William Basinski (Houston, 1958), a New York-based classically-trained clar… Read Full Bio ↴William Basinski (Houston, 1958), a New York-based classically-trained clarinetist and saxophonist, specializes in compositions for loops and drones. He began experimenting with compositions for piano and tape that created a melancholy ambience via looped and overdubbed melodies with Variations - A Movement in Chrome Primitive (1980), released on Variations - A Movement in Chrome Primitive (Durtro, 2002 - Die Stadt, 2004), and A Red Score in Tile (1979), released on A Red Score in Tile (3 Poplars, 2003).
Shortwave Music (1982), some of which appear on Shortwave Music (Noton, 1998), processed and assembled snippets of radio broadcasts to produce atmospheres at the border between musique concrete and ambient music. The River (1983), collected on the double-disc The River (Noton, december 2002), was the most mature expression of "shortwave music".
Melancholia (Durtro, 2003 - 2062, 2005) collects more loop-based vignettes from the 1980s, closer in feeling and scope to Erik Satie and Brian Eno.
During the 1980s, Basinski often played saxophone during multimedia performances, and was a member of the Gretchen Langheld Ensemble, which later evolved into House Afire. In 1989 he opened his own loft for the creative arts, nicknamed "Arcadia". Throughout the 1990s he refined his song-cycle Hymns of Oblivion. In 1997, Basinski launched his performance-art act Beautifying America. He also formed the electronic ensemble Life on Mars. Basinski has also created videos and films, notably the "ambient film" Fountain (2000).
Watermusic (2062, 2001) was the archetype of his subsequent shimmering, lulling, gentle ambient music for electronic keyboards, later continued on Watermusic II (Durtro, 2003). Instead of "disintegration loops", water music is softly and slowly tonal music for the Voyestra synthesizer.
The four volumes of The Disintegration Loops (Musex, 2002-2003) are just that: loops of tapes that disintegrated during the recording process. Basinski adds a melodic commentary at the synthesizer and turns them into symphonies that evolve in a predictable but highly emotional manner. The effect is mesmerizing and opens new avenues to minimalism. This is the crowning achievement of the techniques first experimented with Variations.
His collaboration William Basinski + Richard Chartier (Spekk, 2004) is one of his most subtle works. The music defies Physics, evolving while it hardly changes at all: subconscious listening at its most ethereal. The first part grows slowly over the course of 21 minutes but remains fundamentally shapeless: a shadow without a body. The microscopic events that create the illusion of life remain embedded in the quantum lattice, below the threshold of human experience. It feels a bit like listening to the sea inside a shell. Whatever it is, it is rarefied and unbound, an echo of a large and concrete mass of vibrations. The second part (36 minutes) is unusually eerie and sensible. Basinski rarely leaves this much substance in his compositions. This one feels like the light of a shimmering rotating object, emanating in all directions, broadcasting to the universe its constant motion. The effect on the ears and the mind is similar to cosmic music. As the radiation deteriorates, its wavering notes feel like star dust drifting into gravity-less empty space. Each speck emits a slight tremor. Their cumulative effect is one of peaceful resignation to meaninglessness.
Still zigzagging between reissues of his old "tape & loop" constructions and his new ambient soul, Basinski achieved the celestial sound of Silent Night (2062, 2004), a composition for synthesizer that has little in common with Basinski's old aesthetics and more in common with Harold Budd.
Basinski's romantic soul surfaced again with the 50-minute ambient sonata for piano and distortion The Garden of Brokenness (2006). The music is created by the interference between the two threads (the looped piano melody and the stream of noise). The result is perhaps his most serene and optimistic work. If previous works focused on music that was "decaying", this one seems to focus on music that is being born.
Shortwave Music (1982), some of which appear on Shortwave Music (Noton, 1998), processed and assembled snippets of radio broadcasts to produce atmospheres at the border between musique concrete and ambient music. The River (1983), collected on the double-disc The River (Noton, december 2002), was the most mature expression of "shortwave music".
Melancholia (Durtro, 2003 - 2062, 2005) collects more loop-based vignettes from the 1980s, closer in feeling and scope to Erik Satie and Brian Eno.
During the 1980s, Basinski often played saxophone during multimedia performances, and was a member of the Gretchen Langheld Ensemble, which later evolved into House Afire. In 1989 he opened his own loft for the creative arts, nicknamed "Arcadia". Throughout the 1990s he refined his song-cycle Hymns of Oblivion. In 1997, Basinski launched his performance-art act Beautifying America. He also formed the electronic ensemble Life on Mars. Basinski has also created videos and films, notably the "ambient film" Fountain (2000).
Watermusic (2062, 2001) was the archetype of his subsequent shimmering, lulling, gentle ambient music for electronic keyboards, later continued on Watermusic II (Durtro, 2003). Instead of "disintegration loops", water music is softly and slowly tonal music for the Voyestra synthesizer.
The four volumes of The Disintegration Loops (Musex, 2002-2003) are just that: loops of tapes that disintegrated during the recording process. Basinski adds a melodic commentary at the synthesizer and turns them into symphonies that evolve in a predictable but highly emotional manner. The effect is mesmerizing and opens new avenues to minimalism. This is the crowning achievement of the techniques first experimented with Variations.
His collaboration William Basinski + Richard Chartier (Spekk, 2004) is one of his most subtle works. The music defies Physics, evolving while it hardly changes at all: subconscious listening at its most ethereal. The first part grows slowly over the course of 21 minutes but remains fundamentally shapeless: a shadow without a body. The microscopic events that create the illusion of life remain embedded in the quantum lattice, below the threshold of human experience. It feels a bit like listening to the sea inside a shell. Whatever it is, it is rarefied and unbound, an echo of a large and concrete mass of vibrations. The second part (36 minutes) is unusually eerie and sensible. Basinski rarely leaves this much substance in his compositions. This one feels like the light of a shimmering rotating object, emanating in all directions, broadcasting to the universe its constant motion. The effect on the ears and the mind is similar to cosmic music. As the radiation deteriorates, its wavering notes feel like star dust drifting into gravity-less empty space. Each speck emits a slight tremor. Their cumulative effect is one of peaceful resignation to meaninglessness.
Still zigzagging between reissues of his old "tape & loop" constructions and his new ambient soul, Basinski achieved the celestial sound of Silent Night (2062, 2004), a composition for synthesizer that has little in common with Basinski's old aesthetics and more in common with Harold Budd.
Basinski's romantic soul surfaced again with the 50-minute ambient sonata for piano and distortion The Garden of Brokenness (2006). The music is created by the interference between the two threads (the looped piano melody and the stream of noise). The result is perhaps his most serene and optimistic work. If previous works focused on music that was "decaying", this one seems to focus on music that is being born.
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When I listen to this . . .
I feel as if I'm in this music, as if I'm in the clouds.
I'm not one of the clouds, or the music - I'm that smoke of ash from the building, I'm that beautiful lost soul of American soil - that sad tragedy when America was dented. When the buildings collapsed.
When 9/11 came alive before our very eyes. When the world changed. When the great spook awoke us.
And now I'm in a calm. A calm with the clouds. A CALMness with the sancTITY of destinY. Of life. Yeah . . .
Slowly fading away with this music, sifting and sifting until there is no smoke.
. . . This is my review of this song.
Song -
Space radio #15
Behind klaus Shaultz's Moondawn.
There's over 200 ambient albums on the Playlist. (And pink floyd)
Space radio.
Give it a listen . . .
EN-joy space!
({♤♡◇♧}) computer sounds
Mission accomplished.
Heading back to base.
This is Captian Orion Castello.
Of the spaceship B-vexstarlia.
Over and out.
Narek Avedyan
These loops are the soundtracks to the world after it has been ravaged by COVID-19.
We now realize how fragile everything is around us. How our self-made concrete and mortar prisons are just illusions of safety.
We now realize how quickly we can, to use an appropriate word, disintegrate as human beings.
We now realize how futile physicality is. How quickly it can all go away.
We now realize how precious human connectivity is and how we've taken it for granted.
I sincerely hope that whoever is reading this comment is feeling better than I am at the moment.
Stay safe, stay sane, love each other. Time is fleeting...
RipperRoo
I listen to anything from shoegaze to black metal to 60's pop, hip hop and more. This is easily in my top 20 favorite songs of all time. I find myself coming to this song for comfort, for self reflection, for help with concentration when I work, and even when I go to bed (and wake up to a mostly destroyed song). To me this is the best of the loops because it's the one that sounds the most like corruption. Something so angelic gets downright torn apart. It's so gorgeous yet so tragic.
Narimá Atmosphere
I hope this track also finds you : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAeHAYgNxaE&t=993s
Matt
RipperRoo. It's been 9 years since this comment, I hope you're doing well. I'm just finding this song today, October 5 2022. This is a life-changing track. Ive been listening to this song on repeat for hours, just thinking about my life. I hope you're doing well 👍🏽🤘🏽❤️
Steven Parris
I used to listen to this song every single night. my friend had put it on a CD for me which was lost Years ago and I always misses it. I never knew the name of the song I only remembered the first time I heard it in her room while trying to sleep and it being very dark and her explaining how the music was dying and that always stuck with me and I've finally found it again. it's the most haunting piece of music I've ever heard
R.E.D.
Brad Scott Me, I like listening to Basinkski's Watermusic (either I or II) for sleeping. But now, I want to try that Pop album, you got me curious, thanks for mentioning! Sleep well!
UncleClauClau
So Southern I got to feel I agree. 1.1 the most haunting musical piece in history, possibly.
bigred0818
"...the music was dying" what a perfectly perfect phrase. Both comforting and chilling at the same time.
Claudio Orlandi
Hi Steven you know the music of Popol Vuh?
MegaSnippezz
To me, this song is the end of everything. It is depression, it is darkness, it is desolation. Yet, it still manages to transpire warmth, a feeling of comfort. To evoke all those emotions in one piece is an incredibly difficult task that Basinski has no doubt managed to execute.
Pablo Smith
There’s something very fascinating, captivating and hypnotic in those Basinski’s Loops. Although they’re very simple minimalist loops without anything really happening, I suspect that Basinski is taking a very good care of choosing the right sound to loop and carefully crafting & sculpting the loops. They might sound simple, but I challenge you to create such simple loops and still be interesting & captivating. Very great work, no doubt.