It’s hard to imagine a larger gulf between an artist’s persona—in Basinski’s case: joyous, bawdy, mischievous—and work. Basinski’s decaying tape loops are desperately lonely and beautiful, yielding one of ambient music’s most influential works, The Disintegration Loops, among many others. Attending a live performance of the work is akin to experiencing a new sense.
As anyone who reads our “Fuzzy Meadows” column already knows, the “list” is just the beginning, and we’re always eager to add some “Further Listening” for consideration. Despite what some would have you believe, music is not a contest. We profiled many records in our “Year In Review” feature, but the fun doesn’t stop there.
“Repetition is the mother of learning” and “the devil is in the details”. These are the maxims William Basinski and Janek Schaefer abide by here. Picking up on piano passages recorded anywhere between 2014 and 2022, the duo explore how weaving passages can create repetition, but small changes can make a big difference in sound.
