WILLIAM BASINSKI
+ Natálie Pleváková

The legend of ambient music, American composer 𝘞𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘮 𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘴𝘬𝘪, will come to Prague on 1 December 2023. He will present his atmospheric music, which opens up colourful soundscapes and hypnotically dives into their depths, in the convenient setting of the Church of the Salvator.
Basinski’s compositions are based on the principle of gradual decomposition and degradation of sounds, creating a layered and emotive environment. A musical meditation that transcends time and space under the gothic vaults. The current tour 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘱𝘩𝘰𝘯𝘺 features mainly unreleased work from the 1980s and the 2020 album 𝘓𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴.

William Basinski entered the global spotlight with 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘓𝘰𝘱𝘴, capturing the quiet mourning after the attacks on the New York Twin Towers. Here, digitized tapes wear out and dissolve in endless loops, sounds layered on top of each other with subtle changes. Albums like Melancholia or the aforementioned Lamentations work on a similar principle, recording loss, sadness and the irreversibility of time. Music writer David Laufer reminds us of this in his piece for Alarm: “Throughout his work, [Basinski] has from the beginning sought to capture the unstoppable passage of time, exploring infinity and eternity through a continuous interplay of decay and resurrection.”

Alongside Basinski, the musician and composer Natálie Pleváková, whose work focuses on exploring electronic music in the post-digital age and the search for new possibilities of sound, will also perform at the Church of the Salvator.