Live looping electric violin impro's (+more)

[swyatt]

Hi all!

My name is Stuart Wyatt (33) from Devon, UK. I play 5, 6 and 7 string electric violins through live looping equipment. I initially started this as a form of street entertainment when living in Paris so that I put food on the table

All of my live looping tracks are pure live improvisations - no backing tracks are used, and the music is not post-edited. Some people call this kind of performance 'realtime composition'...

The project ran from 2000-2003, marketted under my old (now stolen) domain solostring.com, until I had to stop due to illness and other problems.

I have recently restarted the project, and have just uploaded my full mp3 archive (3+ discs worth) to my new site at http://swyatt.com/music.php. I strongly recommend 'ThursdayPiece' and '5-strings' as an example of what I do/did.

Please feel free to download/share/burn anything that takes your fancy, and feel free to honestly comment on what you think of the music here.

Thanks!

Stuart Wyatt - http://swyatt.com

[RAMI]

I don't know what to call what you do, but I love it. I can't give you any technical comments and I don't play the violin, but I really dug the few tunes I heard. Very original and spine-tingling.

[true-eurt]

I listened......
"5 strings" took my emotional imagination on a search, for a loved one lost to circumstances beyond human control.

A search that becomes a harrowing journey, with moments of heart-pounding tension and thoughts of giving up hope.

"Thursdays Piece" became the desperate moments of hopelessness. The unfulfillment of non-closure of a wounded heart.

Then masterfully sends one down a long, strong currented river, driven by the passion of hope restored. Absolutely soul possessing.

I can't finish my story now, so be back later.

Cool tunes to stir up the passion, and the imagination.

[swyatt]

Thanks Rami

Live looping is where you can record what you play, then loop that recording... either allowing you to play over the top or hit 'overdub' which allows you layer on top of the loops. Depending on the equipment used, you can reverse, change tempo (without altering pitch), double/halve speed, resample, insert etc. All of this is done using foot pedals.

The vast majority of the pieces were recorded using a single Line6 DL4 Delay Modeller pedal on 'loop mode' whilst playing on the street. The DL4 is probably the easiest and most organic piece of equipment to learn live looping. 'ThursdayPiece' was recorded using an Electrix Repeater (4-track, buggy looping device, which never got off of the ground)

There are software live-looping platforms which are free to download if you wanted to have a blast yourself: Mobius and Ambiloop (for PC) and SooperLooper (for OSX/Linux) - you can find the links on the bottom right of my site. All can be configured to use Midi foot controllers.

Live looping is the 2nd best thing you can do by yourself

[Edit] Thanks True-eurt for your very poetic comments! The music recorded was a direct improvisation of my soul at that time, and for ThursdayPiece, I was rotting in a small apartment in Paris, in wintertime with my whole life crumbling around me... hence the music... My life has been getting a lot better lately, so expect some happier live-looping pieces soon!

[DavidK]

Very nice stuff. Really interesting,me likey. Nice colors.

I play violin too, I am a pro. I have an electric made for me by my friend Mark Wood who makes the Viper. I dont play my electric much these days, I used to play a lot of rock but my true love is classical.

Nice to see a fellow fiddle player, stick around.

[rayc]

Stuart,
The intro to Anima is terrific.
The live loops from Paris remind me of Frippatronics of the era around Evening Star - the stuff he did with Eno.
Keep it up - well set up website too.
Cheers
rayC