limit yet to what he may be up to next; he's good for surprises and also highly appreciated in spontaneous formations and sessions, adding sparks of inspiration to improvisation, while performing as one of the rare musicians who do not focus exclusively on themselves when playing with others, yet show an openness for that dialogue within tones and notes.

He was the founder of the cross-culture band MOKA EFTI, with which he performed over 10 years, travelling the most European countries and recording three CDs, the latest with guests Charlie Mariano, Roland Schaeffer (of 70ies Krautrock cult-band GURU GURU) and Heinrich von Kalnein.

His fondness of loops, improvisation (live on stage since 1986) and textural music led him to the recordings and solo performances of "STARSCAPES - Music inspired by Views of Space".
These soundscapes have a truly healing quality; I've been using them for my work with young students as well as for recreation, and looking at pictures from space makes this audio journey a deep experience for every listener.

In 2003, Lealoop initiated the 1st Berlin Live-Loopfestival, and he was very happy to present Rick Walker, Matthias Grob, Andreas Willers, Michael Schiefel and Michael Peters.This was a first step to spread the fascination that goes along with live looping to a broader public in Northern Europe, and soon we can expect part two of this approach as the interest is on the rise.

More artists Leander Reininghaus enjoys/ed working with are: Hans York, Jochen Vogel, Michel Wack, Ralf Goeldner, Michael Peters (VELOOPITY), Markus Reuter (TUNER, CENTROZOON), Frieder Zimmermann, Matthias Ebbinghaus, Farhad Darya, Andreas von Garnier (SYNTHASIS), Ornah-Mental/Dirk Schlömer (ex-TON STEINE SCHERBEN), Michael Kiessling, Slobodan Savic and - fortunately, me.

(Nic-D, singer and teacher, Berlin)

Fabio Anile (eterogeneo) (Italy)


Fabio Anile sponsored by Universal Audio

Piano/Keyboard

Setup

www.eterogeneo.com

Studied classic piano from his childhood and played as a keyboardist with differents bands and artists in Sicily, where he worked in different contests, from rock to ethnic music, from electronic to soundtrack.

In 1992, under the name Suite Verlaine, co-founded an ambient band with F. Ferrara, inspired to the aestethic of Baudelaire, Rimbaud and Verlaine. The band performed live in a visual installations, titled "Fucktory", that took place in 1994 at "La Porta Rossa" art gallery, in Catania. In 1995, autoproduced his first solo demo, titled ParallelaMente, a work of electro-acustic music, soundtrack oriented. In 1996 moved in Rome, where co-founded the enoLogica, an electronic music trio inspirated to the Brian Eno's experimentations, producing enoLogica (1999) and Cuglio Nero (2001). This band is actually active and gigging in the Roma area. In 2004, started the e t e r o g e n e o solo project, a minimal ambient music project focused on looping technics and recycling electronics. In the same year realized the short film First Call From the Moon, in collaboration with the spanish VJ, Xavier Plagaro Mussard. In 2005 exhibited at the First International Zurich Loopfestival, with over 40 artists coming from all over the world In 2005 published In a land of stars in the Looper's Delight Compilation Vol. 3 (electr-ohm production).

In the last years published his compositions in some CT-Collective projects (CT-Film, CT-MRI) and coordinated the Great Speeches Project focused on composing a music to "furnish" a famous speech, and collaborated at Xperimentus, by Krispen Hartung and friends. Attracted more by expression in its essentiality than by virtuosity, eterogeneo chosen a personal musical and creative field of action. His area of interest lies especially in the colour of sound and in the dynamic balance between notes. Currently plays live in the Roma area.

Henry Kaiser (USA)

Guitar http://www.henrykaiser.net/
Henry Kaiser was definitely the first guitarist to use an EBow on a record album. He was also one of the very first guitarists to employ digital looping; likely the first to use it on a record album, back in 1976. Kaiser has traveled to Antarctica four times as a member of the US Antarctic Program. Each time he has worked as research diver beneath the 20 foot thick ice of the Ross Sea. Last January he returned from his most recent Antarctic deployment with director Werner Herzog; where Henry functioned as underwater cameraman and producer of a new Herzog feature film for Discovery Channel International's theatrical release unit. Henry's collaborations with Werner Herzog have included the soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World; as well as cinematography on The Wild Blue Yonder. Widely recognized as one of the most creative and innovative guitarists, improvisers, and producers in the fields of rock, jazz and experimental music, California-based musician Henry Kaiser is one of the most extensively recorded as well, having appeared on more than 200 different albums. Mr. Kaiser not only produces and contributes to a staggering number of recorded projects, he performs frequently throughout the USA, Europe and Japan, with several regular groupings as well as solo guitar concerts and concerts of freely improvised music with a host of diverse instrumentalists including Herbie Hancock, Terry Riley, Mike Keneally, Michael Stipe, Jerry Garcia, Wadada Leo Smith, John Zorn, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Harvey Mandel, Richard Thompson, David Lindley, and Cecil Taylor.

As one of the "first generation" of American free improvisers, Kaiser has helped unfetter the guitar from the conventions of genre-bound techniques, but his instrumental virtuosity and technological breakthroughs are always deployed in the service of deep and immediate personal expression. Some of his musical sources include traditional blues, South-East Asian traditions, Classical North Indian, and Korean shamanic music, free jazz, free improvisation, American steel-string concert guitar, and 20th century classical, but he also draws creatively from other abiding interests, which for Mr. Kaiser include Information Theory, experimental cinema, mathematics, experimental literature and SCUBA diving.

FEATURED PERFORMERS

Randolf Arriola (Singapore)

Guitar http://myspace.com/theembryo
http://www.myspace.com/the_embryo
Soundclick

Randolf Arriola, a self-taught guitarist and singer-songwriter, performs solo five nights a week at Harry's HarbourFront and Harry's Millennia Walk. He plays a Godin Multiac Steel Duet acoustic/electric guitar that is equipped with a sound pickup and microphone system that allows him to capture and amplify his finger picking, strums and hand percussion, which are fed into a live looping station.

Live looping is a new way to create music, where the musician records as he plays live using a device that captures and plays back multiple recorded tracks in continuous loops. Arriola employs looping devices to repeat musical phrases and stack them in layers, so that during live performances it sounds as if numerous instruments are playing simultaneously. It is important to note that in live looping the performer never uses pre-recorded samples - all music is played live.
Arriola's work is known for combining music with technology, through his use of live looping mechanisms as well as electronic guitar effects pedals that he personally modifies, stamping his own unique sonic fingerprint on his songs. He is a sought-after speaker at events that feature guitar effects gear, having mot recently been showcased at TGAS (The Art of Gear Stomping) 2007 in June at the Singapore Arts Museum. For the WOMAD (World of Music, Arts & Dance) Festival 2007, to be held in Singapore in August, Arriola will represent Gibson guitars during two demonstration performances.

The Embryo, a trio that includes bass and drums, is another creative vehicle for Arriola's original compositions. A firm believer that great works of cultural and social relevance always transcend trends and eras, his objective is to move listeners rather than to simply impress an audience. The Embryo has performed at venues around Singapore that includes The Arts House @ Parliament, The Esplanade - Theatres on the Bay, and Timbre Music Café at The Substation.
Arriola debuted on the local music scene in the 1980s playing, and winning, a number of music competitions for which he received a great deal of critical recognition. He went on to become one of the top professional show-band guitarists, playing at some of Singapore's most popular nightclubs. He has also composed music for film, television and stage soundtracks; engineered and produced recordings for local indie bands; contributed guitar for television and radio commercials and other artists' recordings; produced radio programmes; and coordinated live music events.

Throughout his career Randolf has sought a balance between commercial viability and artistic merit in his work. Currently, he is recording a series of projects both as a soloist and with The Embryo. His music can be heard at the websites listed above.

Randolf Arriola is sponsored by the National Arts Council of Singapore.

Per Boysen (Sweden)

Alto flute, EWI, electronics

Setup

http://www.looproom.com

“I play music that is open, improvising, breathtaking and sometimes a complete failure!”

Swedish multi instrumentalist Per Boysen is a crossover crusader that loves music and hates genres. Enthusiastic listeners have hinted at “Nu-Jazz” or “Minimal”. For the Californian October 2k7 sejour he is bringing a g-flute plus live looping laptop.

Per Boysen has performed many live-looping shows in USA, Sweden, Switzerland and Italy, both as a solo performer and with ensembles. He is fond of multi media based collaborations, as for example when the Italian Festival Internazionale di Andria Castel dei Mondi 2006 gave him a budget big enough for assembling a temporary quartet, the Boysen Network Ensemble, to improvise a micro opera with amplified painting canvas percussionist and musicians clamped with cameras projecting over a big screen by the stage. He has also composed and produced recordings of surround soundtrack music for films in the DVD format.

The Swedish Art Grants Committee helped financing a few of Per’s projects. One such, particularly successful, event was the 1st Swedish Looping Tour 2003, that had interviews and concerts covered by the national public service television’s art documentary Musikspegeln while for the international audience by The Music Room of CNN. For this tour he invited Brasilian/Swiss guitarist Matthias Grob, inventor of the legendary Digital Echoplex Pro looping machine, and American looping percussionist Rick Walker.

As a consulting musician Per Boysen is also working with a row of software developers to help out in the creation of tomorrows musical instruments. Besides playing music he has also written expert studies for WIPO in Geneva, the Nordic Musician Union and The Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs. Other works including books in Swedish on the music business as well as being a freelance journalist, editor and columnist for Scandinavia’s biggest guitar and computer music studio magazines. Per Boysen is also frequently booked as a speaker, trainer and consultant regarding Apple Logic, Ableton Live and assorted live-looping techniques.

Michael Klobuchar

Guitar

Setup

www.ct-collective.com
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzepmeci/
http://www.myspace.com/klobuchar11
BANDS: "VOODOO PIGS", "NUEVO TACO", "KLUTTER"
.....founding member of the "AMBIENT PUNK" movement.....presently a "FOLK LOOPER" playing "SIMPLE MUSIC"......he is old but smells good.....be nice to him for he is not wrapped tight enough.

Krispen Hartung (USA)

Mini electric guitar, laptop, MAX/MSP, Reaktor

Setup

 

www.krispenhartung.com

www.myspace.com/krispenhartung

Krispen Hartung, artistic director of the Boise Experimental Music Festival, has been a key player in placing Boise, Idaho (the state's capital and the third largest city in the North West of the USA) on the map of experimental, avant-garde, and loop-based music. Approaching it's third annual instance, the festival has recieved a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and has attracted cutting edge, creative music artists from all over North America. Krispen has also supported and coordinated many creative music programs in Boise, which revolve around raising awareness and appreciation of avant-garde music and art.

Krispen's 28-year music performance and recording background is an experimental and continuously evolving road trip marked by many excursions and detours - from classical guitar, progressive rock, and world-beat, to fusion, traditional jazz/bebop, and avant-garde. In 1993, after leading a series of modern jazz and fusion groups, Hartung began studying and exploring the method of real-time looping. Since then, he has become one of the North West’s (USA) most accomplished and prolific real-time looping artists and Idaho’s leading member of the international looping community Looper’s Delight. Hartung’s debut solo CD Places was released for sale in April of 2004 and consists of a series of colorful, innovative, and thought/mood provoking looping compositions that he improvised and recorded on the spot in one take.

As a result of his diverse background and studies, Krispen now exhibits a dynamic and atypical performance style that integrates multiple genres and stands in relief within the world of improvisational and experimental guitar. His discography includes 1) Places (described above), 2) a world fusion, free improvisational work entitled Live at the Kulture Klatsch, featuring didjeridu artist and percussionist Vincent Miresse, 2) his second solo CD, Descent to Self, a collection of improvised and computer-based avant-garde compositions, 3) Xperimentus, a collaborative project comprised of duo compositions of he and 13 other looping artists from around the world, 4) Interstellar Delirium, a delightful entanglement of insane free-improvisation and experimental electronica inspired by imagery of a spaceman's last dying moments and twisted hallucinations in the vacuum of space, with Jared Hallock on electronic percussion, marimba, acoustic drums, sound effects, and 5) Mandolin from Mars, a set of improvisational pieces performed on the 6-string mandolin and processed by the laptop computer using MAX/MSP and Reaktor.

Hartung is currently working on two new live CDs with Jeff Kaiser and Ted Killian, as well as a new experimental CD "Music Unfit for Children," featuring an array of children's toys, his 2 1/2 year old twins, guitar, other gadgets. His performance system now consists of an RME Fireface 400 audio interface, a ThinkPad T60p laptop computer, MAX/MSP, and Reaktor. The majority of the effects you will hear at Krispen's performances are generated by his own MAX/MSP effect patches.

GUEST PERFORMERS
Matthias Grob (Switzerland/Brazil)    
 

RICK WALKER (Y2K7 Festival Coordinator)

Percussion, Found Sound Percussion

www.looppool.info

Composer, multi-instrumentalist and master percussionist/drummer, Rick Walker has been on the cutting edge of music for the last 25 years. One of the original founders of the World Beat movement, and now an influential performer and promoter in the emerging international live looping movement, he incorporates a vast array of world music and pop styles in his repertoire combining instruments from the most primal to the most modern with state of the art digital looping and signal processing instruments.

An exceptionally versatile and sensitive musician, he is eccentrically creative, finding rhythm and melody in hundreds of everyday objects.

He is also the founder of the Y2K_ International Live Looping Festivals, the largest international live looping festival series on the planet and has been responsible for producing or directly inspiring 35 live looping festivals in 15 countries around the world as well as producing several creative new music festivals in Northern California (the Festival of Found and Invented Sound, The Festival of Voice and Electronics, the 1st Bass Looping Festivals, the Festival of Emerging Santa Cruz Electronica, the First Woman's Live Looping Festival, the Spirit of Africa and many more).

He has also performed, toured and recorded with many master musicians from around the globe, collaborating and backing artists like Bob Brozman (USA), Debhashish Battycharya (India), Martin Simpson (England), Djeli Moussa Djawara (Guinea), Babatunde Olatunje (Nigeria), Amel Tafsout (Algeria), Rene Lacaille (La Reunion), Ali Farke Toure (Mali), Hamza El Din (Nubia),Takashi Hiryasu (Okinawa), Pajoe Amissah Aidoo (Ghana),Massimo Liverani (Italy) Familia Valera (Cuba), George Pilali (Greece), David Hidalgo (Los Lobos/USA), David Lyndley (USA), Michael Manring (USA), Steve Lawson (UK), Per Boysen (Sweden), Matthias Grob (Switzerland/Brazil), Ile Aye (Brazil), Olodum (Brazil), Luca Formentini (Italy), Sunao Inami (Japan), Phantasmagoria (Japan), Paul Marshall (Northern Ireland), Bernhard Wagner (Switzerland), Luis Angulo (Mexico), Andreas Willers (Germany), Andre LaFosse (USA), Titos Sompa (Congo), Abdoulaye Djakite (Senegal), Krispen Hartung (USA), Jeff Kaiser (USA), Henry Kaiser (USA) and many others.

He has opened for acts such as Los Lobos, Santana, the Neville Brothers, Huey Lewis and the News, Cher, Kenny G, Todd Rundgren, the Residents, Youssou NDour, Thomas Mapfumo, Sly and Robbie, Steel Pulse, Wailing Souls, the Thompson Twins, Berlin and many others.

He resides in Santa Cruz, California with his wife, singer/songwriter Chris Wedertz, where he teaches, performs, records and releases original recordings as:

|()()p.p()()| (found sound/live looping), PurpleIHand (abstract electronica), nO thiN-g (dark ambient, noise, experimental), Ultra Violette (synth goth, industrial, ebm) and the RICK WALKER TRIO (modal acoustic jazz).

Rick also was the first recipient of the Gail Rich Award for Service to the Arts, the Calabash Award for Excellence in the Ethnic Arts and served as Arts Commissioner for the City of Santa Cruz from 2002-2005.

Peter Cor

Guitar / Keyboards www.innercormusic.com
www.jazzydevils.com
New York Native Peter Cor has lived and worked both East and West coasts,Europe,Central America,Carribean,and north africa.

Classically trained in piano,also plays guitar,bass,drums,percussion,and influenced by a wide and diverse range of musical and cultural influences. His credits include writing multiplatinum hits,Film/TV credits, Theater and modern dance performance scores.
Craig McCoullough   http://www.craigmccollough.com/pages/main.php
 
Chris Roberts    
 

CYPOD

Electribe, voice, and pure data www.cypod.co.nr
Academically trained and street tested in the ways of beatmaking, Cypod has transformed through many mediums and spaces. From the concert hall, forest, cafe, mp3 player, computer, and beyond. Based in the west coast metropolis of Northern California, San Francisco, Cypod works with such local groups as the Drum Machine Museum, Artseed and Dimension7.
Chris Cohn    
 

MATT DAVIGNON

Drum Machine

www.ribosomemusic.com

Matt Davignon is an experimental musician living in Oakland, California. Since 1993, he has developed his own unique style of music, which focuses largely on textures, arrhythmic patterns and musical imperfections. His first experiments as a teenager were constructed using 2 boom boxes, combining household objects, CD/tape samples and heavily effected improvisation on a variety of “real instruments”. Since then, he has spent time studying (in a non-academic sense) bass guitar, live sound collage, consumer-grade electronics, prepared acoustic guitar, real-time sampling/looping, experimental turntablism, and field recordings on handheld cassette recorders.

Since 2004, he has been working almost exclusively with a drum machine. Instead of using it as a rhythm device, he plays the pads manually while processing the sounds through an array of effects devices and samplers, improvising music made of organic-sounding textures, hums, gurgles and crackles.

Kevin Kissinger

Theremin and electronics
http://kevinkissinger.com
Kevin Kissinger utilizes Theremin, software and hardware live-looping techniques, and synthesizers to create musical compositions. Kevin?s interest in electronics and music started nearly 40 years ago with a Hammond organ, 50-in-1 electronic project kits, and classical piano and organ training. In the 1970s Kevin built a large Aries modular synthesizer. In addition to the (now vintage) Aries instrument, Kevin?s equipment includes the remarkable Kurzweil K2600 synthesizer, Etherwave Pro Theremin, and modern recording facilities.

Kevin?s current interest is to create music in surround sound and to incorporate live looping techniques. In keeping with the live-looping theme of the Y2K7 Loopfest, Kevin will play music that is entirely real-time without pre-recorded elements.

Over the years, Kevin has created classical transcriptions, original compositions, and experimental/aleatoric soundscapes. Kevin?s latest works are his attempts to merge traditional and experimental techniques and to create challenging works for live performance.

Kevin is a precision Thereminist and a member of the ?Spellbound? artist list. Kevin?s compositions and transcriptions for theremin have received recognition from the Thereminworld community and the ?Spellbound? program. Kevin?s ?Meteor Mallets? received recognition as Spellbound?s ?Best Neo-Classical Composition of 2006?. Kevin's recent performances include the 2007 Electro-music festival and the 2007 Electronic Music Midwest Festival. He plans to release a cd album in the first half of 2008.

Kevin earned his Bachelor of Music Degree with a major in Pipe Organ Performance from the University of Missouri at Kansas City ? Conservatory of Music. Besides his electronic music work, Kevin holds the AAGO (professional organist) certificate and continues to be in demand as a professional organist

Aaron Leese

Guitar and an electronic percussion www.flyloops.com
Aaron is an inventor and musician working in collaboration with Mike Nelson of Boomerang Music on a new looping software suite called FlyLoops. With Flyloops we intend to put together a product that focuses on using parellel loops in a group looping setting. The world debut for this product will be at Y2K7, and it will be available commercially in early 2008.

I live currently, and will return next year to Alaska ..... so if you find yourself headed north in a canoe swing on in for some smoked salmon in a low lit bar full of bluegrass musicians. Until then, I am moving to San Francisco and look forward to meeting some of the friendly community loopers thereabouts (we seem to be in ample supply in down there). I try to play bluegrass jazz fusion .... manage reaonable funky blues most of the time ..... and end up ambient if having a rough night ....... but always enjoy the music.
Monk (USA)    
 

JOE RUT

Guitar www.joerut.com
Joe Rut was born, and then later started playing guitar and writing songs. Joe loves donuts, although he understands they are killing him. Most donut shops have crappy coffee, and most good coffee shops don't have actual donuts. Joe finds this sad.

In addition to his solo performances, Joe has been happy to collaborate with other humans over the years including, experimental guitarist Henry Kaiser, The Spikedrivers (bluegrass), 86 (Velvet Underground Jug Music), Loretta Lynch (weird-ass country), and Lucio "The Reverend Screaming Fingers" Menegon (as the experimental/ambient guitar duo Lumper/Splitter).

Joe has been fortunate enough to play with these fine people in swell places such as UK's Glastonbury Music Festival, The Fillmore in San Francisco (opening for Richard Thompson), Nevada's Burning Man Festival, the Shoreline and Sleep Train Amphitheaters and an empty parking lot in Berkeley. All of these places were fun, but the only one that had a decent donut was Glastonbury. The Brits know how to make a donut.

Joe is a member of the Immersion Composition Society, a group of upstanding citizens dedicated to QUANTITY songwriting. An obsessive tinkerer, Joe builds original instruments out of found objects and contact microphones, which he plays in addition to guitar, lap steel, mandolin, ukelele, charango, bass, drums, and Hammond organ. Joe still thinks College Music Journal (CMJ) sucks for replacing Loretta Lynch's legitimately charting (KALX) first CD with it's own pay-to-play compilation in the charts, even though they feebly claim it was a clerical error.

Joe lives in Oakland, CA, likes to write about himself in the third person, and was bi-polar when bi-polar wasn't cool.

Bill Walker (USA)

Guitar/Lapsteel billwalker@baymoon.com

Bill Walker is one of the most sophisticated guitar players active on the West Coast of the United States. His breadth of styles and wide technological range gives him a broad musical palette that he applies to every different musical setting with tremendous lyricism and taste. Armed with an array of electric and acoustic guitars, and utilizing state of the art looping and sound processing technology, Bill has taken the one-man-band concept in a bold new direction. State of the art digital live looping technology allows Bill to record himself as he is playing and create lush, multi-layered guitar ensembles, otherworldly sounds, and textures. He has an impressive range of style and timbre: From searing electric leads to beautiful lap steel slide guitar, guitar synthesizer, and finger picking steel and nylon string acoustic guitars, he runs the gamut of style and taste. He is renowned as a master of Digital processing, midi, guitar synthesizer programming, and guitar sound design. Bill is also a warm and engaging performer, blending humor with serious musicianship.

As one of the San Francisco, and Monterey Bay Area's most versatile guitarists, Bill has enjoyed a 25 year performing, recording, touring and teaching career that has spanned rock, pop, jazz, RnB, blues, world beat, and a host of other genres, including stints with drum legend Babatunde Olatunji, RCA recording artist " Opafire" and New Wave provocateurs "Tao Chemical". He was a founding member one of the first world beat Bands to play in the United States, started in the late 70’s. The band 'Rhythmical' began fusing a polyglot of styles, including Africa, India, Indonesia, the Middle East, Celtic, and American roots. He later formed, with his brother Rick, the innovative successor to that band, 'Worlds Collide'., that toured Japan in the early 90’s.

Bill Walker has shared the stage as a supporting act for many acts including the Tony Levin Band, Marotta /Griesgraber, the Neville Brothers, King Sunny Ade, Ali Farka Toure, Thomas Mapfumo, Youssou N Dour, Michelle Shocked, the Psychedelic Furs, the Thompson Twins, Missing Persons, Johnny Clegg, Kenny G, Cher, Huey Lewis and the News, and a host of others. In addition to a busy playing and recording schedule, Bill also works as a private guitar Instructor, and as a demo artist for Rick Turner and Renaissance Guitars, the Seymour Duncan, and DTAR companies, and The Bose Corporation. He is a representing artist for the latest state of the art hardware live looping device, the Looperlative, also using the device in his live shows and helping with ideas for design innovation. He has just recently completed his first film score and is completing his first solo CD of live looping based music. Bill lives with his wife , and songwriting partner, Nancy Milin, and dog Finny, in Santa Cruz, California.

GENIE

Slide guitar, live-sampling, beat boxing

www.myspace.com/thegenie

The renowned pioneer of "scratch guitar", Genie blends blues, jazz, electronica, bossa nova, latin and middle-eastern rhythms via slide guitar, beatboxing, live sampling, and turntablism to create a visually stunning and truly unique show.

After being voted #1 on Current TV, his current video "What is Scratch Guitar?" was selected for television and is currently airing in the US and UK, check it out at: http://currenttv.com/watch/16180242

Chinapainting

Acoustic guitars, mandolin, cassette Portastudio, cassette Dictaphone http://www.chinapaintingmusic.com
Chinapainting is one of the very few - if not the only - international, virtual, improvisational, acoustic, analog looping duos. Though the two musicians live far apart, Jim Goodin in Brooklyn, New York and Daryl Shawn in Oaxaca, Mexico, they have developed a musical relationship solely through the Internet, using an open-source application called NinJam. The acoustic-guitar-based collaboration is enhanced by the unique use of cassette tape loops, essentially creating new instruments from the humble four-track tape recorder and the office dictating machine, as well as the use of various types of guitars, including fretless, 12-string and flamenco styles in addition to mandolin. If you can picture the California Guitar Trio jamming on Terry Riley with Sonic Youth, remixed by Christian Marclay, you might begin to get a sense of the unique territory this duo is mapping out.

Barry Cleveland

Guitar

 

http://www.barrycleveland.com

 

http://www.myspace.com/barryclevelandmusic

Greetings. All sorts of information about my music may be conveniently viewed on my MySpace page, so I won't post it here. You'll also find a few mp3s and 30-second Snocap teasers there. My main Web site hasn't been updated in eons, but … anyway, here's the skinny on my looping activities:

I have incorporated looping into my music since the early '80s. The 19-minute-long title track on my Mythos album (Audion Recording Company, 1986, and included on the Memory & Imagination compilation, 2003) is based on guitar loops created using a pair of Revox A-77s à la Enotronics. The guitars were played using a violin bow, an Ebow, and Masley Bowhammers-as well as in the conventional manner.

In the early 90s, I experimented with a prototype of the Paradis Loop Delay. Guitar and percussion loops from that period became the basis of the first five pieces on disc two of Memory & Imagination, and the basic tracks for the 24-minute-long title track from that album were created using a Lexicon PCM-42. Another track from M&I, "Echoes on Echoes," was recorded live for the Echoes radio program in 2001 using a Gibson EDP.

Currently, I am working on new loop-based music using the EDP, an Electro-Harmonix 2880 Loop Delay, an Eventide TimeFactor, and other gizmos. Some of the loops have found their way into my "rock" project (which features bassist Michael Manring, drummer Celso Alberti, pedal-steel guitarist Robert Powell, and vocalist Amy X Neuburg), and lots of them will probably make it onto my collaboration with French loopist Richard Pinhas planned for 2008. Cheers! Barry Cleveland.

Dustbunnies (Duke Sexton)

Fretless Electric Oud (11-string Guitar) and Synthesizer, Electronics

Setup

http://www.dustbunnies.info/
http://www.m3ch.net/
http://www.disquieting.org/
As an instrumentalist for over a quarter-century, Duke Sexton began his career playing saxophone as a young student before taking up synthesizers, guitar and bass. He worked live sound and broadcast as a professional audio engineer, eventually owning and running his own commercial recording studio for several years. A fixture on the early Industrial/IDM and Electronica scenes, recent years have seen him turning away from traditionally structured Rock & Alternative music, in favor of Ambient, Free Improvisation, and the emerging Live Looping movement.

Sexton currently produces spontaneous Looping performances under the name Dustbunnies. Additionally, he composes Electronica as M3ch, and performs electronic Free-Form as an adjunct member of Chicago area's MEME (Midwest Electronic Music Ensemble).

An avid traveller, he has visited 27 countries and been around the world at least twice. He now divides his time between Thailand and Japan, where he lives with his wife, son, four cats, and a lot of electronics.

Glenn Smith

Voice www.soundseeds.com
www.myspace.com/glennsmith1
Glenn Smith is a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist who has played mostly improvised music for dance jams, dance classes, theatre performances, festivals, artreceptions, kindergartens, cafes, clubs, raves, t.v. and radio shows, silent movies, and more. Recent workfocuses on facilitating vocal sounding groups for kidsand adults, as well as creating ecstatic sound and
movement gatherings.

Bob Amstadt

Bass guitar http://www.looperlative.com/
Best known as the creator of Looperlative, Bob has also played bass guitar for nearly 20 years. With the desire to play bass as a solo instrument, Bob entered the looping scene. To extend what is possible, he developed the Looperlative LP1 and incorporated ideas from Steve Lawson, Rick Walker, Bill Walker, and the customers of Looperlative Audio Products. As a musician, Bob plays looped solo 6-string bass often in the creation of ambient soundscapes.

Harry Weinberg

Saxophone  
Harry Weinberg, Brooklyn bred musician, lawyer and unrequited Met Fan, has been playing music since the age of 6 (43 years for those who are counting). Primarily a wind player (but also a dabbler in keys and mandolin), his focus is jazz and, recently, the use of electronics to create improvisational sequences to entertain himself. This will be his first effort at looping in front of anyone except his dog, Mollie, who is a big fan.
Addamantium the Plumber    
 

JD Devros


J.D.Devros with Bruce Beaton (of Gypsy Caravan, Mizna, & Graphic Recliner)

  http://www.gypsycaravan.us/
J.D. is a composer and writer of songs, as well as poetry, short stories, and even a screenplay or two. He has played guitar and related stringed instruments for many years and in many genres, from proto-metal, hard core punk, and ska, to blues, alt-rock, and avant-garde/experimental. He currently plays oud, cumbus, and saz and Middle Eastern/N.African/Indian influenced music for the Gypsy Caravan Dance Company with the group Mizna, and sits in with avant-ambient Graphic Recliner. A newbie to the looping world, this perfectly fits his Soto Zen need for meditation and soundtrack.

He also has a beautifully supportive wife and two brilliant sons, none of whom like his music.

Greg Williams

  www.myspace.com/gregwilliamsguitarist
Greg Williams has been an active guitarist, composer, and teacher in the Sacramento area for over 20 years. He has composed over 150 works in various musical disciplines including contemporary classical, jazz, folk/rock, heavy metal, and specialized music for radio, television and film. His works have been broadcast on NPR, Capitol Public Radio, and other local television and radio stations. He has been awarded 3 Sacramento music awards and been featured in Electronic Musician and 20th Century Guitar magazines. His most recent work is the 2007 CD "A Circle of Hidden Intentions", in which he combines solo acoustic guitar and live-looping technology to create minimalistic, multi-layered, grooving instrumental pieces all perfomed live in the studio. Greg performs regularly throughout Northern California, and he has performed in the United States, Canada, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. Greg received his Bachelors Degree in classical guitar performance at CSU Sacramento under Dr. Richard Savino, and his Master's Degree in Composition under Stephen Blumberg. Greg is currently on the faculty at CSU Sacramento teaching beginning guitar classes and general education music history classes, and spends his summers and winters performing, touring, composing, and recording. Greg is also a member of Gamelan Dharma Santi, under the direction of Daniel Kennedy.

Gary Regina    
 

MOJOW & the VIBRATION ARMY

  http://vibrationarmy.com
Mojow's stage show is an eclectic mix of original danceable compositions inspired by music from around the world. Using a variety of musical instruments and modern looping technology, Mojow creates a captivating full band sound which is not only appealing to the ear and irresistible to the feet, but is also intriguing to watch. They perform both as a duo and with a drummer.

Craig Green

Guitar http://www.craigjgreen.com/
Guitarist and composer Craig Green has scored music for stage, film, ballet and chamber ensembles with collaboration and improvisation as the focus. He has performed and studied?throughout the United States, Mexico, Canada, Europe, Asia and North Africa as both a leader, backup musician and student of sound. He continues to work with visual artists, dancers and other musicians from around the world.

Carl Weingarten

Electric slide guitar http://www.mphase.com/weingarten.htm
Composer, producer and slide guitarist Carl Weingarten first toured in the mid 1980s performing loop-guitar shows along the east coast, and once as the opening act for Bill Bruford's Earthworks in Boston. Carl's current music reflects over two decades of experimentation with world music, country, blues and progressive rock. Described by some as "Ambient Americana," the arrangements combine both roots-based and contemporary elements. The net result proffers an sound rife with atmosphere; a meandering through rhythms from America and beyond, while under the creative spell of modern studio effects.

Drawing influence from a range of sources, Weingarten's hometown of St. Louis, laid the groundwork for his rhythmic pursuits, where, he attested, "Blues was part of the culture.

"While it was certainly the starting point for my music, I became interested in jazz, electronic and world music, mixing them together to find my own voice," he said.

In 1980, he founded Multiphase Productions, a collaborative label that continues today, boasting a medley of artists, including jazz guitarist Fareed Haque, bass guru Michael Manring and percussionist Brain Knave; the latter two also contributed extensively to his recent release, Local Journeys.

Weingarten, having little prior exposure to Eastern music, recalled collaborating in 1993 with classical Indian musicians. "I was blown away," he said. "I saw so many similarities between Eastern and Western music. Rather than view them as different worlds I tried to blend these influences into the music I was writing."

Such experiences embolden his persistent drive for innovation, evident in the CD Hand in The Sand, which includes assemblages from multiple genres in addition to experimentations with sound effects and the unconventional use of instruments such as the dobro, an early 20th century acoustic resonating guitar.

"I follow the path of painters and sculptors," he stated. "You keep changing. You keep challenging yourself. You keep the music evolving."

John Kelman of All About Jazz wrote, "Some artists view their instruments as ends unto themselves; others view them as means to an end. With Local Journeys, Weingarten clearly sits in the latter camp, more interested in the broader aural potential of his instrumental palette. An album that is as much about freeing the imagination as it is engaging it, Local Journeys is a graceful addition to Weingarten's gradually evolving body of work."

For more information on Carl Weingarten and his latest release, Invisibility (Foundry Records, 2006) with synthesist Forrest Fang, visit www.mphase.com

Cyoakha Grace

Noise toys, casio, harmonium & vocal effects

http://www.myspace.com/cyoakhagrace

http://www.landoftheblind.com

Tribal Noise Looping "I love looping because it's instant one of a kind creation. I have 6 cds out with my 12 year project "tribal-trance" band, Land of the Blind, the last 3 cds are based on my loops. I use looping in Blind as a way to layer ethno-exotic instruments up into actual songs, & as a trio, it's possible with 2 live loopers (myself & local SC Rhan Wilson) midi-ed together to end up sounding like an 8 piece band. I also use looping in my soundtrack writing, I used it throughout my 96 minute avant soundtrack for H.P. LOVECRAFT's Search for Unknown Kadath, an indie animated feature film with great avant otherworldly results . I am currently writing music for a Zombie movie using my looper. My solo looping is mixing odd ethnic instruments with noise toys & effected vocal layers to create dreamtime soundtracks live.
Mark Hamburg Guitar http://www.baymoon.com/~mark_hamburg/