[photo: Barrie Sutcliffe]

A quick heads up for any readers here in southern Ontario, Vague Terrain is teaming up with Wavelength and the Music Gallery to present an outdoor concert by William Basinski this Saturday. Basinski is probably one of the most interesting American composers active today and his particular brand of pastoral, loop-based experimentation bridges the gap between old guard minimalists (Reich, Riley, Glass) and the "post-digital" vanguard (Thomas Köner, Carsten Nicolai, GAS, etc.). Basinski's recent 92982 received the following blurb in Marc Weidenbaum's roundup of the best ambient/electronic albums of 2009:

Slow, lulling ambient pieces by William Basinski, music with the elegant curve of a simple sine wave, the patience of a saint, and the sonic depth of an orchestral arrangement. Ever since the emergence of his Disintegration Loops, he’s become something akin to the Gerhard Richter of contemporary music — creating works that are just out-of-focus enough to compel you to focus on them all the more.

My longtime collaborator and Vague Terrain co-editor Neil Wiernik will also be playing a special opening set. The concert will take place in the courtyard of St George-the-Martyr Anglican Church at dusk this Saturday. Full event info and online ticket purchase is available at the Music Gallery event page.