William Basinski at WWW, November 19th 2022

 


More than fifteen years ago I got a chance to catch a performance of Steve Reich’s Different Trains while I was on a business trip in Miami. To this day that performance remains near the top among the most emotionally intense I’ve ever seen. I remember seeing people sobbing along the string quartet recurring build up throughout the piece. The distinct voice of Reich’s former nanny and that of a holocaust survivor, both describing train rides done during wartime in different parts of the planet, offered a testimony that was both eloquent and touching. This juxtaposition that combines the natural rhythm of speaking patterns with the unrelenting train-like string accompaniment, painted a clear picture of horror, injustice and technology hand in hand.

William Basinski is another master of this kind of descriptive music that translates sounds into images within a wider context. Take for instance his best known work, The Disintegration Loops, in which a loop from found sound elements slowly gets obscured by the pops and cracks from the original tape getting more and more deteriorated as it’s been played. Legend has it that the project was completed on September eleventh two thousand one, becoming a somber elegy of that redefining tragic day.

This evening we witnessed a performance of an edited version of his 2000 album Lamentations. Right after Basinski walked to the stage, as he prepared the final touches setting up the gear -that included two reel-to-reel tape machines and a laptop- he warned the audience that tonight’s performance was going to be an intense one. “This is war”, he said, “so buckle up”. Quoting the title of one of the aforementioned album’s highlights “this shit has got to stop”, Basinski signaled the beginning of the performance. The lights dimmed and the music started. 

The venue’s sound and light work were top notch. Two spotlights in the back contoured Basinski’s figure, who donned a black lamé suit and brand new stiletto Ziggy boots. The composer's dance of sudden movements highlighting the violent stabs of sounds requested the audience attention and served as transitions from one loop to the next. Basinski embodied the music on stage making clear that the lamentations alluded in this work’s title are directed towards a world where beauty and chaos co-exist as an alternative to conformity and injustice. The lamentation part might be a denouement of the latter pair getting the upper hand over the former.

When the reel-to-reel decks were put into use we heard the loop of the soprano singer from All These Too, I Love, along with the inherent pops and imperfections of the tape source. It was quite a magical and sublime moment enhanced with the red lighting in the back. For one thing The Black Lodge from the series Twin Peaks came to mind. A William Basinski- David Lynch collaboration is way overdue.

Despite the intensity of the work, Basinski’s sense of humor and magnetic personality made this performance somewhat accessible to the audience. He told anecdotes about visiting a cat cafe and getting the boots express delivered after explaining to the manufacturer that they hey were to be used at a Japan tour. Along with others up front, I got a chance to shake his hand at the end of the performance. The only criticism I could think of was the length of the show. One hour, including an exclusive play of an alternative take of Melancholia II without Basinski on stage as an encore, seemed a bit too short. But never mind all that, I consider myself lucky to have witnessed that Lamentations performance, it was filled with truly powerful bursts of raw and honest emotion.

Worth mentioning was the engaging and fascinating opener Fujiiiiiiita, who used a handmade pipe organ to create layers after layers of loops, live on stage, building an atmosphere that emphasized the organic aspects of music creation; manually pulling and pushing the lever that I guess sent wind to the set of pipes that were his main instrument. It is always refreshing to witness creativity at work and this early evening show was most definitely an example of it at its peak. It was the kind of performance that stays with you for a while. 

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