On Time Out of Time

On Time Out of Time makes the billion-year-old buzz of two neutron stars into something heart-stirring.

Whether it is the temporary respite from a challenging sonic environment or the steady progression towards splendour, On Time Out of Time is a rewarding experience for those willing to tolerate challenging moments in a celestial sea of sound. For Basinski, time is an artefact and he is its curator.

What on the record might be the magnified pop of dust and surface scratch, here could represent imperfections on a cosmic scale--the debris of space and time, swallowed and digested. Where Basinski succeeds is the tone he adopts; rather than the heavy dread of inevitable supermassive doom, these sections are somehow wide-eyed and full of slowly drifting wonder. [Mar 2019, p.49]

Basinski navigates these galactic themes through his trademark style. The record begins slowly, with the heavy drones creating a wind-like effect, slowly settling in the background. At the same time, a big, deep, boomy sound is echoing in the distance, providing these subtle movements with an anchor. ... An impressive listen.

It's a surprisingly approachable piece with an appeal far outside the experimental music community, which speaks to Basinski's ear for melody and grasp of emotion. Not many artists could turn a source as abstract as black hole recordings into music this beautiful.

On Time Out of Time is conceptually fascinating, playing as Basinski often does, with very large abstract ideas that seem to have no obvious analog in music. Yet the concept yields a calming ambient sonic output that sounds not so different from other kinds of music that have nothing to do with black holes.