A Shadow in Time is an album by American avant-garde composer William Basinski. It was released on January 20, 2017, by 2062 Records and Temporary Residence Limited. Background and composition Basinski began writing the piece "A Shadow in Time" shortly after finishing his album Cascade (2015). After a year of working on the piece, in January 2016, he heard about the death of David Bowie from his friends. A week after he passed away, Basinski began work on a tribute track for Bowie titled "For David Robert Jones" ("David Bowie" was a stage name; the musician's legal name was David Robert Jones). The track uses a combination of two cat-chewed tape loops, one being an orchestral tape that initially was planned to be edited after finishing The Disintegration Loops (2002), and a saxophone tape which Basinski found to be similar to Bowie's 1977 album Low. Both tapes were recorded onto a 5-inch reel-to-reel tape deck. After completing "For David Robert Jones," Basinski used it as a "catalyst" in how he would make "A Shadow in Time." Bits of the track are subtly woven into the beginning and end of "For David Robert Jones." "A Shadow in Time" features Basinski working with a Voyetra-8 synthesizer, which he last used on his 2001 album Watermusic. A promotional piece described the composition as a "captivating assemblage of plaintive drones and exquisite melodies." "For David Robert Jones" was originally commissioned for a performance at Los Angeles gallery Volume, but it never made an appearance at the gallery because, as Basinski explained, "you can’t have a loop on a deck for three days. No one knows how to deal with them, and I would’ve had to been there and I couldn’t so… that’s how it happened!" A Shadow in Time was premiered by Basinski at Union Chapel in London, England on February 23, 2016. Artwork The album artwork features, courtesy of James Elaine, a photograph by Chinese artist Deng Tai. The photograph is part of a collection of photographs displayed at Telescope Gallery in Beijing. The photograph is of a near-naked Chinese man holding a blood orange satin cloth and wearing make-up similar to that of Chinese opera stars. Taken on a street in Beijing, the photo is obscured by a motion blur. Critical reception A Shadow in Time received acclaim from music critics. Jonathan Wroble from Slant Magazine wrote, "Together, these two tracks show