The next day, he assembled the footage with the music. He borrowed a video camera from a friend, fixed it in one spot, and let it record. He began playing The Disintegration Loops on loudspeakers. Basinski and his neighbors were watching the smoke and fires from their roof. On the morning of September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center was attacked and destroyed by terrorists. He continued with this painstakingly slow transfer process of his archived work through September 10. Astonished, Basinski began sonically tweaking what he heard, but then surrendered to the unfolding evolutionary process and let them be: their decay was captured with a digital timestamp. As the old tapes were played into the digital recorder, they began to disintegrate. In July of 2001, he intended to create new masters of works from his archive - some were 20 years old. His sophomore effort, Watermusic, appeared on his self-created label 2062 in 2000. His first release, Shortwavemusic, issued on Raster-Noton in 1998, dated from this period. Throughout the '80s, the composer worked with tape loops, analog keyboards, and Mellotron, and assembled a formidable body of work. Basinski played clarinet in the first version of the Johnsons. Many artists played the space, including Diamanda Galas and Antony Hegarty. Eventually they migrated to New York City and ultimately Brooklyn, where they converted a ruined loft into a proper studio space and a venue called Arcadia. The two fell in love and Basinski relocated to San Francisco where he began to work in earnest. Elaine, well connected in music and art circles, was impressed and encouraged Basinski. He met artist/curator James Elaine, who was visiting from San Francisco, and played him the tape. He furthered these on two full-sized reel-to-reel decks that he continues to use. Influenced by tape loops and delay, Basinski began his own experimentation, putting a piece of cellophane tape over the erase head of a Sony Walkman, then dubbing his own compositions played on electric piano. A little later, he encountered Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians and Brian Eno's Music for Airports, and the first two albums by Fripp and Eno. A teacher introduced him to the music of John Cage, which proved influential. Upon graduation, he studied saxophone and composition at North Texas State University. He was born in Houston and undertook his first musical studies on the clarinet at Richardson High School - an instrument he continues to play. His signature in sound is evidenced by, interestingly enough for an ambient musician, deeply emotional sounds filled with multiple tones, drones, textures, and shades that are as hauntingly beautiful as they are somber.īasinski is a classically trained musician. He has become one of the most recognized sound artists and ambient composers across the globe, in large part for his career-defining work The Disintegration Loops, though he is a prolific recording artist. He is a relentless experimentalist, obsessed with reel-to-reel tape decks, splicing tape, and spindling it. William Basinski is an experimental composer, sound sculptor, and video artist based in Los Angeles, California.
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