Disintegration Loops
Some days ago, prompted by an online friend, I started listening to William Basinski's "Disintegration Loops". It was overcast, and quiet in the office as the musical phrase repeated, diminishing and distorting with each cycle. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjnAE5go9dI[/embed] I recognized it from the Radiolab episode, "Loops," which I'd listened to years ago, and as was often the case then, it flowed over me, but I didn't try to learn anything more about it. I filed it away as not much more than a curiosity. Until the other day, listening to the music, I decided to look it up online. Basinski recorded the ambient music fragments from old magnetic tapes from the 80's in an effort to salvage them. As Basinski played them, the ferrite on the tapes kept cracking, deteriorating with every loop around the magnetic tape head. The tapes kept tearing themselves apart in an effort to continue playing the music. He completed recording in Brooklyn,...