Lightscape: William Basinski

William Basinski is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 40 years in NYC and Los Angeles. Employing obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, his haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life and resound with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic five-hour masterwork, The Disintegration Loops, received international critical acclaim and is now universally considered one of the most important and influential ambient albums of all time. The Disintegration Loops deluxe vinyl box set reissue (Temporary Residence Ltd., 2012) was awarded a perfect 10 score on Pitchfork. Multimedia installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker James Elaine have been presented in festivals and museums worldwide, and his concerts are presented to sold-out audiences across the world. Basinski was chosen by music director ANOHNI to create music for the Robert Wilson opera The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which had its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011 and toured Europe in 2012 and North America in 2013. Orchestral transcriptions of The Disintegration Loops by Maxim Moston have been performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and La Batie Festival in Geneva, Switzerland, Dark Mofo Festival in Hobart Tasmania, and most recently Pitchfork Midwinter Festival with the Chicago Philharmonic. Basinski is currently touring the world in support of The Disintegration Loops — Arcadia Archive Edition and preparing a new album for release in late 2026.