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

dude has an awesome apartment

i wrangled the +1 by telling the press desk that Tony Conrad was my 'photographer'!

he would've been a great photographer for the article, we could've done something like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJbqnztjkbs

recognized him right away because i'd just seen him play the night before, at the Kitchen!

I didn't go to basinski, but just as an aside, conrad's set at the kitchen was really fun! didn't have much info beforehand and was very happy to see that he was playing with eli keszler. love that guy!

Ryan McAdams, the guy who conducted this, was in the same rowboat as me at last year's performance of Xenakis' Persephassa on the lake in Central Park. We talked about music a bunch. Cool guy.

A review in the NYT

Listening to this now. Very moving.

"dlp 1.1" has a stately, martial mood that the drums work well with, i think. the whole concert is lovely tho.

I made it to 1:38 before the description of the venue had me welling up. The Disintegration loops rivals on Sinking of the titanic to have me in a heap on the floor. Potentially leave this till im out of the office

I want an orchestration of the complete Disintegration Loops now, it really is very very well done.

Listening to this now. It really is overwhelmingly beautiful. The drums, as mentioned before, are an at first surprising but a wonderful addition throughout. An orchestration of the full Loops would be beyond amazing.

Aside of the Disintegration Loops I've only heard 'A Red Score In Tile', 'Melencholia' and '92982'. Anything else outstanding that I'm missing? I hope so!

This is amazing. I prefer this to the recorded version of dlp 1.1.

@AnotherDeadHero, I cannot recommend 'The Garden of Brokennness' enough, which is just utterly fantastic. His most 'silent' piece, I think, with a lot of built-in silence surrounded by melancholy piano. 'Silent Night' also is really great. But 'Garden' is an essential piece in Basinski's post-DLP era I'd say.

This concert is amazing. I listened to it in the dark last night and it really hit home. The drums are a daring touch but it works out so well. The whole concert sounds great though.

Oops, one 'n' too many in Brokenness there

Yes, I'm especially interested in tracking down a brass ensemble recording of Ingram Marshall's Fog Tropes II, the string quartet arrangement is beautiful but I can definitely imagine the original.

I would also check out "The River", which remains a personal all-time favorite piece of music for falling-asleep purposes. way more subtle than Disintegration Loops but still worth yr time.

My desperate attempts to track down a reasonably priced copy of 'The River' have proven entirely fruitless. As has my search to find it lossless. Anyone have it in FLAC? My dreams would be forever in debt.

boomkat have it as a flac. don't know about 'reasonably priced' though.

http://boomkat.com/downloads/87532-william-basinski-the-river

going for about $20 on discogs:

http://www.discogs.com/sell/list?master_id=43599&ev=mb

is 2 euros on raster noton site. not sure of format

https://shop.raster-noton.net/?release=the%20river (and don't know whether it's the remix, but for 2E i'm not sure i care)

I managed to get a copy of 'The River'. Normans Records were having a half price sale and I picked it up for £10. I also ordered 'Silent Night' and 'A Red Score in tile'. I've heard the latter before but the former I'm unfamiliar with.

I have to be honest though, I've only listened to 'The River' once (just disc 1 at that) and great as it was I found it mildly unsettling as sleeping music.

just came here to see if anyone else had noticed how the mix of dlp1.1 shifts big to the right, it really is unlistenable on headphones. does anyone know how to fix it?

Yes, dlp1.1 on my copy of Disintegration Loops 1 CD is also "right-shifted." Basically, only the faintest of sounds come out of my left monitor when playing this track.
Some places like itunes and amazon seemed to have right/left balanced mp3 samples, so not sure what happened to the CD pressing. Agreed that it is a miserable experience to listen to dlp1.1 on headphones... I can't do it.

i think they've just re-released all these - they all turned up in last boomkat email.

wouldn't be hard to fix mp3s of this - could either amplify the quiet channel (although that may sound muffled) or just make them mono. not ideal but better than it currently is.

The UK distributor certainly just got hold of copies of a lot of Basinski's own label titles once again - I don't know if this means an actual re-release or just a re-ship to the UK.

Live in London:

http://www.last.fm/event/3275646+William+Basinski+Performs+Disintegration+Loops

Wow.

William Basinski's Disintegration Loops is being released in its entirety by Temporary Residence as an enormous box set that weighs 12lb. The set contains nine LPs, plus five CDs, a DVD and a 144 page book. It includes all four volumes of The Disintegration Loops on CD and vinyl, plus two orchestral performances pressed to vinyl, the 63 minute film on DVD and a book featuring photos and liner notes by Basinski, Antony, David Tibet and others.

The Disintegration Loops box set will be released on 4 September in an edition of 2,000 copies.

http://bit.ly/MYP428

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.