William Basinski decides “new year, new me, new album, new tour,” upgrades his palette with sounds of two black holes merging O_O

Were you waiting patiently for a sign of what kind of “shit” 2019 might throw at “the fan?”

Well wait no longer my friend. William Basinski, who’s released some albums you may have heard of, has announced a new project called On Time Out of Time, where he will apparently redefine himself as not just a composer, but as a theoretical physicist, too.

What might the star-gazing ambient stalwart be up to on this project you ask? Oh, just the usual: sampling exclusive source recordings from the interferometers of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory that captured the sounds of the merging of two distant massive black holes 1.3 billion years ago. Just another day at the office!

The two recordings that make up On Time Out Of Time were originally composed for the 2017 installations “ER=EPR” and “Orbihedron” by artists Evelina Domnitch and Dmitry Gelfand (in collaboration with Jean-Marc Chomaz and LIGO) for the exhibition “Limits of Knowing.”

While the CD version contains the self-titled track as well as the B-side, “4(E+D)4(ER=EPR),” the LP version includes just two separate recordings of the title track. And don’t worry, you don’t need to grasp quantum physics to pre-order the record right now. It’s out March 8 via Temporary Residence; but time is just a flat circle anyway, so I’m sure you can figure out how to get the record now, always, never, and the day you were born, if you want to.

But if you can’t pull that off, be sure and catch one of Basinski’s upcoming live shows as he tours in support of this album. (And don’t forget, if it looks like he’s standing still on stage the whole time, it’s actually just the effect of light compression and the warping of spacetime near the event horizon. Don’t try and touch him, no matter what!)

On Time Out of Time LP Tracklisting:

01. On Time Out of Time
02. On Time Out of Time (The Lovers)

On Time Out of Time CD/Digital tracklisting:

01. On Time Out of Time
02. 4(E+D)4(ER=EPR)

William Basinski tour dates:

01.17.19 - Newport, Australia - The Substation
03.29.19 - London, UK - St. John on Bethnal Green
04.11.19 - Manchester, UK - Albert Hall

Sound Garden to tide you over:

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