The story of ‘The Disintegration Loops’ is well documented, but in shorthand: William Basinksi was in the process of digitising some very old tapes and, as he did, the tapes – now very old and corroded – would literally disintegrate as he did so. The digitising project ened on September 11th, 2001, and Basinski sat on the roof of his Brooklyn apartment with friends, listening as the World Trade Centre towers collapsed. The last hour of daylight that day was captured by Basinski, and the video above captured it. It’s absolutely breathtaking.
Marking the 10-year anniversary of its original release, and of its induction into the 9/11 memorial museum – the collection is receiving a lavish treatment on Temporary Residence, the first time it has ever been pressed to vinyl. In fact, to describe it as “lavish” is an understatement – the Temporary Residence website details the collection in detail:
“This massive limited-edition box set contains all four historic volumes, plus a pair of stunning live orchestral performances from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the 54th Venice Biennale, both previously unreleased. Remastered from the original recordings and pressed onto 100% virgin vinyl for the first and only time, this exquisite box set also includes all of the remastered recordings on 5 CDs, the extremely rare 63-minute The Disintegration Loops film on DVD, and a 144-page full-color coffee table book featuring rare photos taken during the making of The Disintegration Loops, and liner notes by Basinski, Antony, David Tibet of Current 93, Ronen Givony of the Wordless Music Series, and Michael Shulan, Creative Director of the National September 11 Memorial Museum.”
It’ll set you back a hefty £300 for the set, which is stocked to order at Phonica.
