Nice work with its inspiration clearly from Lucier's "I Am Sitting In A Room" which explores a disintegration of the intelligibility of a recorded message because the microphones pick up the room's resonances which in turn disintegrate the recorded message by subsuming it. .
This song is the perfect representation of Tony's fading existence. He was a man so great that all knew his name and it had became immortalized in its majesty, but the man behind it began to fade, they knew the name but not the man. Soon, there will be a hole, a hole when a man should be, a hole of what might of been the man named Tony Hawk, but no longer.
This was quite a jarring comment to see after i just randomly binged some THUG videos, followed by binging some music related 9/11 videos, which specifically brought me here. Full circle.
William Basinski finished the album on September 11th 2001. He sat atop a rooftop in Brooklyn and took a picture of the smoke rising above the evening horizon, that photo being the one used in the cover art. He played the album the next day aloud from his apartment as those below reconciled with the tragedy
lamentation for a world lost and justice denied. the culprits of this day 22 years ago are mostly still alive and currently celebrating on some israeli beach somewhere.
@@a.c.7573 Funny how I literally know people who sway around and dance to this type of ambient noise at parties. Not everyone is only capable of throwing their asses around and dry humping to shitty club beats at parties. Learn to realize not everyone is like you.
@@zogwort1522 Absolutely to the first part, I didn't so much mean "what's that mean" about their lack of complaint, I was asking more about what the fuck my statement meant, which is still a good question. You've managed to be funny where most might not find effective humor--maybe there's an equivalent beauty/peace in this music that misses you. That's not meant as insult. But I do think that you simplify your application here.
Autism isn't a mental illness. It's a neurological disorder. This is why it's so frequently mis and/or under diagnosed - while it's in the DSM, mental health 'professionals' are not equipped to diagnose neurological disorders. Same goes for ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, and more. It would seriously pay to become more informed so that you are not part of 'The Problem', i.e. spreading DISinformation, like a DISease. @Barclay V, @Zog Wort
@@richardgamrat1944 I searched the quote online and got nothing, so maybe he did it and put quote marks on it to make it look cool. But I also found a book named "Something happened" by Joseph Heller, maybe the quote is in that book.
you know, it is kind of strange. i come back to this comment every now and then and realise how shocklingy fitting this is. not just to this masterpiece of art. but to life itself.
This quote sounds like something out of "Synecdoche, New York", in the ending scenes where he walks through the ruins of the city, and his memories. It's a pretty impressive quote if you just wrote that yourself, I'm interested to know it's origin.
Yea I’ll never forget it, it was during a high school trip, senior year, right in the heart of London. My Best friend and I still reminisce about it sometimes haha crazy how these moments stick with you
Was 18 in my first week of college on this day in 2001, my crying teacher sent us home. I just walked around the empty streets of Boston with my classmate. Nobody was talking, nobody was outside. We walked into a Chinese restaurant to get water and nobody came to serve us, we just sat down and silently watched the news coverage on the restaurant television with them for over an hour. That time is in this album
I was 11, in New Zealand; we are ahead in timezones, so for us it happened in the early morning hours, on the 12th September - but I recall being at school that morning of the 12th and listening to the news etc. My parents were debating whether or not to send us to school. There was no immediate effect on us, but there was a definite sense of "wrongness" about the day. No classes really happened, we watched some new reports and footage and tried to understand it all. One image sticks out that day, in assembly, there was a news report being played and a brief interview with a man who was bleeding down his face and covered in ash. Someone laughed, but it wasn't humorous - it was the laugh that happens at a funeral when your limbic system goes haywire and responses don't match the scenario. They didn't know how to process it.
this track wouldn't be even half as eerie/beautiful as it is if these distortions and faults were artificial. The fact that we're listening to an actual tape physically withering away creates the entire novelty imo.
Even more interesting is that the final tapes were recorded from his NY apartment rooftop after the Twin Towers fell on 9/11 and the sky became evening. That's what the picture on the video cover is. Now, that's haunting.
Yeah, and just knowing that while this tape deteriorates there are people buried under the rubble slowly fading out of existence. Haunting and depressing.
@ek256. Not entirely true. He recorded the loops in the ‘80s and while digitalizing them earlier in 2001 he noticed they were disintegrating on playback. He took video of 9/11 and on the 12th watched it while listening to the digitalized loops and decided to release them.
I love how near the it looses it's clarity and definition but at the same time certain bass notes become more present. To me it's like memories, over time we lose some of the vivid details but the feeling remains and evolves into a deeper understanding.
the bass notes get more proeminent because as the tape disintegrates you loose the higher frequencies, and they are the ones that give definition an clarity to sound, same thing happens when you go deaf with age, you start hearing less and less higher frequencies
Some people may not know, so I’ll say it here. The cover art for this album is a view from William’s roof of his apartment complex, hours after the World Trade Center collapsed on the day of the September 11th attacks. He was finishing this record just that morning in his apartment with his friends, and suddenly they heard a loud boom, and looked out the window and... well you know the story. I won’t go into details because it is a sensitive topic for most. Later that evening he recorded the fallout of the event during the last hour of daylight, the dark clouds that filled the sky that day, and used the stills of the recordings for the cover of his tracks, he decided to make the album a tribute to the victims of the attacks.
To me it sounds like perseverance. I imagine a Victorian factory worker surviving his machinery horror of a job, eventually and somehow surviving long enough amidst the steam powered pressing plants to clock off for the day. Then comes the arduous walk home, up steep smog engulfed cobblestone roads, littered with every conceivable obstacle imaginable like sad donkey's that are being whipped by impatient narrowboat drivers. Somehow, he manages to make it home, a small two up two down occupied by five families in its tiny grubby rooms with no running water or electric. He puts his cap on the mantlepiece as he warms his hands on the roaring fire, but the real warmth comes when his little daughter rushes in to greet her beloved father with a smile that can tame even the bleakest of bleakness into a moment of pure serenity. Thats what I see haha
Since being present at 9/11 and breathing in the smoke and asbestos while trying to help people, I've watched friends who worked in the vicinity sicken and pass away over the decades. In a sense, I watched them disintegrate as I watch myself fade even now. That might be why I can barely listen to this track sometimes even though projects by artists like The Caretaker don't have that effect. The fading memory of those individuals I lost, and the fading of the mind's coherence and recollections as I age, all seem reproduced by the eroding loop that turns skeletal and rasping before fading entirely. As though the memory pays homage to those who were erased when it slowly erases itself.
@@Vaporstruck: If that's all you got from my post, then you don't know *how* to read. And you definitely don't understand the depth of an experience like 9/11. And you definitely don't understand the distinction I made between Basinki's technique and the Caretaker's. There's a difference between approximating the creepy lounge music in The Shining and replicating, deliberately or not, the process of the mind's erosion.
And finally, don't conflate surviving 9/11 with right-wing politics, the Gulf War or white nationalism because many of the people who got trapped in clouds of asbestos and other fatal toxins while trying to help people were and remain opposed to the politics of G.W. Bush and Giuliani in those years. You probably don't realize this if you actually live in Brazil, but the right-wing narrative about 9/11 has nothing to do with the experience of actual victims. Many of them were immigrants and many were Muslims. When I went to mandatory group therapy after surviving, some of the people in my group were Muslims who lost family members to 9/11, only to be targeted by idiots and called terrorists even as they had to mourn lost sons and husbands.
@@reginaldbraithewaite5833 I am aware of everything you just said. But due to the very nature of a TLDR (too long, didn't read), which is a one-sentence summary of a long wall if text, of course my short description was not going to be that accurate. Saying that I "don't know *how* to read" just because of a comment on TH-cam is a bit extreme. I would still consider William Basinski and the Caretaker pretty similar artists: both of them use short loops to portray decay and both of them do it remarkably well, although _in my opinion_ the Caretaker takes it a step further and not only uses various loops, but also destroys those loops on Stages 4-6 of EATEOT. And yes, I am not American (though I'm also not Brazilian), so the 9/11 did not have an effect that big on me, but I won't deny that it impacted the World. Recordings of the event are an example of that. Finally, I wasn't even talking about politics. I was just talking about ambient music. You may want to listen to "News at 11" by vaporwave artist Cat System Corp.
I just travelled 8000km for a girl, she cheated on me after 3 weeks. I'm 29, far away from my home, I never felt alone like that, I'm not depressed, just assuming my choices and understanding so much about myself and this world. I am autistic, with High intellectual potential, I ve been sad as long as I remember. And now, it's 5 in the morning, and I'm sitting outside, in a city I don't even know, listening to this and watching the lake and the mountains, Annecy is a beautiful city, and this is where I lost my heart for ever. (Sorry for my english) I don't even know someone to share this story with, I'm ashamed, so I had to write it somewhere. I send you all my love, you, the stranger who is reading this. You deserve the best
losing your idealistic view of the world sucks man. Almost all of us go through it eventually. You have to rebuild it on better foundations, not on things like money, relationship and women that aren't to be trusted
its ok, i hope it's better now for you. i also listen to this currently in a life crisis, also partially relationship related. funny enough an autism related tiktok talked about this and thats why i checked out dlp1 again. i've seen him play live and liked his music for quite some years though and i'm generally extremely obsessed with loops in my music making. this piece helped with my crisis and making me aware that i'm probably on the spectrum too after an adhd diagnosis with 30, which i thought was the all end goal, especially the meds, but it was just another door in the labyrinth and i still don't "fit in" as i thought i would.
A year has gone by, and I hope you're doing better. There are people who care, especially those of us who have experienced the same kinds of things. Sending a virtual hug bc everyone can use one. 🌙
I once listened to this entire loop with nothing but a blank document to accompany me. I forced myself to sit through it and wrote whatever I felt throughout. The subject matter could be the song, random thoughts, anything that passed through the mind. No breaks, distractions, nothing. Just sit and experience. Writing whatever you wish on to the blank slate in front of you. Needless to say, it was quite an interesting trip around my head. With nothing, you desire something. And as the loop slowly fades away, you feel gradually more empty. Like somethings slowly being drained from you which you have no control over. I encourage anyone who passes this to try it out. You might learn something about yourself. Also MAKE SURE you're unable to see time in any sort of way. That being your local time and the songs progress. It raises the anticipation of when everything will end. Thus forcing you to output more words before it all concludes. Light pressure. Apologies for the wall of text, just thought I'd share something mildly interesting. As the disintegration loops, so to, might you.
Man that triumphant-sounding French horn just soldiers on like a trooper. Even as everything else fades away, if you listen closely, under that melodic hum, it’s STILL there. How symbolic of how we keep soldiering on through it all, no matter what life throws at us, right up to the bitter end.
Tbh, this reminds me of being high. Not just being a full on junkie, but taking drugs to die. It reminds me of cold nights, with no one else but myself. No food, no love, no help. Being out in the night, wrapped up in a thick jacket and a beanie over my face. Wondering if I’d wake up, but not caring if I did or not. In fact I embraced the cold, the feeling of losing myself. Falling down endlessly. Waiting to die. Being sad that I didn’t die. Then wandering aimlessly, waiting for another fix and just wasting away. That’s what this reminds me of. Reminds me that feeling is still there, even though I’m far from it. Hauntingly beautiful, empty, yet so full of emotion. Only a certain few can accept it for what it is. And I feel that way about myself too. I know I’m not going to do anything stupid now, but I also know I’m not going to be here forever. And I’ll be honest, I don’t want to be in my late 40s feeling even worse than I do now. So idk where I’ll end up tomorrow, but no matter where, I’ll be fine, and I’ll make it on my own. With love - just me 🖤 once again I’ll drift away into my eternal state of bliss, and hopefully this time I can stay there
@Layne Krusz Sure. And I was commenting on Destruction Loops (not EATEOT which I haven't heard) and which was given that name because the tape medium was decaying to create a beautiful effect. Dementia, depression, global warming etc. are all real but it's up to us whether we use music to make our lift our state of mind or not. As a fairly old person life's too short to be wallowing in self pity like I might have done as a teenager. When I'm feeling down I stick on a Bootsy Collins record, not Basinski!
Pseudo intellectuals is a peculiar pedantitical moniker for people whose over extended lexical argot for unsimplifying bombastisized perceivements that are ahh right on then
I hope that you're doing well when you read this. I really hope things are getting better and that you're happier What do you think the future will hold? Hopefully you know by now lol Because I'm currently clueless and scared my friend Do you think it's true that it's not meant for us? I surly hope not So many decisions you made and leaps you took I'm hoping it was for the best I feel dizzy and confused sadly My hopes and dreams are yours too Please lift us to what we deserve And let us walk, where the sun shines, i truly love you, we both know that's true Please take care of us
Listening to this on Wednesday the 18th of March, 2020, in self Isolation with my family. Just thought I'd leave that here as somehow it feels fitting. Very very strange times.
@@zogwort1522 I've never seen the back of this very album. Last time I checked the price was in the hundreds for a box set. The bank manager would never agree to such a transaction.
@@zogwort1522 Holy moly. You mean he was dressed like Jareth when he recorded this? That's bleak. I always thought he was an auld bloke. Still, Prince dressed like this his whole career and his legacy is sound.
when it really comes down to it, all we are are the generalizations of our era. our egos would like us to think something different, but in the end we're just points in time, probability on a spreadsheet. after all, we are just space dust as it seems. the idea of lack of importance is a hard one to accept. I'm not inherently special, you aren't either; no matter your accomplishments or differences you make. In the grand scheme of things, nothing we do really matters. this idea isn't even depressing, rather numbing. unfeeling. there is no greater purpose or cosmic reasoning behind the things that happen. god, i'd love for someone to tell me its all going to be okay, that this simply isn't true. that's all i've ever wanted. i'm not even upset about the nature of my insignificant existence, its just the feeling that the time that crawls by is slowing becoming a walk. its the idea that no matter how hard i try, all i am is the flow of energy in an indifferent, unfeeling cycle. i wish i had someone to share these feelings with, i wish i had someone to make it all worth it- make my existence to mean something; even if it is just for a fraction of a microscopic speck in time. right now, i don't though- so here is where i'll put my thoughts. hope this finds you well, good luck.
Two years ago today, my mother passed away. I scattered her ashes in her hometown in New York, and the next day I visited the 9/11 Memorial, where I first heard this song. On the train ride home, I played the track on TH-cam while reading a Pitchfork review of the album. The article began with: "You are slowly being destroyed. It's imperceptible in the scheme of a day or a week or even a year, but you are aging, and your body is degrading." And suddenly everything was connected in a profound yet depressing way: from this tape recording to our loved ones and memories, nothing lasts forever. Everything eventually crumbles to dust. The loops are heartbreaking and yet comforting, and I still listen to them a few times a year. They encapsulate my feelings in ways that words cannot.
These loops are beautiful to listen to, even though they are associated with a darker context. And that, in itself, is life in all its glory. Love life for its beauty, even though darkness is on every horizon. Your comment helped me frame that thought. Thank you stranger.
I'm sorry for your loss. I also lost my mother recently. These loops are truly beautiful, as are your words. The thing that gives us meaning is also the very thing that destroys us: our finitude. Cheers
This was the original name for a famous kids cereal, but after abysmal first quarter sales, they opted for the name Fruit Loops. Sales picked up and the rest is history.
Have you ever sat in a dark room? Your eyes adjust after a while, the shapes becoming more vivid, the picture more clear...until the room doesn't seem so dark after all, outside just seems so bright. And when you finally step out the light is so strong...it's blinding and burning and you have to squint and force yourself to see. I think when people are in the dark for a long time they don't realise how used to it they have become, and only the strongest can brave the light, can force through the burning splendor. The rest fall back into the dark. Take that how you will. It was just a random thought anyway.
I can't believe it's been 5 months since I left this comment, this year has been crazy... Regardless, it's nice to see my comment has been seen and considered by so many people, and that I was able to provoke some thought among others about such abstract concepts as light and dark or good and bad, depending on how literally you took my words. I came back here because I simply couldn't forget the hauntingly beautiful sound of these loops and the thoughts they provoked. I hope everyone is doing well and that the difficult times that have presented themselves as of late have treated everyone well enough, be well everyone and stay safe.
@@alixmeek8478 I'm glad :) I know how that feels bro I'm doing alright rn, I'm finally getting some freedom from my abusive parents and getting away from that so I'm doing a bit better mentally. Good luck to you :)
This reminds me of my Cat (of 17 years) slowly dying in my arms. Her breathing, and also something else quite ineffable was just like this. Om mah me pad me hum Mooshka. 🕉😻🕯💜
To think that something as ominous yet beautiful as listening to a tape die can make the brain stop for a whole hour, to think that this set of fading notes can make an individual lose sight of everything that is bothering them, lose sight of all the meaningless issues that come in this life, it's amazing. Sometimes, the simplest things in life- in my case, listening to this song and spacing out for an hour as I disregard the stress that tomorrow could bring or the stress that yesterday brought- can go the furthest. I haven't had a moment like this in years. Cherish your lives, everyone.
Honestly, the first time I listened to it, I 'gave up' at the halfway point. I'm fine with repetition and shades of drone in music, but I found this to be a bit long-winded and aimless upon first listen. After coming back to it during a deep dive into experimental music, I think it's starting to click with me. I'm hearing subtleties that I had missed the first time around. I'm also beginning to put images and ideas with what I'm hearing; I didn't do that the first time. Perhaps this is one of the best examples of musical pieces that absolutely require listener participation. If my first listen was a young me in school ignoring the teacher, my second listen is me in the front row, fingers interlaced, with eyes and ears on the instructor. I'm all the better for it, too!
I had the same experience as you. I didn't 'understand' what it was all about until one day I left on "Brian Eno - Music for airports" in my room. 2 hours had gone by, and I was sitting down meditating without even meaning to. It really calmed me down, and just made me think and introspect. It's lovely. I call this mindfulness music, because it grounds me, and keeps me in the moment, in the now. "Be Here Now" - Ram Dass.
The fact that this was finished on 9/11, that the album art is a pic the artist took from his apartment building’s rooftop as the towers fell, the fact that he played this from the same rooftop the next day… Everything about this shit is just so fucking heavy.
Hi, can you hear my album? I am a Brazilian artist, and I produce in an independent way. I love the ambient / experimental scene. thank you! th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
Hi, i am a Brazilian independent artist. I composed, mixed and made the cover of this album over a year, thinking about the sleep experience and the layers of consciousness. It is a 28 minute album with two songs. I wanna be heard by people who connect with ambient music. Basinski introduce me to it. (I am discovering ways to spread my art and my work.) This is very special. It means a lot to me. Enjoy. th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
always loved how people find words to describe what they hear. lyrical poets everywhere, the deeper you dive. but it's another realm. this one here comes from elsewhere.
Hi, can you hear my album? I am a Brazilian artist, and I produce in an independent way. I love the ambient / experimental scene. thank you! th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
Hi, i am a Brazilian independent artist. I composed, mixed and made the cover of this album over a year, thinking about the sleep experience and the layers of consciousness. It is a 28 minute album with two songs. I wanna be heard by people who connect with ambient music. Basinski introduce me to it. (I am discovering ways to spread my art and my work.) This is very special. It means a lot to me. Enjoy. th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
Beautiful repeating patterns, slowly falling apart. The regularity of daily life, the pendulums of history, our beating hearts - all things are disintegrating into chaos, and eventually even the chaos will be replaced by silence. Like the panes of a stained glass window in an old cathedral
Hi, i am a Brazilian independent artist. I composed, mixed and made the cover of this album over a year, thinking about the sleep experience and the layers of consciousness. It is a 28 minute album with two songs. I wanna be heard by people who connect with ambient music. Basinski introduce me to it. (I am discovering ways to spread my art and my work.) This is very special. It means a lot to me. Enjoy. th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
@@Adyman182 true but the existential horror of Leylands work is him putting us in the shoes of someone losing their ties to reality. This album felt chill until I realized it was an homage to the victims of 9/11 WTC attacks. Now it feels dreary
I can't believe it's been two decades....recall watching TV that morning seeing the towers in smoke and hundreds of papers falling in the wind. RIP those poor souls
In a healthy state, analog tape is pale brown, the color of the magnetic audio recording contained therein. In 2001, William Basinski, looking to digitize a collection of older tape loops he’d made out of easy listening music, found that the tape began to flake a bit as it played, like paint peeling. Playing the loops repeatedly, they began to lose their composition as the tape disintegrated. What starts as a snippet of a forlorn brass instrument eventually degraded into a pale imitation, as though he’d produced a composition and then, immediately after, performed its faded memory. The Disintegration Loops is immensely long (the first of its four parts is over an hour), but it is made up of repeated snippets sometimes as short as five or 10 seconds. Over the course of that mammoth running time, you hear the piece fall apart, literally. “I’m recording the life and death of a melody,” Basinski said in a 2011 Radiolab interview. “It just made me think of human beings, you know, and how we die.” The mysteries of life and death are perhaps too big a question to be answered by tape drone, and Basinski doesn’t attempt to. His piece is beautiful and sad, temporal and infinite; its changes are imperceptible, yet ever-present. It sounds like wind, like a ship’s horn heard in the distance when lost at sea, on track to either rescuing you or passing you by. Basinski made the accidental discovery of the tapes’ disintegration in 2001, shortly before the attacks on the World Trade Center. From his home in Brooklyn on September 11th, he made a short film of the light just before the evening’s end. When Disintegration Loops was released, a still from that film made up its cover. The music has since been entwined with the loss of that day, and rightfully so, but it represents forward momentum, too. Hearing the sound slowly degrade, it's clear it will eventually disappear entirely. But until then, it keeps going, trying its best to play before reaching the end. -Matthew Schnipper Source: pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/
Cesario VB Thank you so much for the clarification. An extraordinary piece of art that, like all good art, points to questions and experiences we can barely articulate yet still have such resonance with us.
I worked at 7-eleven in 2014 and used to play this over my speaker at 6am. People would come in for their morning coffee and they'd say things like "man I'm trying to wake up and this is putting me back to sleep!"... I remember one person said it sounded like "spa music"
I imagine some soldier dying on a Napoleonic battlefield, chaos surrounding him, staring up at the sky as he wonders what his life was all for. Only music like this could paint pictures of such paralyzing brutality.
This reminds me of a factory i once worked in. All the machines working and making noises...repeated all day...the same sounds...moving machines...hydraulics..steam...they seemed to make their own music. I felt trapped. I hated the place...day in..day out. The machines were relentless and i...we...couldnt keep up. The high yellow windows only letting in a little sunshine giving hints of the freedom that awaited me outside when i finish my shift. My god the machines...like living metal slave drivers...get me the f@#k out of here. One day i did...i won the lottery. I walked away and looked back at the place after checking my lotto ticket on my break.I walked away and loojed back at the big old iron gates...then all of a sudden i woke up with my face in my cornflakes...my coffee was cold. Its 5am...and i must have drifted back to sleep and realised ive won shit on the lottery and i might be late for work. OMG!!!...the noise...them dam machines making music like this. I have to leave the house shortly. I might buy a lottery ticket on my way to work. You never know!!!!...and so my shift begins!!!...them dam machines!!!!!..........
@@billy2062 okay...and they suck and drain the life and soul out of you right....it might have been worse for you then. I didnt get my first job until i was 18...that was 1990..
@@zogwort1522 i sort of hope you think im funny or something like that for saying those things. can i follow your instagram or twitter so we can chat about girls, women babes or both :)
Oddly I don't think about 9/11 when I hear this but rather my alcoholic grandfather, swig random shots throughout the day for years and years until his death.
In that scenario you'd succumb to dehydration first, but while listening to this it would be a very suitable way to go out indeed! Almost 2001 a Space Odyssey esque
I just listened to this in full for the first time at 5am and I'm absolutely astounded. I honestly don't even know what to do after hearing this right now. Beautiful and moving despite being so minimal. This album makes me want to give up my current life and go traveling wherever at random to see new things. Seriously one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard.
for me, listening to this is like a walk in the park compared to EATEOT, yes it's melancholy but allows my mind to roam, EATEOT just felt like i was trapped in misery and confusion the whole time, like being alone in a nursing home and unable to escape.
This is one of the most painful pieces of music for me to listen to. Not because it is bad but because it is beautiful beyond anything. Out of all the beautiful things I've seen and heard I think this is definitely one of the most beautiful if not the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. The devastation, shock, tragedy, loneliness, paranoia, sadness, guilt, fear and everything in between are captured perfectly in one loop that falls apart on itself and dies, just like all of us. This album can be as much as a representation of the events that took place on 9/11 as it can be for life. We all just fade away eventually. Thank you, William for your brilliance.
I feel similarly. I mean, the melancholy it throws me into is just a little tiny bit too deep. It's a masterpiece, but I neverd listened to it all. Not because it bores me, but because I cannot stand contemplating my mortality for that long xD
Every time I listen to this a melancholy feeling comes over me as I think about the past and all the different people I’ve encountered throughout the years. Here I sit alone now on my back porch thinking about some of these people that probably have forgotten about me.
I'm sorry man. Sometimes I try to think of the right word to describe that headspace. Melancholy is correct but...in some ways I wish there was another word to describe the longing for time that has passed. Regret? Guilt? Perhaps the loops say enough as it is..
The starting loop is about 6.5 seconds long, which would require about 580 loops to fill 63 minutes, unless the duration significantly changes. Someone should film themselves doing the same thing like waking up or sitting down to eat or going outside for 580 days with this album playing in the background. Make the video avant-grade as fuck as time goes on. And here you go, I gave you an Academy Award winning idea, aye.
All day I've been feeling terribly guilty and upset over a relatively minor work related thing. Sat down to listen to this and now I'm in bed with the heat on and my cat laying next to me and I'm unable to stop the steady flow of tears. Unsure how I'm going to explain this to my s/o when he comes home if he comes up to check on me but I know I need to listen to this all the way through. Something about the flutter of the crackling edges of the trumpet reminds me of those ragged breaths we take after weeping with our whole bodies and it's so beautiful but so so so sad. I was brought here by the Radiolab episode on Loops. Very good if you want more context presented in a chill entertaining way. I hope you are all having a peaceful day.
The way i've always interpreted this album is that death is impossible to stop sure you can delay it but you can't stop it from happening and it terrifies me its like you 're slowly dying throughout the song and despite that its your final moments you are calm and ready to pass away but when you are actually close to when you will pass you panic but can't delay it anymore and fade away.
Chronicling my listening: 8:00 I feel like the music is having a hard time breathing. The music struggles to be consistent, and it devolves. Very noice. 16:00 Feel like the breathing still struggles, but there's almost a rhythmic step to it, like the breather is getting used to it and anticipating it. 24:00 Noticing other instruments like what sounds like a harp. I know the horns been there, but I don't know how long it's been there. 28:30 The music is starting to have a very intentional staccato to it. Like a quick, shallow two breaths followed by a deeper third. Less sporadic breathing than before. 33:00 A second melody started coming in. Again, I can't say when. It's still breathing, but now steadied. 35:30 That horn guides the breather, I think. Every now and then when the breathing stops I imagine it's a step being taken forward, following the brass sound of some distant caller. 38:00 Feels like some stumbling steps, and the reverb of the horn grows a little frantic, a few steps before desperation. 39:30 There's a low humming that sounds like a plane is coming closer, or something loud and powerful is coming closer to the breather. All I can imagine is a titan walking through a bronze arch of a large city. There's no sky, nothing really except the empty city and the titan, breathing. And the object circling overhead. 42:00 The breathing has shifted. It's gotten lower, and deeper. Not as light and crisp, but labored and like it comes from the gut rather than the chest, or that the lungs are now behind the body and ears. 43:00 something's wrong. 44:00 I believe the titan is faltering. The breathing is the same, but the steps are not consistent, they stumble and trouble along. 48:00 That distant humming is now like a microwave right next to your ear. I get the impression that whatever it is, it's building around the titan as it walks. It places buildings, secures roads; generally benevolent. But it does hum constantly. 51:00 The warmth settles in. It wasn't obvious until now that the humming correlates to some warmth. It warms the walking titan. The horns have quieted, but on the titan plods. 54:00 Oh no. The warmth isn't a good thing. The humming of the creator has essentially taken over the foreground. 56:00 the humming gives the breathing some trepidation. It's lulls overtake as the foreground now. 59:00 I don't think the humming is very harmful. It may be taking center stage now, but I don't think it and its warmth are hostile. 1:01:30 The breathing is quieting. The humming is also quieting, but remaining control. The horn has long since escaped, though some faint traces can be heard. 1:02:30 The music is all gone, replaced entirely with the humming. 1:03:00 The humming is retreating. 1:03:25 Whatever it was, it has found peace, and is over. EDIT: After several minutes of no music and silence, I feel better. I feel rejuvenated and inspired to continue.
This song perfectly reflects children like myself (in DC) waiting for their parents to come home from all of the attacks. All of the emotions of those who were able or unable to see their loved ones after.
Your comment made me think of me. Older me working in an office 5 days a week, boxed off from everyone, then getting home to my one bedroom flat, drinking a neat whiskey sitting in front of a static TV. Then repeat.
Meaningless work. Spent throughout our lives just 2 be able to eat & keep a roof over our head. Then, it all ends & someone else moves into your dwelling.
@@zogwort1522 Damn grand pops, I agree that this doesn't have a unique backstory and the sound is okay to listen to, but I want to hear you go downstairs a cook up a loop on your green Vinyl. Please I am intrigued.
me and the boys slowly dissolving out of existence
The only good way to spend your time
I'm glad people are still listening to this masterpiece
This comment haunts me.
can i join pls
the dusting of half of the universe type beat
Haunting. Its like funeral music for the World Trade Center and its workers on that day.
My heart goes out to all of those who were and continue to be affected by the events of September 11th, 2001
This is what good liminal space music sounds like
Now that I know about the history of this, it's crippling to listen to. :-/
Nice work with its inspiration clearly from Lucier's "I Am Sitting In A Room" which explores a disintegration of the intelligibility of a recorded message because the microphones pick up the room's resonances which in turn disintegrate the recorded message by subsuming it. .
This song and alike music bring that nice melancholy numbness
slapped this banger on while i beat tony hawks underground on sick mode
Damn that sounds fun as hell
this is a good comment
Greatest comment of all time
This song is the perfect representation of Tony's fading existence.
He was a man so great that all knew his name and it had became immortalized in its majesty, but the man behind it began to fade, they knew the name but not the man. Soon, there will be a hole, a hole when a man should be, a hole of what might of been the man named Tony Hawk, but no longer.
This was quite a jarring comment to see after i just randomly binged some THUG videos, followed by binging some music related 9/11 videos, which specifically brought me here. Full circle.
It’s my mental breakdown and I get to choose the music
I hope you found at least some moments of peace and are doing better now.
Mine too
Depression hits harder everytime for me at least.
@@caboosesaibotloops off when it's ex implode all . No racer yet answers as friendly as MCG OMD Ra & soundandlight&I
@@erinlopez7701 I feel that. Im in a bad spot rn and this music is cathartic af
William Basinski finished the album on September 11th 2001. He sat atop a rooftop in Brooklyn and took a picture of the smoke rising above the evening horizon, that photo being the one used in the cover art. He played the album the next day aloud from his apartment as those below reconciled with the tragedy
To anyone who's got this on repeat, I hope everything turns out alright.
lamentation for a world lost and justice denied.
the culprits of this day 22 years ago are mostly still alive and currently celebrating on some israeli beach somewhere.
U too
oi, i just like how it sounds
@@cocknballtorture777point to where The News touched you
@@painstruck01September 11, 2001.
Just so you know, if you put this on at a party, people will not appreciate the subtle complexities of this piece.
love ambient music but what kind of pretentious dickhead would play this at a party
@@64_bit80 it was a joke mate, calm down.
@@grungepants ah fr my bad, hard to tell when a lot of people in these subgenres unironically say stuff like that lmao
Yea for some reason I asked the DJ to play this and everywhere at the end of time and people started giving me looks, smh people these days
@@a.c.7573 Funny how I literally know people who sway around and dance to this type of ambient noise at parties. Not everyone is only capable of throwing their asses around and dry humping to shitty club beats at parties. Learn to realize not everyone is like you.
This piece makes me feel isolated and alone. But not lonely or sad. Just neutral and increasingly becoming more distant from the world around me.
@@zogwort1522 Absolutely to the first part, I didn't so much mean "what's that mean" about their lack of complaint, I was asking more about what the fuck my statement meant, which is still a good question. You've managed to be funny where most might not find effective humor--maybe there's an equivalent beauty/peace in this music that misses you. That's not meant as insult. But I do think that you simplify your application here.
me rn
Autism isn't a mental illness. It's a neurological disorder. This is why it's so frequently mis and/or under diagnosed - while it's in the DSM, mental health 'professionals' are not equipped to diagnose neurological disorders. Same goes for ADD/ADHD, Dyslexia, and more. It would seriously pay to become more informed so that you are not part of 'The Problem', i.e. spreading DISinformation, like a DISease.
@Barclay V, @Zog Wort
That's a sad feeling to me. I mean, becoming distant from the world and such. The people, the atmosphere, and etc. only to be alone in a dark space.
@Layne Krusz Please tell me why. I'm always open to learning. But you'd have to write more if I'm to learn anything. Otherwise it's merely insult.
"...the context fades, and later so do the memories. All that really remains is the feeling like something had happened here..."
May I ask you who said that?
@@zogwort1522 lawl
@@richardgamrat1944 I searched the quote online and got nothing, so maybe he did it and put quote marks on it to make it look cool. But I also found a book named "Something happened" by Joseph Heller, maybe the quote is in that book.
you know, it is kind of strange. i come back to this comment every now and then and realise how shocklingy fitting this is. not just to this masterpiece of art. but to life itself.
This quote sounds like something out of "Synecdoche, New York", in the ending scenes where he walks through the ruins of the city, and his memories.
It's a pretty impressive quote if you just wrote that yourself, I'm interested to know it's origin.
I can't believe I bummed a cigarette with this man back in 2012 and was introduced to his art after a cool chat
No way seriously?
Yea I’ll never forget it, it was during a high school trip, senior year, right in the heart of London. My Best friend and I still reminisce about it sometimes haha crazy how these moments stick with you
Stuff of legend
How was he??
Was 18 in my first week of college on this day in 2001, my crying teacher sent us home. I just walked around the empty streets of Boston with my classmate. Nobody was talking, nobody was outside. We walked into a Chinese restaurant to get water and nobody came to serve us, we just sat down and silently watched the news coverage on the restaurant television with them for over an hour.
That time is in this album
I was 11, in New Zealand; we are ahead in timezones, so for us it happened in the early morning hours, on the 12th September - but I recall being at school that morning of the 12th and listening to the news etc. My parents were debating whether or not to send us to school. There was no immediate effect on us, but there was a definite sense of "wrongness" about the day. No classes really happened, we watched some new reports and footage and tried to understand it all. One image sticks out that day, in assembly, there was a news report being played and a brief interview with a man who was bleeding down his face and covered in ash. Someone laughed, but it wasn't humorous - it was the laugh that happens at a funeral when your limbic system goes haywire and responses don't match the scenario. They didn't know how to process it.
@@cable7763dang..
this track wouldn't be even half as eerie/beautiful as it is if these distortions and faults were artificial. The fact that we're listening to an actual tape physically withering away creates the entire novelty imo.
Even more interesting is that the final tapes were recorded from his NY apartment rooftop after the Twin Towers fell on 9/11 and the sky became evening. That's what the picture on the video cover is. Now, that's haunting.
Yeah, and just knowing that while this tape deteriorates there are people buried under the rubble slowly fading out of existence. Haunting and depressing.
@@mrtimgav Now that's what I call art.
@ek256. Not entirely true. He recorded the loops in the ‘80s and while digitalizing them earlier in 2001 he noticed they were disintegrating on playback. He took video of 9/11 and on the 12th watched it while listening to the digitalized loops and decided to release them.
My cat's breath smells of catfood.
somewhere there sits a man who is listening to this in his underwear whilst endlessly scrolling through his facebook feed forever
i see you also read a rym review
Lennard Vaarten yes indeed
and that man... is me
fuck facebook, just look at pictures of the sky and space to thisssss
Nikola Elitsov
my pleasure
I love how near the it looses it's clarity and definition but at the same time certain bass notes become more present. To me it's like memories, over time we lose some of the vivid details but the feeling remains and evolves into a deeper understanding.
@@vaporinsider you just ruined it by saying that
>looses its
Um
Well said
very well put.
the bass notes get more proeminent because as the tape disintegrates you loose the higher frequencies, and they are the ones that give definition an clarity to sound, same thing happens when you go deaf with age, you start hearing less and less higher frequencies
Some people may not know, so I’ll say it here.
The cover art for this album is a view from William’s roof of his apartment complex, hours after the World Trade Center collapsed on the day of the September 11th attacks. He was finishing this record just that morning in his apartment with his friends, and suddenly they heard a loud boom, and looked out the window and... well you know the story. I won’t go into details because it is a sensitive topic for most. Later that evening he recorded the fallout of the event during the last hour of daylight, the dark clouds that filled the sky that day, and used the stills of the recordings for the cover of his tracks, he decided to make the album a tribute to the victims of the attacks.
oo, i thou b t the cover was a skyline with a girl close up on the left
@@autumnmissepic8498 that’s him
@@filip6994 ohhh rad!
Thanks. I love you. And this upload, I mean it. Best to you
yes he borrowed the tragedy of 9/11 for his process music album, absolute charlatan
I miss my mom.
is she making pancakes for you ? :>
Me too 😏
Eme Gato You'll see her again ☝🙏
i still keep her phone charged just in case she calls
Im sorry for your loss.
There's something very triumphant about this despite how utterly depressing it is.
If that makes any fucking sense at all.
I feel it.
made perfect sense.
Agreed! It's hard to put into words though!
To me it sounds like perseverance. I imagine a Victorian factory worker surviving his machinery horror of a job, eventually and somehow surviving long enough amidst the steam powered pressing plants to clock off for the day.
Then comes the arduous walk home, up steep smog engulfed cobblestone roads, littered with every conceivable obstacle imaginable like sad donkey's that are being whipped by impatient narrowboat drivers.
Somehow, he manages to make it home, a small two up two down occupied by five families in its tiny grubby rooms with no running water or electric. He puts his cap on the mantlepiece as he warms his hands on the roaring fire, but the real warmth comes when his little daughter rushes in to greet her beloved father with a smile that can tame even the bleakest of bleakness into a moment of pure serenity.
Thats what I see haha
Since being present at 9/11 and breathing in the smoke and asbestos while trying to help people, I've watched friends who worked in the vicinity sicken and pass away over the decades. In a sense, I watched them disintegrate as I watch myself fade even now.
That might be why I can barely listen to this track sometimes even though projects by artists like The Caretaker don't have that effect. The fading memory of those individuals I lost, and the fading of the mind's coherence and recollections as I age, all seem reproduced by the eroding loop that turns skeletal and rasping before fading entirely. As though the memory pays homage to those who were erased when it slowly erases itself.
TLDR: 9/11 is an event that affected people you know, whereas Alzheimer's disease did not.
@@Vaporstruck: If that's all you got from my post, then you don't know *how* to read. And you definitely don't understand the depth of an experience like 9/11.
And you definitely don't understand the distinction I made between Basinki's technique and the Caretaker's. There's a difference between approximating the creepy lounge music in The Shining and replicating, deliberately or not, the process of the mind's erosion.
And finally, don't conflate surviving 9/11 with right-wing politics, the Gulf War or white nationalism because many of the people who got trapped in clouds of asbestos and other fatal toxins while trying to help people were and remain opposed to the politics of G.W. Bush and Giuliani in those years.
You probably don't realize this if you actually live in Brazil, but the right-wing narrative about 9/11 has nothing to do with the experience of actual victims. Many of them were immigrants and many were Muslims. When I went to mandatory group therapy after surviving, some of the people in my group were Muslims who lost family members to 9/11, only to be targeted by idiots and called terrorists even as they had to mourn lost sons and husbands.
@@reginaldbraithewaite5833 I am aware of everything you just said. But due to the very nature of a TLDR (too long, didn't read), which is a one-sentence summary of a long wall if text, of course my short description was not going to be that accurate. Saying that I "don't know *how* to read" just because of a comment on TH-cam is a bit extreme.
I would still consider William Basinski and the Caretaker pretty similar artists: both of them use short loops to portray decay and both of them do it remarkably well, although _in my opinion_ the Caretaker takes it a step further and not only uses various loops, but also destroys those loops on Stages 4-6 of EATEOT.
And yes, I am not American (though I'm also not Brazilian), so the 9/11 did not have an effect that big on me, but I won't deny that it impacted the World. Recordings of the event are an example of that.
Finally, I wasn't even talking about politics. I was just talking about ambient music.
You may want to listen to "News at 11" by vaporwave artist Cat System Corp.
i hope you are well, sir. thank you.
I just travelled 8000km for a girl, she cheated on me after 3 weeks. I'm 29, far away from my home, I never felt alone like that, I'm not depressed, just assuming my choices and understanding so much about myself and this world. I am autistic, with High intellectual potential, I ve been sad as long as I remember.
And now, it's 5 in the morning, and I'm sitting outside, in a city I don't even know, listening to this and watching the lake and the mountains, Annecy is a beautiful city, and this is where I lost my heart for ever.
(Sorry for my english)
I don't even know someone to share this story with, I'm ashamed, so I had to write it somewhere.
I send you all my love, you, the stranger who is reading this. You deserve the best
I'm sorry that happened and I hope you make it back home safe.
losing your idealistic view of the world sucks man. Almost all of us go through it eventually. You have to rebuild it on better foundations, not on things like money, relationship and women that aren't to be trusted
que fuerte
its ok, i hope it's better now for you. i also listen to this currently in a life crisis, also partially relationship related. funny enough an autism related tiktok talked about this and thats why i checked out dlp1 again. i've seen him play live and liked his music for quite some years though and i'm generally extremely obsessed with loops in my music making. this piece helped with my crisis and making me aware that i'm probably on the spectrum too after an adhd diagnosis with 30, which i thought was the all end goal, especially the meds, but it was just another door in the labyrinth and i still don't "fit in" as i thought i would.
A year has gone by, and I hope you're doing better. There are people who care, especially those of us who have experienced the same kinds of things. Sending a virtual hug bc everyone can use one. 🌙
it's that day again
Indeed
Came here because of it as well.
Anyone still blasting this at frat parties in 2018?
Spring break 2019 brah, we got the keg ready up in this
Sure, this banger is some next level shit
This had me rollin 🤣😆 😂
E'ryday, bro!
Fuck frat boys
It feels like the music is crying, stuttering while slowly breathing in and out. Like sighing. The melody sounds like a warm breath to me
Look at the backstory behind it, you will learn why it sounds this way!
@@lawsen3719 i cant find
@@blendyboi5023 He finished the recording of the Disintegration Loops on 9/11 and watched the towers fall on top of his apartment in Brooklyn.
I once listened to this entire loop with nothing but a blank document to accompany me. I forced myself to sit through it and wrote whatever I felt throughout. The subject matter could be the song, random thoughts, anything that passed through the mind. No breaks, distractions, nothing. Just sit and experience. Writing whatever you wish on to the blank slate in front of you. Needless to say, it was quite an interesting trip around my head. With nothing, you desire something. And as the loop slowly fades away, you feel gradually more empty. Like somethings slowly being drained from you which you have no control over. I encourage anyone who passes this to try it out. You might learn something about yourself. Also MAKE SURE you're unable to see time in any sort of way. That being your local time and the songs progress. It raises the anticipation of when everything will end. Thus forcing you to output more words before it all concludes. Light pressure.
Apologies for the wall of text, just thought I'd share something mildly interesting.
As the disintegration loops, so to, might you.
Thanks for sharing your experience I'll definitely want to try this one day..maybe on a summer night
That's my best tune for thought processes
I'm not even joking more then one time I heard this loop playing in my head coming from the distance
In that case I advise going through the whole disintegration loops series that it is about 4/5hours
It holds up to the first loop yes
I did all of this. Everything you said was true.
Man that triumphant-sounding French horn just soldiers on like a trooper. Even as everything else fades away, if you listen closely, under that melodic hum, it’s STILL there. How symbolic of how we keep soldiering on through it all, no matter what life throws at us, right up to the bitter end.
Tbh, this reminds me of being high. Not just being a full on junkie, but taking drugs to die. It reminds me of cold nights, with no one else but myself. No food, no love, no help. Being out in the night, wrapped up in a thick jacket and a beanie over my face. Wondering if I’d wake up, but not caring if I did or not. In fact I embraced the cold, the feeling of losing myself. Falling down endlessly. Waiting to die. Being sad that I didn’t die. Then wandering aimlessly, waiting for another fix and just wasting away. That’s what this reminds me of. Reminds me that feeling is still there, even though I’m far from it. Hauntingly beautiful, empty, yet so full of emotion. Only a certain few can accept it for what it is. And I feel that way about myself too. I know I’m not going to do anything stupid now, but I also know I’m not going to be here forever. And I’ll be honest, I don’t want to be in my late 40s feeling even worse than I do now. So idk where I’ll end up tomorrow, but no matter where, I’ll be fine, and I’ll make it on my own. With love - just me 🖤 once again I’ll drift away into my eternal state of bliss, and hopefully this time I can stay there
You are god.
You are god.
Good luck dude
hope you are good, brother
god this comments section is depressing af
that's right! Come on people, here's a piece of beautiful music to help you rise above it all!
@Layne Krusz Sure. And I was commenting on Destruction Loops (not EATEOT which I haven't heard) and which was given that name because the tape medium was decaying to create a beautiful effect. Dementia, depression, global warming etc. are all real but it's up to us whether we use music to make our lift our state of mind or not. As a fairly old person life's too short to be wallowing in self pity like I might have done as a teenager. When I'm feeling down I stick on a Bootsy Collins record, not Basinski!
Full of pseudo-intellectuals lol
Pseudo intellectuals is a peculiar pedantitical moniker for people whose over extended lexical argot for unsimplifying bombastisized perceivements that are
ahh right on then
@@Professor_Utonium_ I feel sorry for you that you think people are trying to be intellectual here
I hope that you're doing well when you read this.
I really hope things are getting better and that you're happier
What do you think the future will hold?
Hopefully you know by now lol
Because I'm currently clueless and scared my friend
Do you think it's true that it's not meant for us?
I surly hope not
So many decisions you made and leaps you took
I'm hoping it was for the best
I feel dizzy and confused sadly
My hopes and dreams are yours too
Please lift us to what we deserve
And let us walk, where the sun shines, i truly love you, we both know that's true
Please take care of us
Thank you.
"my hopes and dreams are yours to, please lift us to what we deserve". Thank you
Amen
I don’t know how I feel about this.
I am alone,
you are alone,
so we are not alone anymore.
Listening to this on Wednesday the 18th of March, 2020, in self Isolation with my family. Just thought I'd leave that here as somehow it feels fitting. Very very strange times.
Ha!!! I think you mean YOU were listening to WHAM!
@@zogwort1522 well if you think lycra hot pants are right, who am I to tell you they're wrong?
@@zogwort1522 Morrisey?
@@zogwort1522 I've never seen the back of this very album. Last time I checked the price was in the hundreds for a box set. The bank manager would never agree to such a transaction.
@@zogwort1522 Holy moly. You mean he was dressed like Jareth when he recorded this? That's bleak. I always thought he was an auld bloke. Still, Prince dressed like this his whole career and his legacy is sound.
when it really comes down to it, all we are are the generalizations of our era. our egos would like us to think something different, but in the end we're just points in time, probability on a spreadsheet. after all, we are just space dust as it seems. the idea of lack of importance is a hard one to accept. I'm not inherently special, you aren't either; no matter your accomplishments or differences you make. In the grand scheme of things, nothing we do really matters. this idea isn't even depressing, rather numbing. unfeeling. there is no greater purpose or cosmic reasoning behind the things that happen. god, i'd love for someone to tell me its all going to be okay, that this simply isn't true. that's all i've ever wanted. i'm not even upset about the nature of my insignificant existence, its just the feeling that the time that crawls by is slowing becoming a walk. its the idea that no matter how hard i try, all i am is the flow of energy in an indifferent, unfeeling cycle. i wish i had someone to share these feelings with, i wish i had someone to make it all worth it- make my existence to mean something; even if it is just for a fraction of a microscopic speck in time. right now, i don't though- so here is where i'll put my thoughts. hope this finds you well, good luck.
Each loop reminds me of days seemingly shortening as you age
Oh shit this is it
Same for me but instead of days it's weeks, months, and years shortening.
January feels like last week
helphelphelphelp
“Everywhere at the End of Time” by The Caretaker.
Two years ago today, my mother passed away. I scattered her ashes in her hometown in New York, and the next day I visited the 9/11 Memorial, where I first heard this song. On the train ride home, I played the track on TH-cam while reading a Pitchfork review of the album. The article began with: "You are slowly being destroyed. It's imperceptible in the scheme of a day or a week or even a year, but you are aging, and your body is degrading." And suddenly everything was connected in a profound yet depressing way: from this tape recording to our loved ones and memories, nothing lasts forever. Everything eventually crumbles to dust. The loops are heartbreaking and yet comforting, and I still listen to them a few times a year. They encapsulate my feelings in ways that words cannot.
Cassandra Mike Tango Thanks for this comment. The power of art...
These loops are beautiful to listen to, even though they are associated with a darker context. And that, in itself, is life in all its glory. Love life for its beauty, even though darkness is on every horizon. Your comment helped me frame that thought. Thank you stranger.
an inch of time is an inch of gold
What a beautiful comment. Thanks.
I'm sorry for your loss. I also lost my mother recently. These loops are truly beautiful, as are your words. The thing that gives us meaning is also the very thing that destroys us: our finitude. Cheers
i am turning into metal coins
i eat ass
I smell pennies!
Ok. Have fun in the pseudo void of surreal! Can you get some egg nog while you’re there? We’re almost out.
Declan Techo you remind of the way exurb1a talks
@ASFvsASAP 1 you sound like a full one buddy
This piece is like life itself: from one minute to the next, not much is changing but when you see the whole picture, everything is different
yepp
*this*
I know 🤧😓
This was the original name for a famous kids cereal, but after abysmal first quarter sales, they opted for the name Fruit Loops. Sales picked up and the rest is history.
Music to watch the world end to...
Watching the moon slowly hit the earth.
This is on my 'Getting ready to go out' playlist.
"getting ready"
honestly this makes me feel like the guy from Memento
So wouldn't it make sense that death, too, would be wrapped in dream?
interesting concept sir. much obliged.
It's part of my 'Getting ready to go out and buy some milk' playlist.
Have you ever sat in a dark room?
Your eyes adjust after a while, the shapes becoming more vivid, the picture more clear...until the room doesn't seem so dark after all, outside just seems so bright.
And when you finally step out the light is so strong...it's blinding and burning and you have to squint and force yourself to see.
I think when people are in the dark for a long time they don't realise how used to it they have become, and only the strongest can brave the light, can force through the burning splendor. The rest fall back into the dark.
Take that how you will.
It was just a random thought anyway.
i cant think of a response besides....you are absolutely right and extraordinary with your words
That random though just changed my perspective on many topics of my life... thank you.
Platonician view
Thank you Brendan
I can't believe it's been 5 months since I left this comment, this year has been crazy...
Regardless, it's nice to see my comment has been seen and considered by so many people, and that I was able to provoke some thought among others about such abstract concepts as light and dark or good and bad, depending on how literally you took my words.
I came back here because I simply couldn't forget the hauntingly beautiful sound of these loops and the thoughts they provoked.
I hope everyone is doing well and that the difficult times that have presented themselves as of late have treated everyone well enough, be well everyone and stay safe.
me: I've been feeling really awful today, I think I'm going through a depression phase again :(
youtube recommendations: _*kicks in my kneecaps *_
hey, hope you're doing better now and your day is going well
you actually relieved some of my depression with that comment. But seriously, I hope you're ok, one year on
@@alixmeek8478 I'm glad :) I know how that feels bro
I'm doing alright rn, I'm finally getting some freedom from my abusive parents and getting away from that so I'm doing a bit better mentally. Good luck to you :)
@@a-bird-lover sounds like a huge burden lifted. I am glad things are looking up for you :)
It's getting dark, and my batteries are low.
**sad robo noises**
27:51 imagine taking the subway when the towers were hit and when you reach the street all you see is a yellow haze of smoke
This reminds me of my Cat (of 17 years) slowly dying in my arms. Her breathing, and also something else quite ineffable was just like this. Om mah me pad me hum Mooshka. 🕉😻🕯💜
There's a weird ambient charm to this that I can't really describe in words, there should be some sort of psychological study on this.
My D&D group's dungeon master has us pick character themes for our characters. I picked this song for my 83 year old goliath druid with 1 arm.
lol
Nice
i will not let my parents lose their child. i will keep going. i have to
Sharing some love. Here's an ambient, meditative piece for you. : th-cam.com/video/XOXgmuKevf4/w-d-xo.html ENJOY! :)
This song feels like I’m trying to find my way out of thick fog. It’s so beautiful and haunting.
the fog gets thicker the longer it lasts though so play it in reverse
To think that something as ominous yet beautiful as listening to a tape die can make the brain stop for a whole hour, to think that this set of fading notes can make an individual lose sight of everything that is bothering them, lose sight of all the meaningless issues that come in this life, it's amazing.
Sometimes, the simplest things in life- in my case, listening to this song and spacing out for an hour as I disregard the stress that tomorrow could bring or the stress that yesterday brought- can go the furthest.
I haven't had a moment like this in years.
Cherish your lives, everyone.
shut up thanx
Honestly, the first time I listened to it, I 'gave up' at the halfway point. I'm fine with repetition and shades of drone in music, but I found this to be a bit long-winded and aimless upon first listen. After coming back to it during a deep dive into experimental music, I think it's starting to click with me. I'm hearing subtleties that I had missed the first time around. I'm also beginning to put images and ideas with what I'm hearing; I didn't do that the first time. Perhaps this is one of the best examples of musical pieces that absolutely require listener participation. If my first listen was a young me in school ignoring the teacher, my second listen is me in the front row, fingers interlaced, with eyes and ears on the instructor. I'm all the better for it, too!
I had the same experience as you. I didn't 'understand' what it was all about until one day I left on "Brian Eno - Music for airports" in my room. 2 hours had gone by, and I was sitting down meditating without even meaning to. It really calmed me down, and just made me think and introspect. It's lovely. I call this mindfulness music, because it grounds me, and keeps me in the moment, in the now. "Be Here Now" - Ram Dass.
The fact that this was finished on 9/11, that the album art is a pic the artist took from his apartment building’s rooftop as the towers fell, the fact that he played this from the same rooftop the next day…
Everything about this shit is just so fucking heavy.
This is truly profound work. Something so simple conveying so much depth. A lifetime in an hour. The birth and death of a reality in an hour.
YES ✨🙌
Time is profound work
Hi, can you hear my album? I am a Brazilian artist, and I produce in an independent way. I love the ambient / experimental scene. thank you!
th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
Hi, i am a Brazilian independent artist.
I composed, mixed and made the cover of
this album over a year, thinking about
the sleep experience and the layers of consciousness.
It is a 28 minute album with two songs.
I wanna be heard by people who connect
with ambient music. Basinski introduce me to it.
(I am discovering ways to spread my art and my work.)
This is very special. It means a lot to me.
Enjoy.
th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
Me an hour ago: scrolling through Pornhub. Me now: weeping at my own weeping, in wistful pangs of regret.
i don't wanna be horny anymore....
i just wanna be happy.....
@@cahrlaw hm
For some reason I have similar tunes sometimes at the end of a dream, when I wake up It's difficult to remember the melody.
i actually relate to this so hard
It's that day of the year folks
always loved how people find words to describe what they hear. lyrical poets everywhere, the deeper you dive. but it's another realm. this one here comes from elsewhere.
Sink and sleep,
tonight we rest
No more work
just gentle dreams
Hi, can you hear my album? I am a Brazilian artist, and I produce in an independent way. I love the ambient / experimental scene. thank you!
th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
thats realy beutyfull
Hi, i am a Brazilian independent artist.
I composed, mixed and made the cover of
this album over a year, thinking about
the sleep experience and the layers of consciousness.
It is a 28 minute album with two songs.
I wanna be heard by people who connect
with ambient music. Basinski introduce me to it.
(I am discovering ways to spread my art and my work.)
This is very special. It means a lot to me.
Enjoy.
th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
@@GANDEIA I’ll give it a listen
This is the water
This is the well
Drink full and descend
The horse is the white of the eyes
And dark within
Beautiful repeating patterns, slowly falling apart. The regularity of daily life, the pendulums of history, our beating hearts - all things are disintegrating into chaos, and eventually even the chaos will be replaced by silence.
Like the panes of a stained glass window in an old cathedral
TWENTY-THREE YEARS.
2001-2021
This and "Everywhere at the end of time" is just such a mood.
Hi, i am a Brazilian independent artist.
I composed, mixed and made the cover of
this album over a year, thinking about
the sleep experience and the layers of consciousness.
It is a 28 minute album with two songs.
I wanna be heard by people who connect
with ambient music. Basinski introduce me to it.
(I am discovering ways to spread my art and my work.)
This is very special. It means a lot to me.
Enjoy.
th-cam.com/video/Tp2P5S-txVI/w-d-xo.html
This is just chill ambient by comparison, EATEOT is pure existential horror.
@@Adyman182 Stage 1 and 2 are alright after that it's indescribable.
@@Adyman182 true but the existential horror of Leylands work is him putting us in the shoes of someone losing their ties to reality. This album felt chill until I realized it was an homage to the victims of 9/11 WTC attacks.
Now it feels dreary
I caught Dementia from that album
I can't believe it's been two decades....recall watching TV that morning seeing the towers in smoke and hundreds of papers falling in the wind. RIP those poor souls
In a healthy state, analog tape is pale brown, the color of the magnetic audio recording contained therein. In 2001, William Basinski, looking to digitize a collection of older tape loops he’d made out of easy listening music, found that the tape began to flake a bit as it played, like paint peeling. Playing the loops repeatedly, they began to lose their composition as the tape disintegrated. What starts as a snippet of a forlorn brass instrument eventually degraded into a pale imitation, as though he’d produced a composition and then, immediately after, performed its faded memory.
The Disintegration Loops is immensely long (the first of its four parts is over an hour), but it is made up of repeated snippets sometimes as short as five or 10 seconds. Over the course of that mammoth running time, you hear the piece fall apart, literally. “I’m recording the life and death of a melody,” Basinski said in a 2011 Radiolab interview. “It just made me think of human beings, you know, and how we die.” The mysteries of life and death are perhaps too big a question to be answered by tape drone, and Basinski doesn’t attempt to. His piece is beautiful and sad, temporal and infinite; its changes are imperceptible, yet ever-present. It sounds like wind, like a ship’s horn heard in the distance when lost at sea, on track to either rescuing you or passing you by.
Basinski made the accidental discovery of the tapes’ disintegration in 2001, shortly before the attacks on the World Trade Center. From his home in Brooklyn on September 11th, he made a short film of the light just before the evening’s end. When Disintegration Loops was released, a still from that film made up its cover. The music has since been entwined with the loss of that day, and rightfully so, but it represents forward momentum, too. Hearing the sound slowly degrade, it's clear it will eventually disappear entirely. But until then, it keeps going, trying its best to play before reaching the end. -Matthew Schnipper
Source: pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9948-the-50-best-ambient-albums-of-all-time/
Cesario VB Thank you so much for the clarification. An extraordinary piece of art that, like all good art, points to questions and experiences we can barely articulate yet still have such resonance with us.
Thanks for sharing!
stunning. I love you!
Too bad he wasn't the first to actually do this, huh?
Acetate and Polyester backed analog tapes are different colors. Acetate is more of a tan/orange/brown. His tapes were most likely polyester backed.
I worked at 7-eleven in 2014 and used to play this over my speaker at 6am. People would come in for their morning coffee and they'd say things like "man I'm trying to wake up and this is putting me back to sleep!"... I remember one person said it sounded like "spa music"
You can never find a better duo than 7-Eleven and ambient musical decay. I love that scenario you've just put into my head, thanks
@@shaunjacobalde6345 I'm happy you appreciate the imagery ~ I wanted to provide that experience for people and it will always be a fond memory :)(:
i’d have loved to be there
@@kate3210 maybe in my next life I'll do it all over again and you can reincarnate there!
@@shaunjacobalde6345 I'm reading this inside a 7-Eleven right now on 9/11/2021
I imagine some soldier dying on a Napoleonic battlefield, chaos surrounding him, staring up at the sky as he wonders what his life was all for. Only music like this could paint pictures of such paralyzing brutality.
Brilliant analogy.
Description reminds me of Prince Andrei in the book War and Peace.
@@calebfoster1832 I was about to say the same thing! Never finished the book as I found it too tedious and long.
@A A i bet you're a closet gay
@@zogwort1522 same
This reminds me of a factory i once worked in. All the machines working and making noises...repeated all day...the same sounds...moving machines...hydraulics..steam...they seemed to make their own music. I felt trapped. I hated the place...day in..day out. The machines were relentless and i...we...couldnt keep up. The high yellow windows only letting in a little sunshine giving hints of the freedom that awaited me outside when i finish my shift. My god the machines...like living metal slave drivers...get me the f@#k out of here. One day i did...i won the lottery. I walked away and looked back at the place after checking my lotto ticket on my break.I walked away and loojed back at the big old iron gates...then all of a sudden i woke up with my face in my cornflakes...my coffee was cold. Its 5am...and i must have drifted back to sleep and realised ive won shit on the lottery and i might be late for work. OMG!!!...the noise...them dam machines making music like this. I have to leave the house shortly. I might buy a lottery ticket on my way to work. You never know!!!!...and so my shift begins!!!...them dam machines!!!!!..........
Modern Indentured Servitude...
Nicely written tho lol
I used to work at a place like that in 1978-80!)
@@billy2062 okay...and they suck and drain the life and soul out of you right....it might have been worse for you then. I didnt get my first job until i was 18...that was 1990..
hey did you ever win the lottery? if so, can i have some money? :D
I had a bad day today, this piece cured me.
thank you and good night.
relax the mind, release the stress
i have no girlfriend goodnight
20 years...May those 2,977 lives rest well.
carti would go crazy on this
wish i could just enter a whole new life
@@zogwort1522 hi. what if i told you that i just like how this "song" sounds. the pure sonics of it and that is all. babey girly poop
@@zogwort1522 th-cam.com/video/8XW-3ByOf5o/w-d-xo.html i bet thats you right now XD
@@zogwort1522 i think im going to cuff my hollister jeans 2 times per leg then go grab a starbucks drink
@@zogwort1522 hey! this song is really profound. what are you effing talking about!
@@zogwort1522 i sort of hope you think im funny or something like that for saying those things. can i follow your instagram or twitter so we can chat about girls, women babes or both :)
Oddly I don't think about 9/11 when I hear this but rather my alcoholic grandfather, swig random shots throughout the day for years and years until his death.
Damn man
just like this loop he slowly decayed till completely ceasing.. that's awful:(
I bet this is what an astronaut hears in his last moments before succumbing to starvation, after being lost in space alone for years.
In that scenario you'd succumb to dehydration first, but while listening to this it would be a very suitable way to go out indeed! Almost 2001 a Space Odyssey esque
there is no sound in space there is
Jesus Christ
Rooster water can be recycled
@A A god-tier comment
I just listened to this in full for the first time at 5am and I'm absolutely astounded. I honestly don't even know what to do after hearing this right now. Beautiful and moving despite being so minimal. This album makes me want to give up my current life and go traveling wherever at random to see new things. Seriously one of the best pieces of music I've ever heard.
DO ITTTT
What an amazing free improvisation this song is. You never knew in which direction it will go next minute.
i made a project of songs sorta like this … lol check em out for a laugh acaerea.bandcamp.com/releases
man, that is such a great way to look at this album, it hadn't occurred to me to think of it like this
for me, listening to this is like a walk in the park compared to EATEOT, yes it's melancholy but allows my mind to roam, EATEOT just felt like i was trapped in misery and confusion the whole time, like being alone in a nursing home and unable to escape.
Everything's soft after EATEOT xD
@@nargakugo199 eateot is experimental music for people who don't listen to experimental music lol
@@heckicusdoomicuswizardus1382 ^
sick of gatekeeping mfers, just shut the fuck up
@@heckicusdoomicuswizardus1382 got any suggestions?
This is one of the most painful pieces of music for me to listen to. Not because it is bad but because it is beautiful beyond anything. Out of all the beautiful things I've seen and heard I think this is definitely one of the most beautiful if not the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. The devastation, shock, tragedy, loneliness, paranoia, sadness, guilt, fear and everything in between are captured perfectly in one loop that falls apart on itself and dies, just like all of us. This album can be as much as a representation of the events that took place on 9/11 as it can be for life. We all just fade away eventually. Thank you, William for your brilliance.
I feel similarly. I mean, the melancholy it throws me into is just a little tiny bit too deep. It's a masterpiece, but I neverd listened to it all. Not because it bores me, but because I cannot stand contemplating my mortality for that long xD
Doesn't hit as hard as when I was 13, I think my taste disintegrated
This is how it feels on the last days of your depression.
Every time I listen to this a melancholy feeling comes over me as I think about the past and all the different people I’ve encountered throughout the years. Here I sit alone now on my back porch thinking about some of these people that probably have forgotten about me.
I'm sorry man. Sometimes I try to think of the right word to describe that headspace. Melancholy is correct but...in some ways I wish there was another word to describe the longing for time that has passed. Regret? Guilt? Perhaps the loops say enough as it is..
The video for this should've been image getting more and more jpg compression
The video for it is the twin towers slowly burning as it gets darker and darker out.
@@PureExpression ?
@@damianb2374 he's talking about this video
th-cam.com/video/qYOr8TlnqsY/w-d-xo.html
that would match really well
"William Basinski becoming uncanny"
The starting loop is about 6.5 seconds long, which would require about 580 loops to fill 63 minutes, unless the duration significantly changes. Someone should film themselves doing the same thing like waking up or sitting down to eat or going outside for 580 days with this album playing in the background. Make the video avant-grade as fuck as time goes on. And here you go, I gave you an Academy Award winning idea, aye.
That's a neat idea. You should do it
This is how dissociation feels like
underrated comment
Interesting fact: The album cover is the New York skyline after the events of 9/11.
Taken by the musician himself as he witnessed it
The whole album is actually dedicated to the victims of the 9/11 attacks, as the artist who made this album witnessed the attacks himself
All day I've been feeling terribly guilty and upset over a relatively minor work related thing. Sat down to listen to this and now I'm in bed with the heat on and my cat laying next to me and I'm unable to stop the steady flow of tears. Unsure how I'm going to explain this to my s/o when he comes home if he comes up to check on me but I know I need to listen to this all the way through.
Something about the flutter of the crackling edges of the trumpet reminds me of those ragged breaths we take after weeping with our whole bodies and it's so beautiful but so so so sad.
I was brought here by the Radiolab episode on Loops. Very good if you want more context presented in a chill entertaining way.
I hope you are all having a peaceful day.
Thank you for sharing. Hope you are doing better..
9/11 20th anniversary. Never forget, not as a cliché slogan but to truly remember the awful start of the 21st century.
20 years ago today the world changed completely & forever. This was the perfect haunting soundtrack. Still can’t believe it all man.. 🙏🏙
This feels like Sept 11th 2001. I can see the planes crashing into the buildings when I hear this song. Its really it feels very haunting and spooky.
This feels like the soundtrack to the heat death of the universe
Oh God Oh Fuck: The Musical
The way i've always interpreted this album is that death is impossible to stop sure you can delay it but you can't stop it from happening and it terrifies me its like you 're slowly dying throughout the song and despite that its your final moments you are calm and ready to pass away but when you are actually close to when you will pass you panic but can't delay it anymore and fade away.
WOAHHHHH! That is a beautiful interpretation! Thank you for this insight and God bless you ❤️ ❤️ ❤️
Chronicling my listening:
8:00 I feel like the music is having a hard time breathing. The music struggles to be consistent, and it devolves. Very noice.
16:00 Feel like the breathing still struggles, but there's almost a rhythmic step to it, like the breather is getting used to it and anticipating it.
24:00 Noticing other instruments like what sounds like a harp. I know the horns been there, but I don't know how long it's been there.
28:30 The music is starting to have a very intentional staccato to it. Like a quick, shallow two breaths followed by a deeper third. Less sporadic breathing than before.
33:00 A second melody started coming in. Again, I can't say when. It's still breathing, but now steadied.
35:30 That horn guides the breather, I think. Every now and then when the breathing stops I imagine it's a step being taken forward, following the brass sound of some distant caller.
38:00 Feels like some stumbling steps, and the reverb of the horn grows a little frantic, a few steps before desperation.
39:30 There's a low humming that sounds like a plane is coming closer, or something loud and powerful is coming closer to the breather. All I can imagine is a titan walking through a bronze arch of a large city. There's no sky, nothing really except the empty city and the titan, breathing. And the object circling overhead.
42:00 The breathing has shifted. It's gotten lower, and deeper. Not as light and crisp, but labored and like it comes from the gut rather than the chest, or that the lungs are now behind the body and ears.
43:00 something's wrong.
44:00 I believe the titan is faltering. The breathing is the same, but the steps are not consistent, they stumble and trouble along.
48:00 That distant humming is now like a microwave right next to your ear. I get the impression that whatever it is, it's building around the titan as it walks. It places buildings, secures roads; generally benevolent. But it does hum constantly.
51:00 The warmth settles in. It wasn't obvious until now that the humming correlates to some warmth. It warms the walking titan. The horns have quieted, but on the titan plods.
54:00 Oh no. The warmth isn't a good thing. The humming of the creator has essentially taken over the foreground.
56:00 the humming gives the breathing some trepidation. It's lulls overtake as the foreground now.
59:00 I don't think the humming is very harmful. It may be taking center stage now, but I don't think it and its warmth are hostile.
1:01:30 The breathing is quieting. The humming is also quieting, but remaining control. The horn has long since escaped, though some faint traces can be heard.
1:02:30 The music is all gone, replaced entirely with the humming.
1:03:00 The humming is retreating.
1:03:25 Whatever it was, it has found peace, and is over.
EDIT: After several minutes of no music and silence, I feel better. I feel rejuvenated and inspired to continue.
thank you
Couldn't have said it better myself. Thanks for the accompaniment.
This song perfectly reflects children like myself (in DC) waiting for their parents to come home from all of the attacks. All of the emotions of those who were able or unable to see their loved ones after.
Holy shit this is heartbreaking
it's just like how some people do the same thing over and over again until they die.
Your comment made me think of me. Older me working in an office 5 days a week, boxed off from everyone, then getting home to my one bedroom flat, drinking a neat whiskey sitting in front of a static TV. Then repeat.
Meaningless work. Spent throughout our lives just 2 be able to eat & keep a roof over our head. Then, it all ends & someone else moves into your dwelling.
If I knew I was dying, knowing that my last moments were approaching, this is what I would want to be hearing.
@@zogwort1522 Damn grand pops, I agree that this doesn't have a unique backstory and the sound is okay to listen to, but I want to hear you go downstairs a cook up a loop on your green Vinyl. Please I am intrigued.
Israel did 9/||
@@cammo777 They needed american weapons, money and troops to beat up their regional competitors. ''Greatest Ally''.
You are.
They are.
@@zogwort1522 fuckin’ fucking man
I started rethinking my life during this track.
Came here after learned Ted Kaczynski moved to a clinical facility
I come here every year.
I just discovered it and its story. You do the right thing.
There used to be a version with a video clip, which I absolutely adored. I can't seem to find it anywhere tho. :(
Me too. There's something about this music I just can't explain.
oh hi doggie
what a story mark
I need to talk with Mr.Basinski
@@zogwort1522 bro what drugs you takin
@@zogwort1522 no way