Spectreview: William Basinski – On Time Out Of Time
Released: March 8, 2019
Ambient
Drone
Conceptual
-AQUA-
Appreciating art requires immersing yourself in the push/pull of intention and execution, yet in the streaming era music oftentimes comes to you almost entirely free of context. If you were completely unaware of renowned experimental artist William Basinski or the ideas behind his latest project, On Time Out Of Time, it’s unlikely this diptych of drones and eerie frequencies would leave much of an impact besides reminding you of the spacier parts of the Ghostbusters soundtrack. Those drones are actually the sound of black holes merging from 1.3 billon years ago, captured by interferometers and fed through post-production. It’s a striking concept, and for an ambient album it flows with a sound internal logic, particularly the second of the two tracks: the breathtaking climax of “4(E+D)4(ER=EPR)” comes after almost forty minutes of extended, near atonal hums and, in contrast, resonates with a pastoral melancholy similarly to Akira Yamaoka’s most transportive pieces. As a standalone album On Time Out Of Time lacks its conceptually-grounding visual counterpart (the project was commissioned by artists for an accompanying exhibit) and loses some of its power in the process. Put your felt beret on for second though, and the ebbing, shifting soundscapes become a canvas for meditations on human extinction, the rapid breakdown of human communication, the horrors of the post-truth era and the unending flow of time. Just don’t expect Ray Parker Jr. to pop up anywhere.
Recommended for regular museum-goers.
Lives in Seattle, terrible diet, loves music, has hope for people