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2CD
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2062 0702
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Re-issue; originally released on Raster-Noton, 2002. "The River is the culmination of William Basinski's shortwave music experiments. It was recorded in real time in 1983 using tape loops and shortwave radio static. The loops were all culled from the airwaves, short bits of string melody taken from the Muzak radio station, slowed down and mixed live to cassette from two '50s Norelco reel-to-reel decks with a random accompaniment of shifting shortwave radio static. 'Growing up in the '70s, with a love for the lush sound of the Mellotron, but not having the pocketbook to own one, I decided to try to create my own. I had heard that the sounds were recorded on tape loops, so I began recording small bits of lush strings from intros and interludes in Muzak songs to use as my keys. The aspect of pulling all the sounds from the airwaves, to create something from nothing, fascinated me. With these elemental, organic loops that I had saved aside for The River, I was attempting to record the music of the spheres. The 90 minute length was decried by the length of the two sides of the cassette. The idea was to have a piece which could repeat endlessly, creating an eternal, meditative womb of tranquility.' "
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CD
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2062 0305
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"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."
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