Los Angeles-based engineer Preston Wendel began working with ambient composer
William Basinski as a studio assistant in 2015, and the two soon started collaborating on original material. While
Basinski is best known for lengthy, elegiac meditations which tap into a particular stream of graceful melancholia, his interviews reveal his personality as being flamboyant and jocular. The duo's debut album as
Sparkle Division is much more in line with these characteristics, from the sassy track titles to its bright, glamorous cover art, paying tribute to Brooklyn local celebrity Leonora Russo, who was referred to as the Queen of Williamsburg. The album's sound is a
Brainfeeder-like mélange of cosmic jazz, crumpled hip-hop beats, and atmospheric textures, flowing from brassy lounge cut-ups to blunted psychedelic funk. For these sessions,
Basinski dusted off his saxophone, which he's been playing since high school and once performed while opening for
David Bowie as a member of rockabilly revivalists
the Rockats. While he's incorporated saxophone into some of his pieces, including the
Bowie requiem "For David Robert Jones," his playing has never sounded as seedy or skronky on his own records as it does here, particularly on tracks like the street-lit trudge of "Oh No You Did Not!" or the tripped-out downtempo bop of "You Ain't Takin' My Man." His saxophone dreamily floats atop the sweeping disco strings and broken beats of the gorgeous, starry "For Gato," and billows over the shuffling footwork rhythm of "Oh Henry!," which features sticky upright bass and ethereal violin playing by free jazz legend
Henry Grimes. Russo pops up, most likely over the phone, on the interlude "Queenie Got Her Blues," which seems to digitally mimic the content and fidelity of a scratchy old 78. "To Feel" and "Sparkle on Sad Sister Mother Queen" come closest to the decaying ambience of
Basinski's solo work, but they still sound more blissful and unburdened than funereal. The album was largely recorded in 2016 but not released until 2020, after Russo and
Grimes had passed on; additionally,
Bowie gets a nod in the form of the misty reflection "To the Stars, Major Tom." Yet the album is celebratory rather than mournful, channeling the positive, creative energy of these spirits and honoring the fleeting miracle of life. ~ Paul Simpson