News: Kim Flint, 1969 - 2010

We’re very sad to report, as some of you may have heard by now, the news that Violet’s husband of 19 years, Kim Flint, was tragically killed in a bicycling accident this past weekend.

While probably not a name recognized by many of Undented’s visitors, Kim is very well-known in musician’s circles as the co-inventor of the Oberheim Echoplex Digital Pro, a device for looping audio, and the founder of Looper’s Delight, an Internet mailing-list and website that began in 1996 and brought together and forged a community of musicians interested in looping that continues to thrive to this day. As Red Sun Soundroom’s memorial post says, “Kim was an inventor, musician, internet community organizer, scientist, avid cyclist, single-malt Scotch enthusiast, teacher, and tireless provider of encouragement to so many creative people (some quite famous, others relatively unknown).”

He was also manager of the Signal Integrity group at tech giant Nvidia. Among his many contributions, he worked closely with Sony in development of Playstation 3, and was currently working on development of Playstation 4.

As great as his technological contributions were, it was the community-building and creative inspiration to others that Kim provided through Looper’s Delight that he will be most remembered for. Undoubtedly, that factored into Violet’s involvement in providing the original Tori Amos mailing list, really-deep-thoughts, a stable home and guidance in its latter years as well as her decision to pick up with Undented where Mikewhy left off when he retired A Dent in the Tori Amos Universe (which, incidentally, continues to be hosted on the same server as Looper’s Delight and Undented thanks to Kim and Violet’s support).

In honor of Kim, Violet will be continuing to grow and expand the sites they started as well as moving forward with future web endeavors in his memory. If you’d like make a donation in Kim’s honor, we’ve set up a Paypal account for that purpose. Additionally, a memorial t-shirt has also been created by Chris Aynesworth, a close friend of Violet and Kim’s, all proceeds of which will go towards keeping their sites running.

Finally, to close this on inspirational note, Bill Walker, one of the many people touched by Kim, shared “Blues For Kim,” a live looping improvisation he shared with the Looper’s Delight community after learning of the accident. Listen and be inspired.