Purchase Events 3: Fields and Karl Blau, Guitars and the Loop Pedal

Two performances at Purchase this year featured musicians using the Boss RC-20XL Loop Station effect pedal. According to the manufacturer’s website, the Loop Station allows you to record up to eleven loops of music, each for up to sixteen minutes. This can allow for a single musician to record multiple voices and sounds, possibly even mimicking the sound of a full band, with just a guitar and a microphone (the pedal features two inputs, one for a microphone and one for an instrument). This has an effect on performances in some ways similar and in other ways dissimilar from the effect that computers have.

Fields is a single guitarist named Michael Perrone. He performs with a number of effect pedals, including the Boss Loop Station. Using the Loop Station, he is able to add multiple layers and voices, without the need of any other musicians. He creates a mixture of ambient background drones, creating entire droning chords by adding one voice at a time. His compositions can range from drone-y ambient pieces to bouncy, rhythmic pieces. Watching Fields perform and listening to the creation of a piece of music, one phrase of music at a time with increasingly complex rhythms, can make for a powerful experience.

Karl Blau is similarly a one man act, also using the same Loop Station pedal. However, Blau is more likely to create catchy, danceable songs than lengthy esoteric compositions. Using both a guitar and a microphone, Blau creates his rhythms with a combination of tapping into his microphone and beatboxing, recording loops of the rhythms to play for the duration of the song. Similarly to Fields, Blau also uses the Loop Station to occasionally create ethereal sounds, recording his own voice over and over, so that as one phrase is repeated he is slowly backed by his a chorus made entirely of his own voice.

Like the use of laptop computers, loop pedals can free musicians from certain limitations. With this technology they can mimic the effect of a band, and can take their more complex arrangements and visions wherever they can find an electrical outlet, without having to find or rely on other musicians. They can fit in smaller spaces or any other space that might not easily accommodate a full band or any large number of musicians.

Unlike laptop computers, it still necessitates some kind of performance. It does not heavily affect the relationship between performer and audience, except to allow for more intimate settings. Also, watching the performers manage both their personal performance of their music and the loops can be like watching someone play two instruments at once. While it still can’t compare to the experience of seeing a full band perform, it does provide a different kind of excitement.