Shortwavemusic
- Scores: Noise 2, Unease 3, Complexity 1 (each 1 to 5)
- Genre: Electronic, Ambient
- Mood: wistful, hypnotic, luminous
- Sound: ambient, tape loops, shortwave radio sources, repeating melodies, slow tempos, no vocals, drifting arrangements
Shortwavemusic is a set of tape-loop pieces that William Basinski made in 1982 by pulling sounds from shortwave radio and looping them on tape. It was first released in 1998 as four tracks on Raster-Noton's noton.archiv label, and a 2007 reissue on Basinski's own 2062 label added a fifth piece, "Particle Showers". The pieces are slow and repeating with no vocals, and "On a Frontier of Wires" runs for about 24 minutes. It came well before his Disintegration Loops.
Track list
- Evening Scars (8:35)
- Cobalt Pools (5:29)
- Fringe Area (7:14)
- On a Frontier of Wires (23:40)
- Particle Showers (14:13)