Disintegration Loops
 

Seeing as how it's the 5th anniversary of September 11th,

William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops I-IV

I think this is one of the most fascinating and powerful works of music in recent memory.

William Basinski found some old music loops he had recorded and started to transfer them to a different format. As he was doing so, the tapes would disintegrate, slowly distorting and obliterating the music to silence. He happened to be working on these tapes on September 11th in his Manhattan apartment. He listened to them as he watch the towers fall.

This is a rare piece of music that is inseparably and viscerally linked to the time of its creation. Knowing how the music was made adds immensely to its power and impact. The music itself is beautiful, blurred melodies slowly fading to nothing. It evokes a sense of loss and dying. This brand of music can't be created only in the confines of a dark studio, no matter how hard one tries. Truly remarkable.

Here's a bit more on the background.

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

oh god do i love these.
once a month or so i dredge them out my piles of burnt cd-r's (i've yet to buy them, they cost a pretty penny) and just go into them for half a day. i've made numerous livejournal posts annoying my friends about them, and they didnt care until they actually heard it.

so good.

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

off course the hard-copy in uncompressed format is more desirable, but, they are able to be had at bleep.com.

forced exposure and bleep are the only places, afaik, on the net, where they're able to be purchased directly. other sites point to forced exposure.

and yeah, collectively the pieces make for a very moving experience, espeicially in light of the circumstances underwhich they were recorded.

there's a dvd out there too, of footage of the towers smoking and eventually falling set to DLP 1.1 i think it is. i plan on picking that up at some point, as well.

:)

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

I hadn't heard about the dvd. There are a few copies of the cds on Amazon.

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

i lost my cds somewhere. i spent a christmas listening to all of them and it was wonderful while stuffing the goose.

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

blast! forced exposure was out of the first one.

i also left the record i just bought from them ON THE TRAIN DAMMIT

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

Forced Exposure used to send us a lot of stuff at the college radio station I was at. Great electronic/experimental stuff and some really fantastic world music.

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

aw man, i feel you.
my sympathies :(

Re: Disintegration Loops
 

i usually sleep within 20 min and then wake up 2h later while it's still going. that's a good thing.