DW28 – Loops for Davis
- Bernhard Lang

DW28 is the continuation of the sample-based pieces DW23 and DW24, which thematised the bass clarinet and the saxophone respectively. Here the sample itself becomes the origin of the loop: not via simulation, transcription or recomposition, but with the aid of the sampler as an instrument in its own right. (See Tilman Baumgärtel’s book Schleifen: Zur Geschichte und Ästhetik des Loops). 

In Loops for Davis, the samples are placed within an orchestral context on the one hand, and a small band context on the other hand. The orchestra is used as a macrosampler, a great loop machine; the solo clarinet confronts it with intricately notated solo lines, which sometimes open up to become improvised textures, but then joins in with the loops again.

The piece was developed together with Gareth Davis, and the amplification and spatialisation technology at the SWR Experimental Studio in Freiburg (with Reinhold Braig). In my previous work with Davis, I had already developed what I called “Parkerphonics” as a new playing technique, one that is also used here. The ambiguity of the dedication also invokes Miles Davis, of course. He is joined by the phantoms of Eric Dolphy and other jazz greats, barely recognisable, but present nonetheless. 

And the last word goes to... 

Bernhard Lang