Circle 'Round the Sun

Repetitive structures in music are as old as music itself. Drumming and meditative chant are at the heart of all music. When I was meditating regularly back in the 70's, the repetitive chanting was perhaps the strongest attraction to me.

With the advent of modern electronics devices have become available that allow a single musician to capture a phrase and then to play it back, allowing rhythmic structures and harmonies to be built up. It is like playing along with your own echo. I started looping around 1995 with one of the first Oberheim Echoplex Pro. All of the sounds on these tracks are made solely by guitar, played live, in real time, interacting with electronic echoes of myself. No overdubs or multi-track techniques are used.

Looping is a little like modern art. People hear it and say “my five year old could do that!” Well, they probably could. I recommend that you encourage them.


Click and listen:

Adagio for Dogs     This song was inspired late one night when I was playing and my only audience was a very happy and mellow poodle. I used a guitar and my Orville, set to a very short stereo delay, to record it direct to CD. The SM57 and C1000 mics are right in front of my two Fender amps. (2,587KB)

Forward Backward    In my opinion the Echoplex is the most wonderful electronic effect / instrument known to man. This is the sound of my Steinberger into the Echoplex, recorded direct to hard disk. (1,700KB)

S L O    I heard a duet of drums and guitar one night at Linnaeas Café in San Luis Obispo. They were wonderful and inspiring and now this always makes me think of them. This was recorded on the 16th of February 2003 using a Steinberger guitar and an Orville effects processor. The only electronic effects are the delay and the reverb. It was recorded direct to hard disk. There were no guitar amps or microphones or anything emulating those things used. This is what electric guitar sounds like all by itself. (1,953KB)

People Get Ready    Classic tune written by the great Curtis Mayfield. This is a good example of the Echoplex used simply as a backing track and accompaniment. I play this every once in a while whenever I need to get really grounded. (2,652KB)

Da Blues    I recorded this back in October of 2000. The guitar is a PRS Hollowbody with a piezo pickup, which you can hear clearly. I was playing with various delay and loop settings on my Orville when this loop was born. It was so cool that I froze the loop and connected all of my recording gear while the loop was playing. I used the volume knobs on my amps to fade the loop in and out! The sound is a stereo microphone recording the full room sound of my little apartment, direct to DAT. (763KB)

Da Greens    Right after recording Da Blues, I wanted to do something that wasn’t blue, so I did this. Five minutes later, same setup. (819KB)

Smack It!    A recording from January of 2001. This was played using four different delays panned across the stereo field. There are no fretted notes. Play and be free! (2,517KB)