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A Shadow in Time Image
Metascore
84

Universal acclaim - based on 14 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 15 Ratings

  • Summary: The two-track release from experimental artist was a tribute to David Bowie.
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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. Feb 21, 2017
    90
    It's a piece that Basinski apparently revisited and refined throughout 2016, a year made monumental by its cultural losses--and it's one of his very best.
  2. 85
    William Basinski has created yet another outstanding work of art with A Shadow in Time, an audio sculpture of serenity and bliss to begin 2017 and put what was a saddening year for music to bed.
  3. Magnet
    Feb 14, 2017
    85
    Basinski has proven remarkably capable at existing far outside of his own legacy, his uncanny ability to wring entire worlds from his famously deep tape archives proving more remarkable with each subsequent release. A Shadow In Time is no exception. [No. 139, p.53]
  4. Jan 18, 2017
    80
    Even without knowing anything about Basinski himself or the climate in which he’s created his work, the listener herself would still be able to create their own world around it, such is the power of his music.
  5. Jan 23, 2017
    80
    Its [The second track's] eerily distorted saxophone, a nod to Low, takes six minutes to surface, but then takes centre stage, a mournful motif subtly evolving over the next quarter of an hour. The multilayered title track, meanwhile, is a less immediate drone, but proves hypnotic well within its 17-minute timeframe.
  6. Uncut
    Jan 20, 2017
    80
    With pleasing inevitability, A Shadow In Time does not disappoint. [Mar 2017, p.25]
  7. Jan 19, 2017
    70
    As ever, Basinski is a master at suspending time, and the album seems to flow by faster than the clock indicates. When it does end, you wonder if you've been taken somewhere, or if you've been changed in some way. The only key to answering these questions is to dive back in.

See all 14 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. Oct 20, 2021
    9
    Standing on a 16th floor apartment balcony buried in the middle of the city. It's late and you see the alleyway stretching out , low andStanding on a 16th floor apartment balcony buried in the middle of the city. It's late and you see the alleyway stretching out , low and away. You can almost see until the end of it (where it meets the street). You notice the fog and how it creates a monochrome effect through sharp contrasts... pitch black shadows, street lamps trying their hardest.

    Just as you start to get lost in the scenery you can hear something in the distance... echoing up the alley as the unaware sleep... It's an instrument... definitely a saxophone.

    It perfectly complements the numb feeling connecting you to the landscape. Everything is below you.

    For once, the dense landscape is still enough for it to resonate to your core.... sweeping you into it's wake as the faint notes you hear in the distance elevate above tires spinning like gentle jets... it all melts and you allow it. For 30 minutes it is easier... much easier... to accept not only where you are but the entire arc... from it's vulnerable beginnings to right where you stand... the city spins around you, the world disappears...

    The music stops.
    Traffic continues.
    The sun will eventually rise.
    A tired man drifts back
    Hoping his dreams will be at least sixteen stories high...
    Basinski in the basement.
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