One of the coolest music projects this year has come from the nimble artistry of % (pronounced “owner/operator,” out of the /parallelogram/ collective), who recently released “Echoes,” a treasury of 50 distinct continuous loops pieced out from earlier recordings. % fused form and function by using answering machine tapes as the medium to deliver the 30-second loops. (The cassettes are available only until they are all dispersed, so be sure to get your copy here.)
MP had the opportunity to ask many, many questions and gather some of %’s insight about “Echoes” and the process behind the music:
MP: Which came first, the idea to record a set of continuously looping music or the discovery of a bunch of answering machine tapes on ebay?
%: definitely the notion of recording looping music. before i discovered endless loop tapes, i had gotten way into buddha machines, which are tiny little boxes put out by FM3, an electronic music crew from China. the boxes are pre-programmed with a variety of loops that play continuously. there’s another artist, William Basinski, who put out the ‘Distintegration Loops’ in 2002, in which a continuous loop of magnetic tape breaks down over time as it passes through the transport of a tape player. whereas both artists approach looping through different contexts, the buddha machine is truly endless as a result of the device. endless playback with media is more difficult to accomplish without special modifications, like a locked groove on vinyl, or in this case, an endless loop of tape.
i was totally in the right-place-at-the-right time with the discovery of a large cache of endless loop answering machine tapes on ebay. these typically go for top-dollar individually, but i suppose the seller didn’t know what they had. because i had such a large amount of these tapes, the idea to do a release was a natural progression.
MP: Would all 50 tapes make up an endless loop if played sequentially?
%: 50 individual pieces looping repetitively would most likely give way to an endless chorus of noise, which could potentially be awesome. haven’t tried this yet.
MP: When I’ve listened to some of your other albums, even though you often have different track listings, I get the sense that the songs are meant to be played together in the order they’re given. Is track order a big consideration for you as you put an album together?
%: more and more, i view my tunes as a whole, something that’s meant to follow a sequence that i define. although digital mediums allow us to rapidly jump to various points with surprising accuracy, they almost encourage the whole to be consumed in pieces, in whichever sequence the listener prefers. i feel the order in which things progress can be just as important as the individual pieces themselves. as a result, my work as of late has put a lot of emphasis on this unfolding, trying to make a cohesive whole rather than a somewhat-related set of individual things.
MP: So then, do you feel that your songs change when listened to independent of each other? (Especially at a time when many people have extensive music libraries and it is so simple to listen to them on shuffle, it seems like creating an album as one track or as an endless loop gives the artist more control over how the songs are meant to be heard.)
%: most of my tracks will loose context when listened to individually. in order to create an effective gradient between two tracks, there needs to be a designed sequence. as a majority of my releases up to this point have been digital, it kind of makes sense to define a start-and-stop point for each track, but i should probably stop doing this, really. i feel this is where more analog mediums like vinyl and tape succeed: the sequence is well-defined which makes indexing fuzzy and imprecise, so why even try, just listen.
MP: In the video clip you used to augment the “Echoes” project page, the loop plays through an amp nestled in the woods. Does your environment affect how/what you write? Do you ever use “controls” to set up an environment that you know will give your composition a certain mood?
%: environment has a huge effect. i lived in NYC for a short time and found it astoundingly difficult to synchronize with the world around me; therefore, my output was slim to none, and the tunes i did make felt contrived. an escape to a mountain cabin in west virginia allowed me to confront this creative block by opening up to and vibing off of the trees and mountains and forest energies, altogether leading to a groundswell of output. ever since, i’ve tried to remain cognizant of how i feel, and use deep feeling as the guiding principle to all creative endeavors.
as for creating a controlled environment for the production of something particular, i feel there might be too many qualitative factors at work to narrow it down to any one function or formula. being aware of yourself and at peace with your environment definitely helps in keeping the output honest.
MP: In your live sets, you often provide the audience with “sensory interaction” (if you will) such as with lights or projected, moving images. With this release, the very act of playing a tape is interactive. When you are composing music, do you also plan (or begin to see) ways to make the piece interactive (certain shapes or colors, for example)? What would be your ultimate interactive musical performance?
%: i’ve always found there to be a big difference between the modes of recording and performing. with recording, you are in the comfort of your tunespace, working away, listening and re-listening and making and tinkering until it feels right. performance is a different process — the whole point is to create a realtime sequence within the presence of an audience, something they can see/feel/respond to. there are folks who can bridge these two modes effortlessly, but i’ve always found them to be two distinct entities.
i think electronic music performance lends itself to trying to stimulate the senses in some other form. it’s not always the most engaging thing to look at, so you try to fill in the gaps the best you can. although i’ve tried projected visuals, geodesic domes, and fog machines, i think the best interaction comes from a playing in an intimate setting with a small group. perhaps outside, amongst trees or in a field, sitting in the grass, drinking cider and looking at the moon.
MP: That sounds amazing! Speaking of tunespace, when you start a new project, does it begin as a continuation of the last? Also, do you ever (or are you able) to work on more than one musical project at once?
%: it’s an ongoing endeavor, a passion that i feel deep within, a drive to make and share. i’m becoming more aware of how everything is interconnected, and how one idea will naturally give way to the next — with each release i learn something new and this knowledge gets continuously applied as i work my way forward.
as my process matures, i’m trying to focus more on one thing at a time rather than juggling multiple projects at once; i find working in such a way encourages you to really get your hands dirty, get deep.
MP: I truly appreciate your answering my questions so thoughtfully! Is there anything I didn’t ask that you were hoping I would, or anything else you’d like to share about this or your upcoming projects?
%: first-and-foremost: thanks for listening + reading + support + friendship!
MP: Oh, man, I find your work so inspiring. So thanks to you, too!
%: my next release should be out within a few months: a split cassette with my good friend trent gill, who goes by galapagoose. my side is titled ‘unfolding’ — a tune that touches on a lot of the concepts we’ve discussed here. a majority of it was written in that cabin up in the west virginian hills, while watching turkey buzzards fly overhead and strange lights move in the night sky. i’m really excited about it.
