From LA Record
LOOPOOL
Break. Broken. Broke.
Any band with a palindrome as a name is okay by me. Loopool is one man, Los Angeles émigré Jean-Paul Garnier, and we’re lucky to have him: as much a “drone” artist as a noise artist, loopool has spent thirteen years and over 40 albums making sound collages out of field recordings and a sparse set of electronic and analog equipment. As you’d expect from an album entitled Break. Broken. Broke., this time, things are getting violent. The first track begins with the rush of racecars interspersed with sinister bloops—and the album never lets up, providing consistent scares and dread, as you’d expect from something with song titles like “Bluebeard-Audiocamo” and “How Long Would You Wait in Hell.” Though there are never really drums or a beat, as would be almost implied from a name with “loop” in it, this is not pure musique concrete. There are always as many as five or six layers here, and there’s as much “play” here as there is construction. In the background, “real” instruments abound, especially in the live track “Irruptions – Dead Mix” performed with Danse Perdue. My favorite track may be “As You Walk Away,” with what sound like bass piano notes against a backdrop of gentle zombie feedback. But for fans of noise, you can’t go wrong with “Lost in the Murk,” which has squeaky hinge noises straight out of David Tudor’s “Rainforest” backed up against what sounds like someone breathing angrily. This may not be your cup of tea, but the emperor does wear clothes.
-Dan Collins
From Vital Weekly
Loopool is a project of Jean-Paul Garnier from the U.S.A.. He is active since 1988 and released about 40 CD?s. He plays several synthesizers, bass, drums and programms his music. The CD-R contains eight tracks in 35 minutes. The CD-R starts like a circuit of speed cars of a highway, but with a threatening atmosphere. The second track Irruption-Death Mix was part of a live collaboration with Danse Perdue. The track has a repetitive melody with an old organ sound, supported by bells and industrial sounds. A great piece of music. Danse Perdue is a dance group which is highly inspired by names like Jhon Balance, Peter Christopherson, Bataille, Marquis de Sade and William S. Burroughs and uses music of loopool, Hipster Death and Joy von Spain. I must admit the music of Jean-Paul Garnier reminds me a lot to work of the early Coil and Psychic T.V. and I mean that as a great compliment. Maybe it is because of the use of synthesizer and the repetive and mystic elements in his music. Maybe it is because of the dark atmosphere with some light elements in it. The The last track is created with Mikko Freeman on guitar. The combination of the sounds of Garnier and the riffs of Freeman fits well, but I am more amused by the solo-work of Garnier. He knows how to create a dark surrealistic musical atmosphere which leads me to the deeper parts of the musical environment. (FdW) (JKH)
Address: http://ilsemusic.info/
From Foxy Digitalis
Loopool / Oneirothopter, “Notation Improvisations #3” CDr
June 2, 2011
By Matt Blackall (Foxy Digitalis)
Loopool, aka Jean-Paul Garnier, returns with his third album in a series that, as he puts it, is “based on the idea that the human mind can be removed from the process of music.” This time, he has teamed with frequent collaborator Oneirothopter, also known as Michael Callender. For this outing in human mind-free music the focus is on the music box and this collection of tracks features sounds from their own music box device.
The music on this album was created by making patterns on long slips of paper (which are then taped into loops) using a hole punch. These paper loops were then fed through a small, hand-cranked music box. With the hole-filled paper, the music box seems to operate not unlike an old player piano, except on a much smaller scale. It seems that the human mind is removed from this process since the duo don’t punch holes in the paper in order to create specific melodies, but rather to follow written patterns, such as lines or words. (There’s a fascinating video set to one of the album’s tracks where you can watch of the whole process.) Probably the most interesting thing about the music here is the seeming structure of it all, or more likely the illusion of structure. Even though there is no deliberate planning, various motifs and melodies seem to rise up.
Ultimately, appreciation of this album might hinge on whether or not you enjoy the sound of music boxes, though the melodies that this one cranks out are more abstract than most. I should still stress that this has to be acknowledged as a creative musical experiment, which I think adds another important dimension to its appeal. In a way, I wish that the accompanying video were a part of the physical package, since it really drives home what is so interesting and ambitious about this, but that’s nit-picking, really. Hats off to both Loopool and Oneirothopter for trying something different.
buy the album here: www.hipsterdeath.com
From Vital Weekly
LOOPOOL & ONEIROTHOPTER - NOTATION IMPROVISATIONS 3
(CDR by Hipster Death Records)
Most work I know of the label Hipster Death is raw, theatrical and/or noisy but the fine release of the collaboration between Loopool and Oneirothopter is a nice exception of the rule. The music is meant on the idea that the human mind can be removed from the process of making music. Different processes have been used throughout the series to achieve this ideal. In this third improvisation they used and ancient method of recording music, the music box. The musicians create their own improvisations on paper and turn this paper through the musicbox. The music is meditative, repetitive and simple in a pleasant manner. The ongoing tones take care for a experimental ambient mood. It sounds much better than all these music boxes with well-known tunes, because the tones come and go and doesn't stick anywhere. Music without pretensions but with a great impact. Maybe the album is too long, but that depends of your mood and attention. www.hipsterdeath.com
From Vital Weekly
From the American east-coast we go to the West to
find another extreme project launched from the U.S. Behind the project Loopool, you find the Seattle-based artist Jean-Paul Garnier. Present CDR released on the Hipster Death-label is the sixth full length album from the artist who began around 2005. The tracks on present album moves in-between industrial-related noise and experimental ambient. There is a lot of interesting things going on thought out this album titled "Arrogance is bliss". Especially opening track "Wickedness" makes an impression on me with the utterly strange combination of manipulated voices and subtle noise-drones giving a dark and evil atmosphere. As a concrete contrast the the opening track, comes the emotional take on Depeche Mode's "Somebody" (from the album "Some great reward", Mute Records, 1984) nicely accomplished by the Loopool. A bizarre, psychedelic and unique launch from Loopool. (NM)
Address: http://www.hipsterdeath.com
from Rudio Horrible
Loopool - Arrogance Is Bliss (Hipster Death, s/n, 2010)Con su inconfundible aura de extrañeza, Loopool vuelve a aparecer en estas páginas virtuales gracias a una nueva producción en la también nueva disquera de su artífice, Jean Paul Garnier, bautizada con el provocativo nombre de Hipster Death. "Arrogance Is Bliss" es una breve muestra de la peculiar identidad de este proyecto: diez temas que se sienten de una inusual forma como canciones, paradójicamente preñados de una claridad estructural plena y una alucinante extrañeza.
"Wickedness," la abridora, se siente perfectamente industrial, oscura, con el spoken word de Garnier oscilando con perfecta regularidad a través de los caudales de oscuros sonidos sintéticos que la conforman. Algunos otros momentos de este minialbúm están cubiertos por la incierta y ensoñada visión de Loopool, conjugada a través de esa combinación de vocales fantasmales y turbios crisoles atmosféricos: "For Whatever Reason" y "Send More Waves" con sus etéreas voces femeninas chocando de lleno contra una serie de proyecciones proto-industriales; "Suffer Proper" y "Where Is the Future" con sus devaneos entre monotonía y cacofonía y la confusa, casi compulsiva, reiteración de vocales a través de efectos.
Pero sin duda los que se pelean la corona en este freak show de temas bizarros son la enferma "Arrogance Is Bliss - A Million," en la cual el crooning como recién prófugo de algún episodio de Twin Peaks hace juego a un collage de voces e interferencia, y "Somebody," en la cual parece que Martin L. Gore se apodera del alma del albúm con una sentimental balada acompañada al piano -no es broma-.
Los temas incluídos en "Arrogance Is Bliss" son fuertes y denotan una clara vocación compositiva: ¿qué mejor muestra que el ya mencionado "Wickedness" o el tema que cierra el álbum, "Melting on Black Pavement," con su pesadez industrial primordial y su electrónica enferma, coilesca? Pero quizás el mayor mérito a evidenciarse en este trabajo no sea éste, sino la integridad del proyecto, obviada en un deseo por satisfacer visiones y convicciones personales más allá de meramente buscar complacer a un cierto público. Tras experimentar estos -quizás demasiado breves- temas, queda claro que la visión de Garnier es, curiosamente, mezcla de extrañeza y simplicidad formal y ciertamente única. (S.S.)
From Stylus
Robedoor/Loopool
Blood Trance
[Not Not Fun, 2005]
This tape is a summertime creation I’m told. Worthwhile information; otherwise I would have dragged out the glacial metaphors for yet another attempt at drone exposition. Definitely ritualistic, this one. One needn’t peek at the Julian Cope-esque insert to get the idea. Loopool’s infinite dirge and desperate death mews would convince you quickly enough. If this sound be summer, it be summer in the desert, surrounded by bones, the only moisture around the gummed blood oozing from recent victims of the brutal sun.
Every drone group I’ve encountered consists of relatively normal folk flaying guitars, twisting knobs, and stomping pedals. For once I’d like to see the players match the sound. This would require that Robedoor be a mob of skeletons with faceless lumps of desiccated flesh atop the vertebrae. On their side, the undead band anticipates Halloween, sacrificing slow-beating hearts to electric rumble gods and moaning ur-language gurglers. While the fragility of Robedoor’s decayed persons might complicate the music-making process, finally I would find an answer to my question: How is it that alien sound emits from ordinary people?
Ha ha! It was supernatural all along!
This tape hits the spot. No high-profile, years-in-the-making work will satisfy me more than this $3 buy. Drone passes at the speed of consciousness, and when I slip into its time, I feel as if I’ve entered a chopped and screwed version of my own mind.
Loopool/ Oneirothopter
S/T
[Audiobot, 2006]
A real nightcrawler, this one. Need a slimy parasite to latch on to your torso and leak digestive acid through your skin? Pick up this split. In sound, akin to Double Leopards with far less dynamics and noise and far more toxic stagnation. This is swampland murk to be sure. No, the fog won’t clear, the mud will suck off your shoes, and all that foliage you think might be poison ivy, is poison ivy.
I’ve gotta play the imagery card for all its worth, because instrumentation proper over these forty minutes is damn near unidentifiable. Maybe if I lurked nearby while the group scuttled over their various knobs, patches, and cords, I could get some technical semblance of what’s going on here. But given our separation (blasted miles! One day Loopool…), I’ll have to go with impressions. The usual drone signifiers rear up: windy, lonesome blasts, creeping digital hiss, submerged gongs, all towards the usual goal: the sleep unto death. Loopool and Oneirothopter don’t separate themselves from the pack, but they create hefty gloomscapes to rival the bigger names.
Don’t fall asleep to Loopool, chums, or all your childhood bedside baddies will revive, the shadows will reanimate, and a ghastly plot will unfold whilst you’re captive in the bosom of slumber. Dreams should not be radiation-drift sci-fi gore flicks. Those are nightmares. No one wants nightmares. Play with the lights on.
[Bryan Berge]
From Ruido Horrible
Loopool - Stop the Revolution (Sycophanticide, Sycophanticide#006, 2005)
Loopool es una mortífera máquina de ataque armada y ejecutada a precisión. 'Stop the Revolution', cdr para Sycophanticide, posee elementos que podrían vincular su sonido con el dark ambient, el noise o el mismo industrial sin necesariamente ofrecer un aspecto fijo que le pueda definir a complitud. Empleando samplers y loops para resolver su propio rompecabezas de figuras mecánicas, Loopool coordina atmósferas de tintes cinematográficos y elusivas percusiones sintéticas con secuencias extraídas del azar de la electrónica y beats marcados, que incluso apuntan por momentos al EBM('Aftermath'). Por momentos, el disco se vuelve intensamente visual y agresivo; en 'Chipped' los coros de ovejas son vueltos loops que siguen al caos desatado en los taladreantes golpeteos amplificados. En algunos otros, la música adquiere una cualidad un tanto más experimental, como en el caso de 'Age of Apathy', pieza en la cual Loopool combina saturación extrema con oscilaciones agudas, samples disecados y el sonido de guitarras limpias refundiéndose en un abismo de cacofonía. 'Stop the Revolution' además incluye un listado de los tracks, el cual explica a detalle la motivación imaginativa, política o social que imspiró la creación de cada una de las piezas, permitiendo al escucha atisbar en la génesis creativa del álbum. Este cdr es un disco formado, complejo y completo que sirve para explorar a profundidad un puñado de distintas vertientes sonoras en una grabación muy trabajada, arreglada y editada. En caso de que esto no acabe de convencerlos, pueden descargar algo de su música aquí. (S.S.)
posted by Ruido Horrible 6:26 PM
loopool
[2006, not not fun]
los angelean jean-paul garnier is a tough dude to pin down, and with courtesy run rampant, that task becomes even harder. i've heard four or so of loopool's albums and it seems to me that he puts together his best material when not not fun's putting it out. the first thing that i'd heard from him was the blood trance split tape with robedoor a few years back and i liked that a lot. then, recently, i'd checked out a bunch of his albums on (seattle's) sycophanticide and was kinda left scratching my head. at first, i didn't even think that it was the same guy (there is another loopool, in turkey, who makes ambient techno), but after some research, i was assured that all of it was the efforts of the same person. those albums contained either piano-based or chilly minimal electronic experiments. his stop the revolution disc is depths of outerspace frosty, but worth the time if you're down with that kind of music.the first track, outright rejection, is loopool exercising his billy joel demons with a good, albeit fairly brief, piano piece. then, without any kind of segue, we're catapulted into the tumultuous nowadays. over distortion and much welcomed noise we're privy to jean-paul's anguished ranting. no idea what he's so pissed about, probably the government. oh wait, here's the lyrics, lemme see...nope, not about the government this time. this is the noisiest that i've heard loopool ever get and it's a fine exhibition. more plz. the final track, the preliminary work, clocks in at twelve and a half minutes and it's a beaut. slow and plodding musical arrangements, ambient noise in the background as well as repetitious manipulated vocals from garnier. at about three minutes into it there's new vocals (as the original loop keeps on looping) which are delivered in a kind of moaned, haunting, manner (accentuated by the overall feel of the track), still, they're really not the attention grabber, that belongs to the music itself. i think this was the most that jean-paul's vocals have been on display. if this is a new musical direction for him, it'll be an interesting one to keep an ear, or two, out for.while the shortness of courtesy's running time might stir hesitancy in some people, it is packed with other goodies. when i pulled the lp out of its sleeve, at first i was bummed by the color that i saw: black. black?! a not not fun twelve inch that doesn't have a cool color?..then i flipped it around and holy crap...the etching on it is fucking amazing. click on the picture to get a bigger size so that you can see the detail. it's quite nice. plus, there's an hour long bonus cd-r entitled looks to feudalism. it's a minimal droner, but the fact that you're getting two albums for one has to make you feel a little better.
from RazorCake
LOOPOOL:
Stop the Revolution: CD
When I was a tiny eighteen year-older, I managed to find a copy of Throbbing Gristle’s “2nd Annual Report” in a little record store in St. Augustine, Florida on the way to Disney World with the family (I also had a fellow Disney World patron greet me with a “Flex your head!”, but I'll save that one for another time). The night we got back to West Virginia, I put on the TG record as I was going to bed and ended up having to get up and take it off after the light was out, it creeped me out so thoroughly. This here Loopool would likely do the same thing if I weren’t now all growed into a giant thirty-eight year-old. Built mostly on a foundation of swelling and ebbing feedbacks or synth tones or something, and then decorated with various crackly or echoey or boomy samples (even the one that sounds like a table tennis match manages to be vaguely unsettling, in context, especially when it gets interrupted by the one that sounds like machine gun fire), these ten tracks are like concise nightmare soundtracks. –Cuss Baxter (Sycophanticide)
from Foxy Digitalis
This is one or the only things i can effectively elucidate about the quality of stop the revolution, and the indecisive style of this here album is what makes the evocations a sundry proposition for those listening. Each song presents a unique disposition and urges the listener to realign their headspace every 2-4 minutes rendering it something not easily disentangled from your utmost attentiveness. from what I can guess is bred from a cache of synthesizers, samplers and tapes, loopool weave their aural chronicles with restraint, illuminating the windowsills, overhang tiling and cosmic tents of circumstance, alluding to alchemical reinforcements. This is ominous shit that encompasses the attempted vacuuming of an aneurysm-inflicted doe, world war three synthesized by the incidental cackle of nuclear thunder chasms; uprise met with muscle shirt defiance and helicopter bedspread suggestions. Let’s say this lays waste to collateral bedfellows, wastebasket excluded… 8/10 -- Andrew Zukerman (10 July, 2006)
from Animal PSI
Loopool’s “Army of Meat”, while not the Bjork cover I had hoped, is a welcome left-field entry: over grand piano bedlam, a narrator exposits on nightmare worlds in dark, Current 93/Vincent Price-on-“Thriller” style which curtsies smartly into the fantastic, sinister impressionism of Quilts, whose soundscapes carry on with images restricted to the sensual world.
from Empty
Loopool ‘dunes soon’-sycophanticide-3” CDR still the format of the gods
/”Whether from above or below, oil will make the land a desert”. That could be a motto for a documentary about the wasteland awaiting us if we all keep on being as careless as we are now –careless enough to only see the light in the expendable and careless enough to only consider genius what’s closely or remotely akin to dogshit. And this, of course, could be the soundtrack to it. Like slowly drifting guitar ambient or like slowly shifting synth ambient.
from Dusted Featues
Loopool
Courtesy Run Rampant one-sided 12”
(Not Not Fun)
Noisy, detached musings for drone and noise ensemble, courtesy of one Californian mystery man. Flyblown, scorched earth vibes permeate the three tracks here, the last offering “The Preliminary Work” reaching the sort of tweaked, long-form highs experienced in one’s final acts. Please look after him and his conspiracy-addled record. Excellent shadow-corp etching on the B-side; edition of 200 numbered copies in spraypainted sleeves. Like watching a boat sink.
(www.notnotfun.com)