Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972
[Kranky, 2011]
Monochrome doesn’t need to be boring. It is, in fact, very beautiful and deep. Dark abmient release by Tim Hecker brings about something claustrophobic and at the same time reminds of the vast cold spaces of Iceland. In Ravedeath, 1972 there is something of both. This is similar to the transition from one reality to another, verge of two worlds – the material and the ghostly. Only in this case – the world of things and the world of electronic, digital, collide.
The album’s idea stems from digital decay. Heaps of data on CDs and DVDs in a heap of trash, ending IP-address, the music you listen to only once and move on to another one… It’s a very quiet one, but nonetheless, a tragedy. Invisible death happening here and now, when no one really cares. Despite the slowness and length, Ravedeath, 1972 is in no way a quiet album. It is anxious and sad. It is about music and technology, the possible loss of something elusive in the search for technological perfection. The release is symbolic as well, on February 14, the day the feeling is commercialized.
The titles also fall into the same ideology: Hatred of Music (I, II), Analog Paralysis, 1978, The Piano Drop, Studio Suicide, 1980… The album was produced by Bon Iver. A very good album. It’s sad that I’ll probably listen to it once or twice, and then will move on to, for example, the new Radiohead…
Read & Listen:
Tim Hecker website
Myspace
