MICHAEL BEARPARK’S MISSION IS TO MAKE
loop-based guitar music that offers a twist on
a genre largely defined by serene soundscapes.
Both of his recent recordings on the Burning Shed
label—Some of These Numbers Mean Something
by the ambient-meets-electronica outfit Darkroom,
and Pedaltone, a self-titled duo project
full of complex textures and slow-burning,
percolating rhythms recorded with Swiss guitarist
Bernhard Wagner—were conceived with
that goal in mind.
“Making loop-based music can be like
building sandcastles on a beach,” explains
the British guitarist. “Because current technology
enables its creation with such ease
and quantity, much of it can just get washed
away the next day and few will miss it. That’s
probably why the producers of the music are
often its core consumers. While I really
appreciate my fellow loopists, I want to reach
out to other audiences, too.”
Bearpark’s tandem success as a mainstay
of the U.K. looping and alternative rock
scenes is evidence he’s achieving his desired
balance. In addition to Darkroom and Pedaltone,
he co-helms a recurring looping
concert series in London called Improvizone,
and he’s also known for his collaborations
with singer/songwriter Tim Bowness of
No-Man, the eclectic pop act that includes
Porcupine Tree lead guitarist and singer
Steven Wilson. Bearpark recently accompanied
No-Man on its first tour in 14 years,
sharing guitar duties with Wilson.
Bearpark adheres to some basic rules on
all of his loop-based recordings.
“Editing and sound-shaping judgments
based on intuition, as well as having a core
project framework, are key to creating an
optimal listening experience,” says Bearpark.
“With Pedaltone, the concept was ‘guitar,
but not guitar,’ which gave me license to
chop out a lot of stuff out that didn’t fit into
the vision. It was recorded during the first
meeting between Bernhard and me, so it was
a session full of discovery and surprises. Even
though the music was made entirely with
two guitars, it has warm, burbling moments
and soaring sounds you wouldn’t necessarily
associate with the instrument.”
Darkroom took a different, yet related
approach guided by producer and keyboardist
Andrew “Os” Ostler, who was also
a co-composer.
“The idea for the new Darkroom CD
was ‘guitar under a microscope,’” explains
Bearpark. “Os recorded me improvising and
sampled the bits that he liked using Ableton
Live. From there, he built up arrangements
and textures based on those samples,
and I played over those arrangements. It was
like re-composition in some ways. Ableton
Live enables him to time-stretch, harmonize,
and process what I do, feeding it back
to me both in real time and later during the
production phase. Ultimately, the key to
Darkroom is that Os does most of the looping
and I’m able to focus on my guitar
playing.”
Bearpark’s guitar on Some of These Numbers
Mean Something was a 1980s Westone
Paduak, a long-scale instrument with a maple
neck, a solid paduak top, and a Magnet-F
450 humbucker. He relies on the guitar for
reasons diametrically opposed to conventional
wisdom.
“Oddly, I like the Westone because it’s
not very playable,” says Bearpark. “I can’t
adjust it to have a particularly low action,
and the higher action prevents me from playing
flurries of notes and fast solos. I really
have to think consciously about what I’m
doing and why, and as a result I tend to play
more slowly and be more thoughtful. Also,
it has a cheap and quirky sound without a
lot of sustain, which steers me away from
extended fuzz soloing and encourages me
to play patterns that are more distinct to
compensate. It’s also bright and brashsounding,
with a healthy output that’s good
for overdriving small tube amplifiers.”
Bearpark also used a 1990s Gibson Les
Paul Jr. reissue equipped with a Seymour
Duncan Vintage Soapbar P-90-style pickup
on the Darkroom disc, and it’s the sole
instrument he plays on Pedaltone.
“I feel the need to sometimes use the Les
Paul Jr. because of its more comfortable feel,
low action, superb sustain, and wonderful
warmth and tone,” he says. “It’s a study in
contrast to use it after the Westone.”
Darkroom found Bearpark employing an
array of effects that included Boss RE-20
Space Echo and DD-5 Digital Delay pedals,
an MXR EVH-90 phaser, a DigiTech XP-100
Whammy/Wah, a Barber Tone Press compressor,
and a Demeter FUZ-1 Fuzzulator.
With Pedaltone, he opted for a combination
of the SansAmp, a Lovetone Doppelganger
phaser/vibrato, a Yamaha UB99 Magicstomp
multieffects, the DigiTech Whammy/Wah,
and a Lovetone Cheese Source overdrive/
fuzz.
“Bernhard used an old Echoplex tape echo
on Pedaltone as part of his setup to create
loops we could both interact with,” says
Bearpark. “Then I’d push his playing by making
the loops evolve in less obviously
guitar-like ways. For instance, I deliberately
set up effects the wrong way around in the
following order: reverb, delay and then filters.
I’d also combine slide and fuzz, and set
the reverb to 30 seconds, then put it through
wah and tremolo, so the extended reverb
decay is chopped-up and mangled.”
“Two Is Ambient,” from the new Darkroom
disc, is another example of how
Bearpark combines effects to conjure up fresh
sounds.
“I used three Lovetone pedals on the
track: a Meatball dynamic filter, a Cheese
Source fuzz, and a Doppelganger phaser/
vibrato. The fuzz is in the Meatball’s sidechain
loop, so that the clean signal triggers
the filter acting on the fuzzed signal for a
more dynamic and throaty sound. All of this
was run through a Boss RE-20 Space Echo
delay set to one second, with feedback just
short of oscillation, so the sound gets smeared
out and changes character as it decays with
some tape-like filtering. In this way, I’m using
loops as textures in the spirit of what David
Torn once called ‘Painterly Guitar.’”
Bearpark also uses slide in a novel way
on the Darkroom track “The Valley of Ten
Thousand Smokes.”
“All the guitar on that piece is slide, with
some of it played using only the edge,” says
Bearpark. “I hold the slide with my right
hand and scrape the edge gently against the
strings somewhere near the pickup, which
brings out notes that are higher than what
you can play if you’re fretting. If you get the
balance point right, it can sound very mournful,
almost like a Theremin. And if you do
it on the bass strings with fuzz, it produces
something that can go from very soulful to
piercing.”
Bearpark’s overall philosophy is to eschew
the tried and true in favor of the pursuit of
individuality.
“I constantly ask myself, ‘Can my sound
be more personal and less off-the-shelf?’
Taking creative chances while applying
limitations is the best way to avoid the
temptation to go for the obvious. Sometimes
it’s valuable to force yourself into
creative situations.”