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William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops II

 

Melanie Diehl (6887890)

Prof. Dr. Bernd Herzogenrath

Winter Semester 2022/2023

The Future of American Music

Listening Reports - 22.02.2023

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops II

Again, I start of listening to this song and it is just different. It feels sad though meditative. Makes me think how the tapes of my childhood would sound like if I tried to digitalize them today. I did not know that sound could decay like that. It does sound tragic but it has something to it. The Disintegration Loops II is William Basinski’s and I would think of it to not have a true production date, since the tapes and the production occurred on different dates, so maybe The 80’s? I think this song has a beauty to it.

When these tapes of the 80’s were digitalized twenty-two years ago, Basinski realized how the sound was falling apart and making an eerie sound, instead. On September 11th, while recording the loops, he saw the Twin Towers collapse on TV and continued to record the loops as a way of capturing the sense of loss and decay he felt. Now that gives this a whole different meaning. This song’s essence is basically captured in time and the meaning of time or how the decaying of time feels like, is what you hear. When I think of loss time, this song might as well be the cover of it. Never ending sadness and loss. However, hopeful for the future.

The resulting album of this piece gave it a beautiful yet haunting meditative device on time, memory, and impermanence, and it's a landmark in experimental music. For had this not been discovered, the essence of time decaying might have not been captured as beautifully. The 11th of September gives it a tragic poetic connotation. This song has the ability, with its history of creation and discovery, to make one think and reflect of what it is like when something is just left to decay in the past. Thank you for discovering and mixing this, Basinski.

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