William Basinski
Composer William Basinski has been active in the New York avant-garde scene since the 1980s, where he gained recognition for his distinctive, minimalism-inspired music for tape loops. He is best known for his four-volume album The Disintegration Loops (2002-2003), created by playing back old tape loops that rapidly decayed each time they passed the tape head; Basinski finished recording it on the morning of 11 September 2001 and moments later witnessed the 9/11 attacks, forever tying the material to the tragedy.
Basinski is an extremely prolific artist – he has released nearly 30 albums since his debut on the acclaimed Raster-Noton label in 1998, including collaborations with reductionist composer Richard Chartier and British sound artist Janek Schaefer. In addition to his best-known tape work, Basinski also works with video and is a trained jazz saxophonist; in the 1980s he was a member of a number of ensembles in the then-burgeoning New York no wave scene, including the Gretchen Langheld Ensemble and House Afire.