September 29th âą 8:00 pm
William Basinski is in music for the long haulâin more ways than one. First, heâs been creating ambient music since 1982, releasing 30-plus albums (including collaborations and soundtracks) with prestigious labels such as Raster-Noton and Temporary Residence. Second, his (de)compositions tend to run for extended durations, the better for them to insinuate themselves into your consciousness, where they can get down to the serious business of calming, haunting, or triggering altered states. Although a classically trained clarinetist who also studied jazz saxophone at the University of North Texas, Basinski found more creative possibilities in manipulating tape loops Ă la his main influences: minimalist innovator Steve Reich and rock eccentric-turned-ambient pioneer Brian Eno.
The apotheosis of this method surfaced on Basinskiâs most-celebrated works, the four volumes of Disintegration Loops (2002-2003)âalthough I prefer the chillingly desolate âOn A Frontier Of Wiresâ from his debut album, Shortwavemusic. But itâs Disintegration Loops that has most captured the publicâs imagination, its lulling ebb and flow of blurred tones evoking the poignancy of fading into a romanticized notion of oblivion. The fact that the sound of Disintegration Loopsâproduced in Brooklyn shortly before the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which Basinski witnessed in real-timeâoccurred through the actual flaking of iron oxide particles from 20-year-old tapes when he was transferring them to digital files only adds to their strange sense of consolation. It perfectly symbolizes the beauty of decay.
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