william basinski - is this the best ambient/drone stuff around or what?

Now to find that $275

Yep, and to add on the brutal shipping / mark up for a copy in the UK!

already picking out LPs to trade for this.

Barnaby, Hardly, I hope that we don't get too fleeced on this side of the Atlantic! I think that Cargo still distributes Temporary Residence over here; I will try to find out if they're getting copies of this beast...

2000 copies x $275 = $550,000

jeez

I imagine the cost of putting the package together was pretty hefty.

I would hardly think that this is any kind of money making exercise.

why would you want to buy 2000 copies i think one would do just fine

yeah but imagine them all played at once just slightly outta sync

I came here to post about this. Really really really trying to figure out a way to buy this. Between this and the Grateful Dead Spring 1990 box, I may need to liquidate a guitar or something. This is why I'm such a lousy guitar player, by the way - I'd always rather have records than gear.

Man, DP on wax. They better be serious about that 'never again to be released on vinyl' nonsense. But as this is both mine and my wife's all time favorite piece of music (errr, maybe after Monk's solo version of "Darn That Dream," for me), I feel it's my obligation as a lifelong music nerd to buy this thing.

I wonder how much they're paying for plasma these days...

From the label, via Facebook...

"There's a lot of news floating around about William Basinski's "The Disintegration Loops" box set we are releasing. Some of it is true, some of it is not. It's all based on rumor and cobble-togethed bit of somewhat speculative/presumed information, as we have obviously not made a formal announcement. Please hang tight, we'll make a formal announcement within 24 hours, including a pre-order link. Thanks for your patience and support! This will be something special."

Barnaby, Hardly, I hope that we don't get too fleeced on this side of the Atlantic! I think that Cargo still distributes Temporary Residence over here; I will try to find out if they're getting copies of this beast...

― NWOFHM! Overlord (krakow), Monday, August 6, 2012

Yep! The Eluvium box was pretty well distributed over here. I dropped a mail to both Boomkat and Norman Records and they both said they'd be getting it in..

Not to be contrarian, but I don't think vinyl is really the best way to experience these albums. Part of the beauty is the uninterrupted decay... The orchestral version are appealing (I saw the one at the Met last year, which was really incredible), but I sort of wish they were releasing those individually. I'm pretty alright with the CD copies I already have.

yeah but imagine them all played at once just slightly outta sync

holy shit that would actually be amazing

check the comment (and username) on 1.1 here: http://youtu.be/qYOr8TlnqsY

"Drone usually isnt my thing, but the great artful meaning behind this series of pieces is honestly the most impact a sheer hour has had on my life. Seeing the smoke of the 9/11 crashes and thinking of how one could make something so beautiful and listen to it while something so tragic was happening makes your mind drift into so many places. Since it is the last song of music, it proves to you that even inanimate objects die and somehow live a life during their cement being."

-bitchassfagg0t 1 month ago

there is no best way, there are only different ways.

i'm not sure about this, here seems to be something fake about the whole enterprise. the end result is somewhat dull and the 9/11 links seem both extremely strained and too obvious.
― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 20 April 2006 19:57 (6 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i sometimes wonder whether the whole story behind disintegration loops is a fiction

I would hardly think that this is any kind of money making exercise.

i think that's exactly what it is. i loathe these elitist bullshit coffee table box sets.

There's a recent live set up at Dime
http://www.dimeadozen.org/torrents-details.php?id=415651
1 track 1/2 an hour long, haven't heard it yet.

Really enjoyed last night's QEH performance; we got the world premiere of the orchestration for DLP 2.1 (featuring someone on amplified clingfilm), then DLP 1.1. Both took a couple of minutes to settle into, but were pretty amazing after that.

Is there a plan to orchestrate the entire thing?

bitchassfagg0t otm

agree about overpriced coffee table bullshit, but i look forward to downloading this and skipping it when it comes up on random

Heads up, heads, he's playing in SF in a month as part of the Electronic Music Festival

Really enjoyed last night's QEH performance; we got the world premiere of the orchestration for DLP 2.1 (featuring someone on amplified clingfilm), then DLP 1.1. Both took a couple of minutes to settle into, but were pretty amazing after that.

Thought 2.1 was fantastic, 1.1 too focussed around the trombone for my liking (nothing against trombones it just seemed top heavy). But the double bass drone it finished on was absolutely electric.

On a tetchier note, can we ban from all 'high art' events (for want of a better term) all hipsters, young people, or anyone incapable of a) arriving on time; ii) sitting quietly for more than two minutes; and 3) going for any length of time without a drink or a smoke. There were people entering late all the way through the first piece and a good ten minutes into the second after the interval and it was really fucking annoying. I blame QEH a bit for not making it clear that the interval wouldn't be long enough to go out for a fag and visit the bar. The cinema style bag rustling was beyond the pale and the palpable discomfort when the conductor held the silence for a couple of minutes after the end of the second piece was ridiculous. Although it was kinda funny when someone started clapping literally half a beat after the end of the first, and then hurriedly stopped, when the conductors arms were still raised and the orchestra still at attention.

People sat near me were pretty good, apart from someone who had the rustliest bag known to man & unleashed it twice. I'll forgive them the 1st occasion, but not the 2nd.

I was pretty lucky with people around me (I'd lucked out on a ticket dead in the middle of the third row, which minimised distraction), but I did notice people entering late - particularly odd as they had signs up saying there would be no late admittance. They could definitely have done a better job informing people about an interval, or even just that there were going to be two pieces - I only knew that from the website, and I'd imagined there would be an interval.

In general I find shows like this suffer a little from being neither traditional classical shows (where silence, no late admission etc is pretty standard) nor obviously more relaxed, so people don't know quite how to behave (cf. the guy who sat in a dark theatre pissing around on twitter on his phone in front of us at a Steve Reich show in Chicago a couple of years ago). Obviously I would prefer them to shut up and sit still.

Thought 2.1 was fantastic, 1.1 too focussed around the trombone for my liking (nothing against trombones it just seemed top heavy). But the double bass drone it finished on was absolutely electric.

Agreed; have listened to the NPR recording of 1.1 enough to be expecting the trombones, though, so they didn't bother me (and I enjoyed watching them). That double bass drone was wonderful.

I've never heard any of the live performances - how do they emulate the disintegration effect? do players just gradually drop out over time?

sometimes i listen to this stuff all day long

On a tetchier note, can we ban from all 'high art' events (for want of a better term) all hipsters, young people, or anyone incapable of a) arriving on time; ii) sitting quietly for more than two minutes; and 3) going for any length of time without a drink or a smoke.

he performed 'vivian & ondine' at this little gallery space in LA a month ago and had to start over about two minutes in because he couldn't be heard over the sound of people outside talking/laughing/opening beer/etc

I've never heard any of the live performances - how do they emulate the disintegration effect? do players just gradually drop out over time?

roughly speaking, yes, although they all fade out individually.

ah ok, that's what I expected. I assume the score has unique instructions for each player - "long decrescendo between measures 400-500", or whatever.

tangent, but people with billions of dollars have no idea how to have fun. if i was made of money, i'd hire an orchestra to play this, but instead of having them gradually fade out, i'd physically obscure the players. the stage would be composed of 16 or so modular units on wheels. over the course of the piece, a team of people would gradually dissemble the stage units and begin wheeling them off into an adjacent hall, turning them away from the audience, holding up long metal tubes in front of certain players. or better yet, at the same time, dissemble the audience and wheel them off at the same time, slowly.

but whatever rich people, buy your yacht, whatever

oh yeah, and also the hypothetical rich person would pay basinski and the orchestra handsomely for their performance and then perform it repeatedly for free, instead of for $50+ in a music hall.

if I was that rich, maybe I could buy a copy of this boxset

Hoping this box set means people will just sell the cds so I can just pick up the ones I don't have for cheap. That or win the box set somehow.

UK: http://www.normanrecords.com/records/135893-william-basinski--the-disintegration

Re: the live disintegration, in 2.1 the actual disintegrating tape noise was simulated with percussion - snare brushing, rim tapping, and as already mentioned amplified clingfilm (or cellophane? It looked like clingfilm but I would have thought that would be too soft and quiet.)

UK: http://www.normanrecords.com/records/135893-william-basinski--the-disintegration

― djh, Monday, August 13, 2012

Almost £300! You can have it shipped direct from the label to the UK for £175...

You will get hit with VAT + customs duty + handling charge on parcel that size from the USA, almost without doubt. I would also fear for the safety of such a mammoth box coming all on its lonesome from the USA, however well they pack it. Tough choices...

Not that I'm saying that buying from Norman et al in the UK is an inherently 'better' choice, just that there may be more to consider than pure pricing.

I hear you. But those additional charges won't get close to £125. I'm expecting then to be in the region of £50.

Also, the boxes still have to come from the US to get to Norman Records... Though they'll obviously be part of a larger, safer shipment.

I sold my unplayed Warp 20 boxset to fund this one, so you're mostly just reading me convincing myself that I've made the right decision to order direct...

Absolutely - the main thing is to enjoy it!

"I hear you. But those additional charges won't get close to £125. I'm expecting then to be in the region of £50."

Recently bought the Can box from US Amazon 'cos with that price even in the likely event I got hit with the extortionate fees & tax, it was still going to work out at pretty much the same price as UK Amazon.

http://philsbootlegs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/william-basinski-disintegration-loops.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/11/12/164978574/divinity-from-dust-the-healing-power-of-the-disintegration-loops

gr8 editing npr

"an old pile of old recordings"

"he keep the loops running"

was listed in boomkat newsletter today, £299, free postage.

http://boomkat.com/vinyl/561223-william-basinski-the-disintegration-loops-deluxe-box-set

the frustrating thing, about being a record store that wanted to stock this, was that i placed a pre-order with a distributor. so it arrives and i'm trying to figure out what to price the damn thing at so that it's reasonably competitive, only to find that you can buy it direct from the label as a consumer for less than i paid for it wholesale. which is.. frustrating, wanting to be a retailed who carries something cool like this, but also being in a position where it's almost impossible to be competitive w/r/t pricing. meaning... i probably don't sell these things.

Just been listening to Radiolab's podcast (http://www.radiolab.org/2011/oct/04/) where they talk about the disintegration loops and interview WB himself. There's a little discussion about the relationship between the sounds on the tapes and the way in which the tape degrades; the decay parts of the chords decay first, the attack parts last. Do any of you have any idea why this might be?

i was just listening to that episode the other day! it's a great one. the only thing i could think of is that perhaps it has to do with the direction that the tape was looping. imagine a surface with a series of bumps. if you repeatedly ran your hand from right to left over the bumps, the bumps on the right might wear down faster than the ones on the left. maybe it's similar with the tape - with the attack on the left and the decay on the right.

in other personal listening relationship to william basinski news, i love disintegration loops, but i think i love melancholia and 92982 even more. what a guy!