William Basinski's Tragic “D|P 3”

William Basinski began digitalizing the collection of his work on tape in the late ‘80s. After scanning them too many times, the tapes gradually began to deteriorate, creating the unexpected and haunting loops which gave the project its name: The Disintegration Loops. It is a series of four albums and its finalization coincided with the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

“D|P 3” begins slow and somewhat mimics the sound effects of a slowed-down battlefield. The scratchy sounds in the background, the sounds of disintegration, act as the sounds of swords clashing against each other repeatedly, while the almost hypnotic, slow base gives the slow-motion effect. It is an eerie coincidence that Basinski finalized this whole project during a somewhat similar scene. There were no swords clashing but planes crashing into towers. People screaming and crying, devastation and pain drowning not only the city but the world as everybody watched. It was a modern-day battlefield with haunting sounds, just like “D|P 3.”

The song is almost 45 minutes long and loops the same snippet that only lasts about twenty seconds. In the beginning, it is not obvious, however, the more it is repeated the more it is noticeable. At some point, the focus slips and it runs the risk to become boring. The listener’s mind can only come up with a limited number of interpretations for those sounds to keep itself focused: alien invasion, epic fairytale battle, funeral, a ship about to overturn in huge waves, a marching band practicing their drills, the sounds of 9/11 if it were a movie and not reality.

Basinski dedicated not only “D|P 3”, but the whole The Disintegration Loops albums to the victims of 9/11. The cover of the album is supposed to resemble the twin towers and the city being engulfed in smoke. Listening to “D|P 3” was an incredibly difficult task emotionally as soon as the background story was clear. Before, it was simply a too-long, but epic piece of music that provoked fantasy scenarios and is perfect as background music while reading fantasy novels. Now, it resembles the beauty of life, but mainly its tragedy.