Once the pulses and static overtake everything, nothing is left for silence, but only drowned noise of electronic in a drone fashion. This is what Tim Hecker does best. His 1998 album Mirages was called "ambient death metal" by his label. Yet, the compositions taking place in his first 3 outings were only skimming the surface of what Hecker was trying to do with his sound. If his debut Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again was his experimental foray into his zones of short electronic/ambient outbursts and Mirages was an ambient death metal piece at its core, then his sophomore effort, Radio Amor is what eventually he would be perceived to be. Radio Amor is his minimalistic, electronically fried droned brother. One of his best works Harmony In Ultraviolet, made in 2007, oozed dissonance and expansive structures that sheathed themselves under minutes of drone, without a hint of silence to back them. His website describes him as such: His works have been described as “structured ambient”, “tectonic color plates” and “cathedral electronic music”. More to the point, he has focused on exploring the intersection of noise, dissonance and melody, fostering an approach to songcraft which is both physical and emotive.
Hecker doesn't remain to be the first or the last to use this approach, but he is one of the best at it. He has aptly trumped every previous effort with his darkly immersed electronic , where calming rhythm can be an afterthought and only saw the light of day in limited minutes. His latest work An Imaginary Country, which was released last year, pulled back the heavy elements that were so prolific 2 years before. Hecker instead pulls layers away, adding depth, thinning the heavy atmospheres of past.
Tim Hecker Website
Mapsadaiscal Blog Entry of Hecker
Notable Works:
Radio Amor (1998)
Mirages (1998)
Harmony In Ultraviolet (2007)
An Imaginary Country (2009)
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