william basinski the disintegration loops

WILLIAM BASINSKI THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS ARCHIVE

The iron oxide particles that coated the plastic tape were turning into dust, and more gaps of silence were breaking into the piece of music. After one particular piece was looping for a while, he realised that the tape was gradually crumbling with each pass around the head of his digital recorder.

WILLIAM BASINSKI THE DISINTEGRATION LOOPS ARCHIVE

In 2001, the New York-based composer Basinski was looking to archive some “sweeping pastoral pieces” that he had recorded in the 80s onto analogue tape. But a more unlikely, musical portrayal of the phenomenon can be heard in William Basinksi’s The Disintegration Loops, one of the most poignant, devastating pieces of ambient music that has come to serve the tragedy of 9/11. Tachypsychia has been rendered visually ad infinitum – just take a look at any car commercial that’s showing off the impressive reaction rate of their air bags. Scientists say that this temporary sense of “slow motion” is triggered when a person is bombarded with so much information at one time, their memories become more densely packed in order to process all the stimuli. This neurological phenomenon is called tachypsychia, and it can come on when someone undergoes a near death experience, like a car crash. An event that passes in the blink of an eye can feel like it goes on for minutes. When people are enduring a particularly emotionally intense event, their perception of time can begin to slow down.

William basinski the disintegration loops