Ambient/Drone charts

Review: The latest full-length excursion from William Basinski has its roots in a 2017 Berlin exhibition that the long-serving experimental composer was invited to contribute to. Basinski created music for two installations, making extensive use of recordings of two distant black holes captured using the interferometers of LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory). Of the two tracks on show, it's the epic title track that hits home hardest. It's a 40 minute ambient epic of intergalactic proportions, with Basinski offering up slowly-shifting, ice cold chords, crackling aural textures and occasional bursts of distant activity. The track that follows is a little warmer and undeniably drowsy, with Basinski utilizing manipulated neo-classical movements to create an intoxicating ambient mood.

Review: William Basinski and Janek Schaefer make for a long distance collaboration on this much anticipated new album. It has taken the best part of eight years from conception to final execution but that more than proves worth the wait. Time and duration are recurring themes in their work and during the pandemic yeas in particular those were very much skewed and warped for us all. ". . . on reflection" casts itself free from temporal restraints with delicate piano passages, flickering melodies and drawn out drones that really sink you in deep.

Review: The original 'Subterraneans', composed by David Bowie from their 1977 album 'Low', was an emotionally striking piece that illustrated the struggles of withdrawal. German legend Alva Noto teams up with Depeche Mode's Martin Gore and ambient wizard William Basinski to transform the piece into an ephemeral, ghostly number that is almost even more chilling - with ambient synths and vocal echoing that conjure being lost in a deep cave, something almost supernatural at every turn. A truly haunting, yet aurally astounding, cover.