After an edition in LA and a half-year break, the music-making summit hosted by Ableton is coming home to Berlin. Monday is your last chance to register if you want a chance to join.
After Live and Push, Loop has become a kind of third major product from Ableton. It isn’t an event about Live – Ableton’s software and hardware have seemed almost subdued in their role as the event has grown. It has instead become Ableton’s own contribution to bringing together the community of makers around their tools, with a strong emphasis on the diversity of that community – both in the people and how they work. (I’ve been at each edition.)
This year’s edition seems more than any before to promise to bring that full range of diversity back to the Berlin home base. So they’ve added Sylvia Massy, the experienced engineer who worked with the likes of Johnny Cash, REM, and Tool. But there’s also Mexican Sotomayor, continuing Loop’s interest in mixing electronic production with live instrumentation. There’s vocalist Colin Self, percussionist Evelyn Glennie, and the quartet Ex-Easter Island Head.
That’s not to say tech or electronic music is getting short shrift. I’m really looking forward to seeing Antenes and Eric Pitra, who build their own instruments. Antenes, aka Lori Napoleon, is a singular personality who is both able to hold down epic techno sets around the world, and construct wild new experimental DIY instruments from telephone switchboards.
And we’re getting folks like the wondeful Deena Abdelwahed and Georgia Anne Muldrow, as well. It looks like a killer lineup, and clearly the Loop team continue to build on what is resonating with their audiences.
So, now is your chance. Monday the 4th is the deadline. A full pass is 275 EUR (or 375 EUR with one of the valuable workshops and studio sessions), but there are student and youth passes available (for 18-26 year olds), plus crucially subsidized passes for just 50 EUR which still include a studio session and workshop. (Details on who get subsidized are at the site.)
Ableton didn’t put me up to this – this isn’t an advert. I can’t think of anyone else in our industry doing anything like this. And the team at Loop have made an extraordinary commitment to removing boundaries based on gender, genre, age, and cultural background, as well as employing a strict code of conduct to make their spaces safe.
Of course, the one barrier to entry is, you do have to get yourself to Berlin and there are limited passes available.
And time remains a barrier. (Sorry, nothing we can do about that!) So you need submit by tomorrow Monday November 4, and then best of luck – I hope some CDM readers luck out in the drawing (or even with youth passes or subsidies).
You can do that here:
https://loop.ableton.com/2020/register/
https://loop.ableton.com/2020/
And here are some 2018 highlights, to either inspire you to register or, if you can’t, to let you sit back and make a little virtual Loop for youself in the comfort of your own home. (Now that’s also a nice way to spend a Sunday!)