William Basinski

And then, the man remained alone with more doubts than ever before. Music had flown through the years, the tapes definitively gone. IV draws the final line in this groundbreaking 'disintegration' cycle and it does it with a high grade of acute intensity and a totally developed loop aesthetic...moreover, the final track is sort of a reprise of the first segment in I, like putting an end to a whole giant texture. Basinski's repetitions are truly addictive; I could listen for days, each repeat bringing out new details to punch my stomach with majestic emotional landscapes. This music turns slow cartwheels in the conscience of the 'ones who know': it's a rerun of those life segments our brain likes spitting out randomly when we're reflecting in the silence. This Brooklyn artist casts a shadow on many so-called 'Ambient' semi-gods because of the simple contrast between his articulated flashbacks and the very simple means he uses. These loops are much more than fine-grained soundworks, rather they just turn out to put some well placed knot in carefully chosen throats.