Passing The Cup Of Sorrows is William Basinski's new solo piano album, his first solo full-length release in six years. Consisting of a single 40-minute piece, the record makes light use of electronics alongside Basinski's piano playing and arrives October 23 via Temporary Residence.
The album is Basinski's first solo LP since 2020's Lamentations, and his first release of any kind since 2022's collaboration with Janek Schaefer, …On Reflection. Its title draws on the hypnotherapy concept of "Life Between Lives," in which, according to a press release, two souls who shared a destructive relationship on Earth "undergo a purge and reconcile in the spirit world." An excerpt from the piece, titled "Passing The Cup Of Sorrows 1.1," is available now.
Basinski built his reputation on The Disintegration Loops, the ambient work that made his name two decades ago and which he reissued last year in a deluxe 8xLP box set. That project's slow, decaying tape loops set the template for a career built on patience and repetition, qualities that carry into the new record's single-movement structure.
Passing The Cup Of Sorrows continues a body of work that resists easy genre labels, sitting closer to composition and sound art than to any of the site's genre hubs, and lands on the release calendar as one of the more distinctive albums due out this fall.
The facts
- Passing The Cup Of Sorrows is due October 23 via Temporary Residence
- First solo full-length release in six years, since 2020's Lamentations
- Consists of a single 40-minute piece with light electronics
- Title draws on the hypnotherapy concept of 'Life Between Lives'
- Follows last year's deluxe reissue of The Disintegration Loops
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