Live Looping

All the artists playing on this festival use live looping techniques. So what is live looping?

To summarize it, live looping is the recording, manipulation and playback of looped audio in real-time. It originally started with analog tape-delay systems. One of the first artists using this technology was Terry Riley (60′s) and both Brian Eno and Robert Fripp (70′s) are two other known artists who further developed this technology which Fripp later called Frippertronics. Thanks to the evolution of digital technology, we know can choose from a wide range of  sophisticated looping devices. If you’re interested in the history of looping, I recommend the follow articles:

• looperdelight.com – The Birth of Loop
• livelooping.org – The History of Live Looping Music

There are different ways “live looping” can be interpreted and how you can use it on stage:

• As a “One Man Band” – recording multiple instruments track by track
• To clone an instrument – recording different parts of a composition using a single instrument
• As a (meta) instrument – live processing of audio loops resulting in music which often sounds very different from the original loop, either rhythmically or sonically

Looking for information about looping gear? Check out one of the following pages:

• Per Boysen – Comparison Chart Of Looping Devices
• Loopers-Delight – Looping Tools and a big mailing list with many technical oriented subscribers