It’s been a good year for the kind of electronic music that’s walking the former border strip between high brow culture and light entertainment. First, Oneohtrix Point Never and Laurel Halo have released new records, and now there is »Virgins«, another abstract piece, dealing with ambient sounds and sounds of ambiance. With his seventh album, Tim Hecker is moving around somewhere between sound-installations, musique concrète and film scores. And while Tim Hecker used to hide his piano-compositions underneath layers and layers of random noise, acoustic feedback, endless loops of echos or not quite identifiable ructions, he now comes along more self-confident and presents himself more vulnerable. For the recording of »Virgins«, he asked classical ensembles for their support, which is why he succeeded in making abstract and electronic music sound warm and analog. Of course, you’ll still find disruptions in terms of the redcord’s intensity, you’ll still find coy moments of beauty and irritation, moments of bombast. Oneiric situations take turns with lively rides, intuition and compositional strictness don’t have to exclude one another. With every listen, »Virgins« is once again intense, exciting and fascinating – one of the many reasons, why it’s one of Hecker’s best works.
Virgins
