William Basinski

Several analogue tape loops and, preferably, some outdated technology… that’s all the American composer and musician William Basinski needs to create his enchanting and melancholic soundscapes. The Disintegration Loops made him an icon of ambient music, while in September 23rd, he lets time effortlessly slip away. The latter record is the opening chapter of the Arcadia Archive, a series in which forgotten recordings from Basinski’s past are dusted off. Recorded in September 1982 in his first loft in Brooklyn, it reveals how a youthful piano composition transforms – through cut-up techniques à la William Burroughs, tape loops and layered electronic effects – into a hypnotic stream of melodic fragments and noise.