William Basinski - The Disintegration Loops Dlp 1.1

After listening to so many other “feedback” pieces of the seminar starting the piece by William Basinski  called “the Disintegration Loops” was a nice change. It sounds like those whale sounds people listen to, to fall asleep combined with classical and calm music.

In the beginning it sounds very calming, harmonious, like a classical piece of art. As the loop goes on and on it becomes less clear and less fluid. Suddenly small pauses appear, disrupting the peaceful music more and more. The crackling that becomes more evident from the tape also adds to a much more feeling of doom which increases the longer one listens to the piece.

As the completion of his recordings coincides with the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, the piece is awarded with much more significance. If we, as humans, have more background on the circumstances surrounding music and sounds, we also tend to perceive it differently. I listened to it again after reading more on the timeframe in which Basinski created the Disintegration Loops and what I found calming at the beginning turned into a looming horror feel to some extent.

Basinski had recorded music in the 1980s but when he tried to digitalize it years later, he realized that the tapes had started to disintegrate. He decided to use this to his advantage and kept playing the tapes on loop during which they fell apart more and more and started to produce completely new sounds and pieces. I love the idea of repurposing the originals into something new instead of grieving the things they are not anymore.

The connection with the terrorist attacks give it a certain meaning and melancholy, which, while sad circumstances, give the piece a deeper meaning many people can feel connected to. Just like the towers of the World Trade Center crumbled into pieces, so does the tape of the disintegrating loop. Both only in their original version embed into our brains.