★2062
September 23rd
September 23rd is the first release in William Basinski's new Arcadia Archive series. Recorded in September 1982 in his first loft in the pre-gentrified DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, September 23rd is a recently unearthed early entry in what has become a hugely inspirational and influential catalog. Built from a piano piece that Basinski composed in high school in the mid-1970s, September 23rd quickly evolved into a vastly different work. As Basinski explains: "The original piano rec…
92982
LP version. Once again unveiling hidden treasures from his archive of tape loops, William Basinski releases three pieces made at his Brooklyn apartment during one night in 1982, adding a fourth composition (based on the same source material) made earlier this year. You can't help but wonder why this music, recorded so long ago, is only just surfacing. Was the world not ready for WIlliam Basinski in 1982, or was WIlliam Basinski simply not ready to hand himself over to an audience at that point? …
Cascade
"Cascade" is the first new album in over two years. Includes Bonus Download: “The Deluge" (Live at Issue Project Room). Cascade and The Deluge are variations on the latest tape-loop and delay composition from the inimitable William Basinski. In Cascade, a single ancient lilting piano tape loop repeats endlessly carrying one along in its tessellating current. In The Deluge, the same loop is processed through a series of feed-back loops of different lengths creating a spiraling crescendo of overto…
Variations: a movement in chrome primitive
2014 new reissue. Having sat through two full cd’s of some of the most sublime, drifting piano based variations I’ve ever heard im not quite sure how to go about putting the experience into words. Whilst 'archival' may bring to mind dusty stacks in library basements, there's a slew of old material being reissued by labels at the moment that might just serve to extinguish this semantic connection. A digital reappraisal is American composer William Basinksi, whose extensive 'Variations: A Movement…
A Red Score In Tile
Composed in 1979 and inspired by James Elaine's painting of the same name. First released on Three Poplars on LP in 2003. Cover picture: A Red Score In Tile (L'Apocalyse des Animaux), detail, James Elaine, 1979. Canvas, acrylic paint, taxidermied animals. 112" x 120". Title on disc and inner face of back insert: "a red score in tile (1979)".
The Disintegration Loops IV
And then, the man remained alone with more doubts than ever before. Music had flown through the years, the tapes definitively gone. IV draws the final line in this groundbreaking 'disintegration' cycle and it does it with a high grade of acute intensity and a totally developed loop aesthetic...moreover, the final track is sort of a reprise of the first segment in I, like putting an end to a whole giant texture. Basinski's repetitions are truly addictive; I could listen for days, each repe…
The Disintegration Loops II
Finally officially released, the next three volumes in Basinski's incredible Disintegration Loops series. Each volume is totally mesmerizing, in the realms of general organic drone and aesthetic decay. Basinski has become a cult hero of sorts for the quality of his works (previous releases on Raster & Three Poplars; forthcoming on Idea) and the release of II, III, & IV will solidify that forever. "The second Disintegration Loops consists of two long segments, both strikingly beautiful; the …
The Disintegration Loops
First widely available release on Basinksi's own label (other releases on Raster, Idea, Durtro, Headz, etc), from early 2003. This series of 4 Disintegration Loops has become one of the true phenoms of post-9/11 experimental music -- totally legendary stuff at this point. "William Basinski is a musician, composer, auteur who has worked in experimental media for over twenty years in NYC, expanding the boundaries of the aural landscape. In 1978, inspired by minimalists such as Steve Reich…
El Camino Real
Hypnotic new electronic ambient recording using another recently discovered loop from the archive. Premiered at Bleeding Edge Festival, Montalvo Arts Center, August 2006.
Variations For Piano & Tape
Comprised of one 44 minute track, Variation #9 'Pantelleria,' this archival release is one of my all-time favorites of the piano and tape variations from the early eighties. Using a lilting piano melody on a small loop, the requisite magic happened in the recording process when this particular loop would randomly slip along the play head revealing an extraordinary counterpoint (in reverse) on the other side of the tape. To me, this piece evokes a lazy Arcandian summer idyll, and will alwa…
Watermusic II
Volume II. Originally issued as a limited CDR in 2003, now reissued as a fully pressed CD. "A certain flavour of composition puts emphasis more on what could be considered 'hang-time' than 'narrative'. Some pieces don't necessarily have to 'go' anywhere in particular, their existence is simple enough in that it presents a mood, a moment, a place and encapsulates it. Think of still-images for the ears as opposed to moving-pictures for the eyes. As an audio exploration into this hovering su…
Vivian & Ondine
A brand new album from one of the most revered and acclaimed ambient composers of our time, Vivian & Ondine takes the form of a single, three-quarter hour piece, once again constructed from William Basinski's signature style of tape loop manipulation. While the narrative ebb and flow is largely pinned to a single tape fragment, Basinski merged a further "dozen or so" that sunk into the mix in just the right way, adding to the aura of fluctuation and continuous evolution that's so essential to th…