William Basinski

Artist

William Basinski

Display Artist

William Basinski

ReleaseProduct

The Disintegration Loops (Arcadia Archive Edition)

Label

Temporary Residence Ltd.

Catalogue Number

TRR300DIGITAL

Release Date

November 7, 2025

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TRR300LP
- Remastered by Josh Bonati from original recordings
- Foreword by Laurie Anderson
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TRR300CD
- Remastered by Josh Bonati from original recordings
- Foreword by Laurie Anderson

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One of the most influential ambient projects of all time. Voted #3 alongside great works by Brian Eno and Aphex Twin in Pitchfork’s top 50 ambient albums of all time. In some ways, The Disintegration Loops series is anti-preservation. When William Basinski found that the archival tapes he was digitising in 2001 were quite literally falling apart before his very ears, he didn’t try to salvage what was left of the delicate media, but rather decided to wear the tapes thin. That lack of sanctity for the music contained within birthed something far greater than the sum of its parts, as the series would become his most well known work, and a cornerstone of 21st Century ambient and musique concrète.

There are two sides to these pieces: how these sounds begin, and what they soon become. As each recording decomposes over their lengthy runtimes, the compositions become ghostly afterimages of themselves. But they also start as ghosts too, doused in reverb and having already fallen victim to the processes of time and weathering. We never get to hear the music as it was originally made, accurately representing each instrument in their pristine conditions. Instead, we enter shortly before the end, past the point where the original recordings are rendered irretrievable, sonic rubble being the only evidence that anything was ever performed.

Haunted by its own decay the music took on even further resonance by the fact the project was finished hours before the 9/11 attacks in New York City where Basinski was living and working at the time. Its meaning changed in the catastrophic events shortly after its creation evidenced in the artwork for the original series of albums sourced from videos Basinski took of the aftermath in Manhattan from the rooftop of his apartment building in Brooklyn.

Having become a form of eulogy to all those who died in the attacks, to whom the releases were dedicated, there's great beauty to be found in the reverent tones and crumbling analogue glitches the tapes generate, woozy and gauzy like angelic foghorns from afar as they warble with the soft ripples of stormclouds, blurring and decelerating until they become stuttering geysers. The ripping wash and rhythmic drive of crashing distortion in tracks like ‘dlp 3’ sound speak to an ongoing fascination with the manipulation and breakdown of musical loops that William Basinski has made his own immortal mark on. A testament to the enduring power of the work it would also go on to be inducted into the National September 11 Memorial & Museum permanent collection in 2012 also marking its 10th anniversary.