Another late discovery in 2013 is Tim Hecker's Virgins album. An acoustic ambient piece that will challenge your speakers and your mind. I know in both cases, mine are not where they should be, except for the giant vacuum tube that breathes sound out and in.
Tim lives in Montreal, Canada and is a noted ambient musician but in an evolved pattern. To understand ambient/abstract music from an artistic perspective, think of this as fairly evolved modern abstract with no discernible figure or edge but a complexity and beauty or horror or like emotions that are easily within grasp with plenty of room for interpretation. Tim has collaborated with some of my favourite acts including the alt metal band Isis and the amazing Sigur Ros. So if you've heard these, you might explore a bit here.
On this album, Tim takes a more acoustic approach (lots of piano, flute, etc) with limited and subtle techno elements. There's a definite post-apocolyptic feel to the tracks, but often in a bit of a colourful light. thanks to the piano work Listening to these tracks actually makes me less afraid of the pending apocalypse (lol). Definitely exciting if you like the genre.
The opening track - Prism - introduces us to several themes repeated throughout - with stabbing elements leading to "plugging in" and "starting up" sounds. I'm not sure the intent here but I think the point is to not stab things literally but to plug in quite specifically to that first bit and emphasise it - that imperfect intersection of electronic before the music is played. Plugging in electronics is a form of stabbing, no? Also the sexual references to virginity? Am I onto something or just lost?
But I digress. The first introduction into the harpsichord/piano elements is in the second track Virginal I. It's a lovely bit of baroque that also dances in and out of various tracks. This is the warm grounding of the album that gives it a more happy feel as needed. Radiance is another early stand out track exhibiting the lighter and lovelier side of this album.
Two tracks later - Live Room Out is scarier, but remarkable - featuring the thump of the piano (imagine a piano that sounds like train track bells) on top of a very layered piece including a masterful fresh take on bass sound. The track is finished with gorgeous keyboard sounds and distortions and to my ear, a true standout as a fully finished piece. Extremely aggressive and powerful. I expect to hear bits of that one stolen by the hip hop world somehow.
Obviously I have an affinity for 10 minute songs, but on the other side of this lengthy masterful track is a shorter, lighter note - Virginal II - which again picks up the piano thumping. This time in an entirely cleaner and louder way. The piano is now clearly at an aggressive forefront, but the aggression here is softened about half way through into a glimpse of a rather pleasant but complex post apocalypse.
Black Refraction is just a lovely piano digression - the melody tickling out and retreating like a slowly evolving rain storm. I also love the cut and chop and start/stop effects used in Stigmata I and Stigmata II, the latter track standing out for bringing beauty to the fuzzy sound that emanates when you first plug in an electric guitar. Or at least that's what I think that sound is.
Stab Variation literally takes the prior tracks and starts stabbing at them. It's either a murder or a mockery of the entire album. I didn't know what to think of this track at first, but then thought - maybe he's taking a piss at all the hard work that comes before it. Kind of funny in a way because it makes me think that the orchestra is warming up at the end of the show rather than the beginning. But I'd like to think of it as maybe a punk rock band destroying its instruments at the end of the show. Truth be told it's probably only my odd and wandering mind that thinks this way.
Ah, the glory of the abstract art form - it's either murder or a bit of mockery and play on words. You decide.
Live Room Out: Tim Hecker Live Room Out
Epitaph: I forgot to mention the most provocative song title on the album, maybe because the song was initially so dry to me. But I can't resist at this point. The track is Incense at Abu Ghraib. The title of course connects with the imagery of the cover art and is part of the duality of the entire album in a sense, right? Virgins, Abu Ghraib, enough said. The word incense is a duality - is it to make angry or a state of being incensed or is it the lovely scent of incense used to cover the stink. After hearing the track, I'm going with the latter in main interpretation. Why? Because Abu Ghraib is a famous "fail" if you will for the genre of musical torture. Instead of the usual bits of hardcore Metallica and the like, the torturers at Abu Ghraib chose David Gray's Babylon as the song for musical torture. Quite bizarre as Babylon is a song that would tend to uplift someone. I do think it's remarkable that this track on the album is so unremarkable musically, but pleasant. You could hit repeat and not know that you are on repeat because its clearly background. Here's a play on the entire ambient/techno genre: is repetitive loop based music no more than musical torture that's accepted for some reason? But don't think that Tim is dismissing the subject completely here. Remember our penetration theme? And recall the purpose of use of incense as both a pragmatic malodorant or a mystical deterrence for demons. The conflict is great, great, great to think about. How the sounds of Bablyon may have uplifted the torturer in the way that Tim hopes his music may have an uplifting effect. Note that in this case its an effect and not a purpose. Tim plays dark themed music that most people think as background - you put it on in the background for the effect it has on your mood, etc. Tim's work is not likely played to you to be uplifting (like the ambient you might get at the spa) but there's no doubt that the positive is hidden there and deeply there.
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