September 19 Teatar 78 William Basinski is one of the defining minimalist composers of the 21st century. Fading, repetition, and a ghostly sense of structure — his impossibly melancholic music almost instantly turned him into a classic figure of ambient music. William Basinski spent much of his life in New York, living in an attic loft in Brooklyn. He opened for David Bowie and ran a vintage store. Seeing him for the first time — shirt unbuttoned, hair styled with a touch of glam — it is hard to imagine that standing before you is a geeky composer inspired by John Cage and Brian Eno. Basinski is more like a rock star in the world of ambient music. Basinski’s cult album "The Disintegration Loops" emerged from a remarkable and deeply heartbreaking story. While going through his archives in 2001, the musician decided to digitize magnetic tapes recorded twenty years earlier. He started the tape recorder and stepped away for a while; when he returned, he noticed that his recordings had begun to crumble as they played. In this way, the process of disintegration was captured — accidentally coinciding with another act of destruction: the catastrophe of September 11. After finishing the recording, William went up to the roof of his Brooklyn building and filmed New York engulfed in smoke. One of those frames became the basis for the album’s cover. After the release of "The Disintegration Loops", much followed: the album grew into a four-disc cycle and was performed many times by orchestras, while its method — repetition and slow erosion — became Basinski’s signature language. The "Watermusic" diptych, as if echoing reflections on water, and the even more submerged "Vivian & Ondine"; the heartbreaking "Melancholia" and the mystical "Nocturnes", where prepared piano seems to literally crumble into dust — each of these works has acquired cult status, as well as its own devoted listener. William Basinski’s performance in Belgrade is a rare chance to hear his music not alone with a recording, but in the same space as its author.