CDOTD 12/13/2023

 William Basinski: Disintegration Loops II (Temporary Residence Ltd)

Purchased at Sound Cat Records

Here's Ben, sitting and writing another blog post, once a regular occurrence, now far less so. What's the point? Perhaps the discipline is the point.

Furthermore, what could be added to the volumes of information and accolades this particular set of works? I'm so far out of keeping track of what's current in any world, be it jazz, "new music", or whatever, that I didn't know about these works until I heard an NPR story about the CD reissue in 2014.

The concept is simple, if you are unaware of it. Basinski used (analog) tape loops in his work, and discovered that if they ran long enough, the magnetic recording medium would start to wear off. He then set about to record the results of his tape loops deteriorating until there was nothing left but the plastic tape, sans medium. 

Part of what is interesting about the results is the way in which the tapes deteriorate. The loudest moments stay the most stable; the tails of sounds tend to strip away the fastest. The final moments before all sound stripped away are jittery, percussive. 

To add to the poignancy, he was finishing this recording project on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Photos of his view from Brooklyn are the cover images used in the series.

I guess there's a highly prized ten LP set of these pieces that's highly prized. For as much as I enjoy and perhaps fetishize vinyl, CD is the right medium for these works. This particular disc has two pieces, clocking at 33:00 and 42:00, around the length of three or more record sides. It's better to put it on and let it run, than to have to get up and flip the platter over to complete the playing. 

The first and shorter of the two pieces on this edition is curious, because it seems to have two elements? The deteriorating tape loop, but also a soft-edged synth line? I'm unsure, because the former element definitely dies away in the manner described, the latter does not. The second work definitely sounds like the disintegrating tape loop.

There's an elegiac quality to the pieces, even without taking the 9/11 connection into account. I find it interesting that this concept, which is based on a mechanical process, plays like very human music. Maybe that interpretation is based on the feeling of my own body slowly deteriorating with age.

Which brings to mind that Andre Braugher's death was announced yesterday. Damn. He was only 3/4 of a year old than me. Anyone who saw him on the television show Homicide: Life on the Streets couldn't help but be impressed by him. As a friend wrote on Facebook, "Pretty much guaranteed to steal every scene he was in". Truth. Homicide could be uneven, some characters and storylines forgettable, but at its best (probably the third season) it ranks with some of the best television produced. There's little question the center of the show was Braugher's forceful Det. Frank Pembleton, playing off the more naive Det. Tim Bayliss, played by Kyle Secor. The show was a network broadcast predecessor to later limited cable series such as The Wire. The Wire and others benefitted from shorter and more focused seasons, not to mention fewer limitations on things such as language and content. 

Here's Ben, sitting and writing another blog post, listening to the second piece on this disc yet again, thinking of Andre Braugher. I'm not usually one to quote Bible passages, but I found this on an album dedication, coming from James 4:14: "Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are mist that appears for a little while, then vanishes."