In the fall of 2001, an obscure experimental musician decided to revisit some analog tape loops he had made back in the early eighties. Inspired by the work of Steve Reich, Brian Eno, and Robert Fripp, William Basinski had created his own distinctive practice of taping easy listening music off the radio, cutting the tape into loops, roughly a foot long, and then slowing it way down.

The result transformed music into something profound as these brief loops of time became capacious ambient spaces. William Basinski's, eighties creations anticipated coming trends in loop based production, noise, ambient and slowed, and reverbed music, but very few people were paying attention at the time.

Then in the summer of 2001, Basinski decided to digitize some of his favorite loops from his 1980s archive, and that's when everything changed. As he played the old tapes back, the magnetic ferrite that had captured the music began flaking off the plastic backing of the tape. The very act of digitally preserving the tapes was also destroying them.

Basinski could hear the sound of decay, the death of an old medium captured by a new one. Grounded in decades of art practice, Basinski recognized what he had and he knew to stay out of the way, adding just a bit of reverb, but otherwise letting the tapes sing their swan song. The resulting tracks became known as The Disintegration Loops, and he finished them right as the events of September 11th unfolded.

From a rooftop in Brooklyn, he videotaped the smoking ruins of the Twin Towers, and then he synced the video to the music he had just made. The Disintegration Loops is regarded as one of the most important artworks associated with 9/11. It's part of the permanent collection of the national September 11th Memorial and Museum.

The record received glowing praise in The Wire and Pitchfork and Basinski became one of the most influential figures in ambient and experimental music. And now 25 years after the disintegration loops creation, William Basinski is on an American tour to mark the anniversary, and I'm thrilled to have him on the show today.

We talk about the tour, his sonic practice, his surprising childhood as what he calls a NASA brat. His background in classical jazz and rock music, our mutual love of shortwave radio, and even his amazing fashion sense.

Click here to find more information about William Basinski’s upcoming tour.

Cited Media:

Steve Reich - It's Gonna Rain (1965)

Steve Reich - Music for 18 Musicians (1978)

William Basinski - Shortwavemusic (1980s)

William Basinski - Water Music (self-released)

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops (2002–2003)

William Basinski - September 23rd (reissued ~2024)

William S. Burroughs - Naked Lunch (1959)

Pitchfork - Disintegration Loops review by Mark Richardson

Chapters:

0:42 Intro & Background
4:28 The Tour
6:02 NASA Brat
11:42 Classical Training
12:36 Music School & Influences
15:14 San Francisco Years
26:36 The Disintegration Loops
29:29 Release & Reception
34:30 Shortwave Radio
37:12 Fashion & Style
39:30 Outro

Click here to read the full transcript

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William Basinski: From 'NASA Brat' to Space Cowboy