Legendary ambient composer William Basinski premiered his new piece, A Shadow in Time – For David Robert Jones, at London’s Union Chapel last month.

FACT spent the day with him as he pieced together his gear and prepared to kick off his European tour. He tailored the space to suit his needs, working with the sound engineers to make sure the audience would hear exactly what he had in mind. The performance itself was captivating from beginning to end as Basinski performed to a silent audience, manipulating tape loops with precision as stage lighting flooded the venue and its magnificent stained glass windows.

Watch Kamil Dymek’s short documentary below and go behind the scenes with photos captured by Carys Huws.

“I started digging deeper and deeper through my loop archive and found some old rotten things that the cat in New York had chewed up”

“With electronic music, a lot of it is presentation.”

“You have to listen very carefully, and you have to merge with the space, you have to find the acoustic space in that physical space for the sound.”

“You walk around, you listen, you try to figure out how to get it how you want it”

“You never know. Every space is different”

William Basinski is touring Europe this spring, check out the remaining shows below.

April 6 – Sonic Protest Festival, Paris, France
April 7 –  Jazzhouse, Copenhagen, Denmark
April 8 – Electronica en Abril – Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
April 9 –  Trafo, Budapest, Hungary
April 10 – Pardon ToTu, Warsaw, Poland
April 12 – Superbudda, Torino, Italy
April 13 – Sala dei Giganti, Padova, Italy
April 15 – Ex Dogana, Roma, Italy
April 16 – Sala Vanni, Firenze, Italy
April 17 – Santeria Sociale, Milano, Italy