William Basinski is an ambient-music composer and artist born in 1958 in Houston, Texas. He can be related to the same period of American Avantgarde Music as Oswald and even though their work is composed and sounds completely different there can be found some similarities between the two artists.
Basinski is known for composing ambient music, which is a genre that focuses on the atmosphere of a music piece often creating a calming, relaxing yet tragic and dramatic sound that has a heaviness to it. The New Yorker describes William Basinski's music as “the sound of decay”.
Comparing Oswald and the genre of plunderphonics to Basinski and the genre of ambient music it is evitable that even tho the two genres sound nothing alike the use of already existing music and sounds unifies them. Basinski uses old tapes and recordings for his works, repeating them over and over again until they disperse. Just like Oswald uses already existing sounds and songs and remodels them until they are (partly) almost unrecognizable.
Basinski’s most popular piece is Disintegration Loops a five-hour-long epos of repeating tape loops. Disintegration Loops transport a heavy, mystical dark, and yet calm and soothing atmosphere that sounds like the soundtrack of a dramatic and long movie.
While researching Basinski I came across an article by Deutschland Funk from 2020 (https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/william-basinski-ueber-lamentations-vierzig-jahre-trauriges-100.html) reporting about Basinski’s newest album Lamentation. The article shows that themes like decay and darkness seem to be repetitive in Basinski i’s work. In the interview Basinski talks about how his album is a portray of his discontent with the present, may it be white patriarchy or capitalism. Lamentation uses old analog radio programs from the 70s and 80s and therefore again is part of Avantgarde Music that is composed by mechanical reproduction.
Since Basinski’s music barely contains lyrics and vocals he, as can be seen in his album Lamentation, also uses the titles of the different pieces to transport his message, examples being “Oh my daughter, oh my sorrow” or “Paradise Lost”.
Even though Disintegration Loops and Lamentation have a clear Basinski - signature and are heavily atmospheric, each music piece of each album transports a very individual message and leaves a unique impression as well as emotions to the listener.
Basinski is known for composing ambient music, which is a genre that focuses on the atmosphere of a music piece often creating a calming, relaxing yet tragic and dramatic sound that has a heaviness to it. The New Yorker describes William Basinski's music as “the sound of decay”.
Comparing Oswald and the genre of plunderphonics to Basinski and the genre of ambient music it is evitable that even tho the two genres sound nothing alike the use of already existing music and sounds unifies them. Basinski uses old tapes and recordings for his works, repeating them over and over again until they disperse. Just like Oswald uses already existing sounds and songs and remodels them until they are (partly) almost unrecognizable.
Basinski’s most popular piece is Disintegration Loops a five-hour-long epos of repeating tape loops. Disintegration Loops transport a heavy, mystical dark, and yet calm and soothing atmosphere that sounds like the soundtrack of a dramatic and long movie.
While researching Basinski I came across an article by Deutschland Funk from 2020 (https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/william-basinski-ueber-lamentations-vierzig-jahre-trauriges-100.html) reporting about Basinski’s newest album Lamentation. The article shows that themes like decay and darkness seem to be repetitive in Basinski i’s work. In the interview Basinski talks about how his album is a portray of his discontent with the present, may it be white patriarchy or capitalism. Lamentation uses old analog radio programs from the 70s and 80s and therefore again is part of Avantgarde Music that is composed by mechanical reproduction.
Since Basinski’s music barely contains lyrics and vocals he, as can be seen in his album Lamentation, also uses the titles of the different pieces to transport his message, examples being “Oh my daughter, oh my sorrow” or “Paradise Lost”.
Even though Disintegration Loops and Lamentation have a clear Basinski - signature and are heavily atmospheric, each music piece of each album transports a very individual message and leaves a unique impression as well as emotions to the listener.
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