William Basinski is a classically trained musician and composer who has been working in experimental media for over 30 years in NYC and most recently, California. Employing obsolete technology and analogue tape loops, his haunting and melancholy soundscapes explore the temporal nature of life and resound with the reverberations of memory and the mystery of time. His epic 4-disc masterwork, The Disintegration Loops received international critical acclaim and was chosen as one of the top 50 albums of 2004 by Pitchfork Media. The Temporary Residence deluxe LP box-set reissue from 2012 was awarded best re-issue of the year and a score of 10 on Pitchfork. Installations and films made in collaboration with artist-filmmaker, James Elaine have been presented in festivals and museums internationally, and his concerts are presented to sold out crowds around the world. Basinski was chosen by Music Director, Antony Hegarty to create music for the Robert Wilson opera, The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic which had its world premiere at the Manchester International Festival in July 2011 and toured Europe in 2012 and North America in 2013. Orchestral transcriptions of The Disintegration Loops by Maxim Moston have been performed at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Queen Elizabeth Hall and La Batie Festival in Geneva, Switzerland, Dark Mofo Festival in Hobart Tasmania and most recently Pitchfork Midwinter Festival with the Chicago Philharmonic. Basinski and Preston Wendel released a surprise new jazzy record under the name Sparkle Division, including special guests such as the late Henry Grimes on upright bass & others, and his latest solo work, “Lamentations” was released November 13th, 2020 on Temporary Residence/2062/USA.
James Elaine formally trained as a painter and later began experimenting with video. While he has worked as an artist for more than three decades, he is equally celebrated as a visionary curator who has discovered and championed many of the greatest artists of our times when they were just emerging. He worked as a curator at the Drawing Center in New York and later at the Hammer Museum at the University of Los Angeles before relocating to China. Most recently, Elaine curated the exhibition Unfinished Country: New Video from China at the CAMH (2012). He now lives and works in Beijing, China where he founded a non-profit gallery featuring emerging Chinese contemporary art called Telescope.
Nocturne (TV in Africa)
2012
Video, Tape Loop
68′ 59″
Looking Glass
2007
Super VHS, Tape Loops
28′
Bluprints on a Winter Pond
2006
Video, Tape Loops
7′ 46″
The River
2005
Super VHS, Tape Loops
39′
Melancholia:
Short Films of J. Elaine and W. Basinski
1998-2003
Super-8/Video, Tape Loops, Synthesizers
53′