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William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops III

 

The Disintegration Loops is a quartet of albums published in 2002 and 2003 by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. The pieces are made up of tape loop recordings that were played over time, with noise and crackles rising as the tape deteriorated. Basinski noticed this effect when attempting to convert his older recordings to digital format. The completion of the recordings coincided with the September 11, 2001 events, which Basinski witnessed and adds a deeper meaning to the composition.

The composition is fascinating in many ways and makes the listener lose track of time. The tape loop recording had a very calming effect on me and put me in a trance-like state when I listened to it in its entirety. The tape loop is really soothing, so much so that I didn't even notice the loss of quality when I first listened to it. It makes you forget about time and allows you to really get into the piece capturing the calmness it exudes. You forget or don't really notice how it sounded 5 minutes ago or if the audio quality has changed or not.  Much like in real life, minutes, hours, and eventually years pass, and you don't notice many differences until you look back, not when the event occurs. On the second listen, I fast-forwarded and focused more on the quality of the recording, and it was clear to hear that the quality deteriorated over time. This was especially evident in the last five minutes of the recording.

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