Loop 2.4.3: Batterie

Formed in 2001, Loop 2.4.3 is a percussion duo from New Haven, Connecticut, but their sound is much bigger than the listener might expect. Thomas Kozumplik and Lorne Watson are seemingly part of the New Music fraternity, but an urge to compose their own pieces and a predilection for improvisation sets them apart from most of their peers. This debut disc was recorded in a swift live session for Seattle's Sonarchy radio, producing results that immediately pleased Loop, who'd found frustration during conventional studio sessions. They set up and pretty much laid down these tracks in one take.

To simplify their approach, let's say that Loop inhabits areas of tentative, quieted exploration and propulsive rhythmic excess, quite often within the course of the same piece, particularly as many of their compositions hover around the ten-minute mark, allowing gradual development. "Almglocken Melodien is for steel pan and marimba, and its rippling repetitions can't help but invoke the image of Steve Reich. "Urban Mantra features a disembodied telephone voice and squirting static emissions, coiling up thick atmosphere around trebly rattles. "DBC is an almost-samba, with a brushed snare-shuffle, later developing into a hard funk pounding.

To celebrate their release, Loop gave a concert at The Players Theater in September, 2007, reproducing most of the disc's contents. They used more-or-less conventional kits, but raised to hip-height and with no large bass drums, and not over-stocked with peripheral percussion devices; Loop are almost restrained when it comes to their collection of small extras. The home listening experience makes the duo feel closer to the modern classical world, but an onstage encounter emphasized their other interests. The construction of their skin array pointed towards a strong Latin approach, the way in which bongos rang and snares hissed. Loop's general level of attack resounded with a rock aggression,n and their appearance is something else again.

They don't look like musicians from any of these quarters. What do they look like? Bodyguards? Computer geeks? Hard to pin down their image, if they even have an image. During the gig's course, it soon became apparent that this music is meant to be heard live, particularly when it resounded around the sympathetic acoustic space of the theater. Afterwards, the album seems more like a restrained document, even though it was recorded in a 'live' situation. Unfortunately, this is probably more the human ear's fault, rather than that of Loop 2.4.3.