While the world (or just people with really really excellent taste in music) dutifully awaits the release of William Basinski’s next full-length album Nocturnes, one’s affinity for gradual, hypnotic tones must not go unfulfilled. I’m talking about really gradual — the type of gradual where (because it’s so gradual), you don’t realize how gradual the tones actually are, until silence marks the end of the recording. You started listening to the album on a Tuesday in the winter, and by the time it’s finished, it’s the second Twednesday of August, in the year 3144. That’s right, the music was so gradual and immersive that, unbeknownst to you, it coincided not only with magnificent medical breakthroughs, but also the invention of a new day of the week: Twednesday.
Hyperbole aside, the first collaborative album between William Basinski and microsound musician Richard Chartier, released in 2004, certainly blurred the occasionally indistinct line between ambient and drone. Can we expect the same for their upcoming release, Aurora Liminalis, due out next month? The official description from Chartier’s own LINE imprint suggests… oh god, yes: “Disintegrating spatial shifts incorporating the two artists’ distinct sonic palettes mesh to create a slow, deep ebb and flow… like some melting spectral transmission.” Listen to the clip below, and feel free to get your preliminary melt on.
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Aurora Liminalis tracklisting:
01. Aurora Liminalis
• William Basinski: http://www.mmlxii.com
• Richard Chartier: http://www.3particles.com
• LINE: http://www.lineimprint.com