William Basinski
Sound
Biography
William Basinski (born 25 June 1958) is an American avant-garde composer based in New York City. He is also a clarinetist, saxophonist, sound artist, and video artist. Basinski is best known for his four-volume album The Disintegration Loops (2002–2003), constructed from rapidly decaying twenty-year-old tapes of his earlier music.
Known For
A documentary highlighting the 20 year history of influential indie record store Other Music in Manhattan's East Village.
Other Music
Made up of piano, this shows Basinski's patented tape-loop technique perfectly and still stands as one of his most affecting pieces of music; still film-work scoring the James Elaine's painting of the same name.
A Red Score in Tile
A spiritual journey into the highlands of Harar, immersed in the rituals of khat, a leaf Sufi Muslims chewed for centuries for religious meditations – and Ethiopia’s most lucrative cash crop today. A tapestry of intimate stories offers a window into the dreams of youth under a repressive regime.
Faya Dayi
Disintegration Loop 1.1 consists of one static shot of lower Manhattan billowing smoke during the last hour of daylight on September 11th, 2001, set to the decaying pastoral tape loop Basinski had recorded in August, 2001. Shot from Basinski's roof in Williamsburg Brooklyn, this is an actual documentary of how he and his neighbors witnessed the end of that fateful day. It is a tragically beautiful cinema verite elegy dedicated to those who perished in the atrocities of September 11th, 2001.
Disintegration Loop 1.1
After his teenage son goes missing, Daniel scours the depths of the Vistula River, torn between the dread of a fatal leap and the hope that his son may still be alive.
Closure
A man steadily bashes through the snow. He disappears and the trees, covered in white, shift and show a beautiful array of hidden colors. A poetic, meditative short film about letting go of the past and embracing the unknown future.
Midwinter Hue
A dense fog in the San Fernando Valley cancels a meeting of UFO hunters and causes an unexpected tragedy in the nearby mountains.
Calabasas 1/26/20
Why have an ugly black mirror in your living room when you could have an ambient winter wonderland this holiday season? Put it on repeat and enjoy the crystalline ice storm wonder as noon goes to night.
Iceland Celeste
As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 looms near, William Basinski contemplates the enduring legacy of 'The Disintegration Loops' (his elegy to the 2001 Attacks), while quarantined in the midst of COVID-19.
Disintegration Loops
Disintegration Loops (dlp 5) consists of one static shot, which transmutes in an emotional odyssey.
Disintegration Loops (dlp 5)
An Experiment video by Ravin kamaran
Limits
The experience of listening to Disintegration Loops (dlp 6) "brings the trials of life and death into a sublime focus".
Disintegration Loops (dlp 6)
A short film by William Basinski & James Elaine.
blueprints on a winter pond
In a small Hungarian town painter Péter Molnár leads filmmaker Márton Tarkövi on a journey through meadows, clearings and Molnár’s drawings. The viewer joins them, as they discuss art, time and life itself.
Later in the Clearing
A short animated film by William Basinski and James Elaine.
Cascade (The Deluge)
A short film by James Elaine and William Basinski.
Melancholia
'This is about the dreamlike images I saw while having epilepsy seizures, as they quite often happened in the past years.' (Stom Sogo)