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 British sound artist, journalist and curator DAVID TOOP discusses sound art, artistic motivation and hip hop with ANDREW TUTTLE.
Since the 1970, David Toop has released literally dozens of recorded works; both solo and collaboratively with leading experimental and rock figures such as Derek Bailey, Brian Eno, John Zorn and Scanner, lesser known (but no less cultural significant) names such as Max Eastley and Evan Parker, and Australian improv trio I/O3; to name a few. Although primarily recognised as an experimental and minimal performer; his works have also included forays into rock, free jazz, musique concrete and many points in between. Asked as to what his motivations were to create sound art, Toop replies “I guess what motivates me is working with sound so that it makes a communication with the audience and works in the room but at the same time gets inside and brings to life a particular sound world that obsesses me. Because I improvise that's a constant challenge, and a motivation in itself. Collaborating is a bit different because you're less exposed but on the other hand have to negotiate somebody else's aesthetic, their rhythm, their soundworld. The key to that is listening.”
Those who may not recognise the name David Toop as a sound artist may well recognise his name from the literary world. Toop is responsible for 1984’s iconic Rap Attack and it’s sequels (1992’s Rap Attack 2 and 2003’s Rap Attack 3); as well as other renowned works such as Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995) and Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World (2000). In addition, Toop has also been a regular contributor to British music and culture bibles The Wire and now defunct The Face. At present, Toop appears to be focusing more on the aural side of things, although by his own admission, “I'm also thinking about a new book, but that's still under wraps. Little bits are sneaking out in lectures.” Ever the multi-tasker, this week’s performance at Syncretism will see Toop juggling “laptop, flutes, ipods, some strings and organic material” with equal aplomb. The acoustic, electronic and found objects summarises Toop to a tee; in that it is indeed fairly difficult to narrow down his work. As a writer, musician and curator; Toop has transcended many form and genre boundaries. As such, the topic of genre fragmentation is bound to be discussed at some point. As a concession, Toop offers that, “I feel there are positive and negative aspects to fragmentation, and these will be subjective to some extent in terms of the degree to which we read them as positive or negative. The diversity of material on my compilations is a good example on how fragmentation is very useful for me. In a monoculture in which everything is strictly stratified by class, race, economic access, and other social alignments, this kind of compilation would have no change of existing. In the end, you learn to live with these conditions and maintain a consciousness of their presence and effect.” David Toop plays Syncretism at the Judith Wright Centre on Thursday Dec 14.
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