This is a very simplistic approach, though the results are certainly sonically pleasant enough.  A lot of his music is essentially like becoming locked in a repeating 2-3 seconds of Erik Satie.  As a result, he occupies a niche of ambient music originally created by Brian Eno's "Music for Airports", an album also comprised solely of consonant, unintrusive piano.  This style of ambient music strives to blend into the backdrop, unalarming and unengaging, largely without development or change of any kind.

This simplicity may be what Eno originally envisioned ambient music to be, but it is hardly what I look for in the genre.  I can't say I consider Basinski to be a genius as many seem to.  From my experience, it would hardly matter which few seconds of Satie you chose to loop, the effect would be similar.  As sleeping or reading music, Basinski's piano loop works like "A Red Score in Tile" are functional, but always struck me as lacking in content.

Thankfully, the entire album isn't comprised of a single loop, like with "A Red Score in Tile".  Here, we have 3 tracks, and as such, 3 loops... or so I thought!  The first, title track "The Deluge", is 20 minutes, a watery, luminescent trilling texture with reassuring cocoon-like warmth.  It is easy to at least partially understand why Basinski is so enamoured with the beauty of this instrument, though his patience for it undoubtedly exceeds my own by several times.  The melodic content of the loop, a whimsical waterfall of notes, is obvious for the first half of the track, and gradually fades into faint wisps for the second half.  The last 2 minutes of the piece are nearly silent.

The 2nd track, much shorter than the others at 6 minutes, is called "The Deluge (The Denouement)", and sounds like a re-processing of the same loop from the first track.  It has been gated into choppy fragments which flicker rhythmically into left and right soundspace, creating a desolate, spacious feeling as they exit abruptly as they came, leaving a long trail of verb.  Later, these sounds are replaced with a mournful loop of strings, charged with the characteristic drama of 19th Century Romantic music.  This is some of the most creative processing and active composition I've heard from Basinski, and I truly love this track, which doesn't at all overstay its welcome, and cleverly tunes various loops to each other in an expressive harmonic fabric.

I was surprised and disappointed to find the 3rd piece "Cascade" sounds almost completely identical to the 1st track.  Upon comparing the tracks back to back, not only is it the exact same loop again, the processing and texture of it are identical as well.  It's basically just 'here it is again, for 11 more minutes'.  It's relaxing, sure, and it was relaxing before, but this album undoubtedly suffers from Basinski's characteristic lack of content.  If only he could add more detail and total material per recording, I feel confident he would create more interesting and complete works that still possessed the basic timbral beauty of these extremely simple pieces.  His excellent collaborations with Richard Chartier in the last few years, densely layered dark ambient works which far exceed the simplicity found here, are evidence of that potential.  Those collaborations are the only works of Basinski's I can actually recommend.

Rather than listen to this, go find a piano, hold the echo pedal down, and play a consonant chord over and over.  In my opinion, this is a more rewarding experience than paying someone else for something you can easily accomplish yourself.  Pianos and other musical instruments absolutely do possess a basic physical beauty in their timbre and tone, but I'm not about to give Basinski credit for that.  I often wish he would create more engaging music, music actually meant to be listened in a focused way.