William Basinski - 92982

01. 92982.1
02. 92982.2
03. 92982.4
04. 92982.3

This month sees the release of a new album by William Basinski, the veteran L.A.-based artist known for his groundbreaking, achingly romantic ambient/drone work - most famously Shortwavemusic (Raster-Noton, 1998) and The Disintegration Loops I-IV (2062, 2002-3).

92982 is the first “new” music from the flamboyant 51-year-old since last year’s collaboration with Richard Chartier, Untitled I-III; like so many Basinski releases, it’s actually based on archival recordings from way back when. He explains:

“[92982 is] something from a long time ago…In Brooklyn, 351 Jay Street…A fruitful evening in the studio…Home at last after a day of work at the answering service, answering phones for Calvin Klein, Bianca Jagger, Steve Rubell, and all the other somebody people…

“In our space station: home in my studio experimenting live. James is in the adjacent studio painting masterpieces. Roger is in the front, gluing old shoes on canvas and painting them orange...I’m clicking the old Norelcos back and forth between channels…All the windows are open. The sound is spreading all over downtown Brooklyn mixing with the helicopters, sirens, pot smoke and fireworks…

“It’s crunchy, it’s distorted…it’s Basinski archive circa 1982. The third track some of you may recognize: a shorter version was included as ‘Variation #8’ on Variations: A Movement In Chrome Primitive. So, this night in the studio spawned a direction I would follow for some time. As I love this document of that night, I thought you might like to put what came later into context, so I’m releasing this archival recording. The last track is a newly recorded reprise of the first track that I recorded with the original loop in February 2009 in Los Angeles.”

92982 is out on April 20th via Basinski’s own 2062 label. A couple of beguilingly pretty excerpts from the album are currently streaming over at his myspace...www.factmagazine.co.uk