Five years is a long time to sit with your grief. William Basinski is back with a full solo record, and if the title alone doesn't tell you where his head's at, nothing will.

Passing The Cup Of Sorrows is his first solo studio LP since 2020's Lamentations — a gap filled with collaborative work but no proper solo statement. Now he's announcing the new record alongside its opening track, "Passing The Cup Of Sorrows 1.1", which is out now.

What We're Actually Getting

This isn't a conventional album in any shape. The record is a single 40-minute piece — solo piano wrapped in subtle electronics — and the whole thing takes its name and concept from a spiritual hypnotherapy exercise Basinski stumbled across in a video. Passing the cup of sorrows. Whether you find that idea profound or slightly unhinged probably tells you whether you're already a Basinski listener.

The first part is available to hear now. It does exactly what you'd expect from a composer of his standing: patient, unhurried, the kind of music that asks you to meet it on its own terms rather than the other way around. In an era where even the most "serious" artists are chasing the 30-second hook, there's something quietly confrontational about dropping a single 40-minute piece and saying take it or leave it. We respect it.

The album lands on 23 October via Temporary Residence Limited.

The Tour

Basinski is also heading out on the road, and the European leg is genuinely well-curated in terms of venues. He'll play Bozar in Brussels on 23 September, St. Catherine Church in Vilnius on 25 September, and pass through Poznań, Helsinki, Belgrade, and Prague before that. These aren't your standard mid-capacity rooms — they're the kind of spaces where music like this actually breathes.

The North American run follows in November, with dates in Washington DC, Brooklyn, Detroit, and Chicago. Detroit's Cathedral Church of St. Paul and Chicago's Rockefeller Memorial Chapel are on the list, which makes sense — cavernous, reverberant spaces for music that was built to fill them.

Full dates:

  • 13 Sept — Poznań, PL @ Opera Festival
  • 16 Sept — Helsinki, FI @ Espoo Cultural Centre
  • 19 Sept — Belgrade, RS @ Teatar 78
  • 21 Sept — Prague, CZ @ Heartnoize x Gabriel Loci
  • 23 Sept — Brussels, BE @ Bozar
  • 25 Sept — Vilnius, LT @ St. Catherine Church
  • 8 Nov — Washington, DC @ Bette at Bertha
  • 9–11 Nov — Brooklyn, NY @ Durations at Public Records
  • 13 Nov — Detroit, MI @ Cathedral Church of St. Paul
  • 14 Nov — Chicago, IL @ Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Our Take

Basinski returning to solo work after five years of collaborations, and doing it with a single 40-minute piano piece about processing sorrow through a spiritual framework, is exactly the kind of move that'll split opinion. Some will call it self-indulgent. We'd call it committed. In a music landscape where [Jonas Blue is learning instruments to reconnect with why he started](/getohedz/music/jonas-blue-rebranded-learned-an-instrument-called-ai-absolutely-horrendous) and everyone's trying to prove their authenticity, Basinski just does the work and trusts you'll show up for it.

Passing The Cup Of Sorrows is out 23 October on Temporary Residence Limited. Pre-order it now.