William Basinski - D|P 3 - "A chance"

Being a relentless experimentalist, composer, and musical artist, William Basinski’s work is displayed by emotional tones, sounds, and texture, telling a story of his own experience. What he is famous for is the tape loops being his main compositional tool when creating his music. He was very much impressed by John Cage, saying in one of his interviews that he used “chance” in his music. 

One of his most famous works is “Disintegration Loops”, a project consisting of four volumes and two new live pieces in his impressive box set whose story is both heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. Out of all four volumes, “D|P 3” is somehow superior to others, perhaps due to the emotional reaction, it leaves on individuals. Its devastating, lonely, the hypnotic effect it makes, reminds me a lot of the 99s bombing scenario in my home country, where everything was pretty much in smoke, broken, devastated back then, although I was very young I can remember the fear of the people on their faces and devastation of the houses and buildings being ruined out of nowhere. So this piece of work gradually fits all other unfortunate situations happening in the world, because its sounds and notes are like the link between life and death. Upon listening to “D|P 3”, I could sense the melancholy, an unearthly shake of destruction, destruction of hope Basinski felt while capturing the last hour of the day when attacks occurred on September 11th, thus finalizing his “Disintegration Loops” which at that time had their own real purpose. It starts with calm notes, however later on with the repeating sounds the touch of the tragedy could be recognized.

The sounds of “D|P 3” had me thinking a lot about life itself, especially the way things come unexpectedly, and we never know what is going to happen, unpleasant or on the other hand pleasant situations, Basinski showed us through his piece of work that we can learn from both  and make something of it, we just have to use “the chance”.