Tim Hecker: Ravedeath, 1972

Tim Hecker
Ravedeath, 1972
Rating: Grrrr

The album cover is a striking image of the first piano drop at MIT. There is an amazing tension at play with the piano perilously perched on the edge of the building just before it plummets to the ground, shattering into a million pieces. Ambient-drone artist Tim Hecker found this photo while researching images of the tremendous amounts of digital garbage in the world: piles and piles of used up CDs, floppy disks, and other effluvia. Hecker claims "there's some connection between the computerized engineering that led to the codification of MP3s and music's denigration as an object and thus a viable means of economic survival." Thus, Ravedeath, 1972 is Hecker's comment on how music (specifically electronic music) in the digital age is becoming more homogenized, sanitized, and sterile.

Hecker attempts to bring back a solemnity and purity to music, recording the album in one day in a church in Rekjavik, Iceland, using an old pipe organ as the basis for the 12 tracks. All of the pieces are dense, sculptural, and breathtakingly beautiful. The album is divided into shorter, singular tracks that are almost a battle between organic, analog elements and harsh digital effects, evoking the tension of the album cover photo; and longer suites of music that are simple and haunting.

Lead track "The Piano Drop," has a lush tug of war between bursts of angelic organ, and rushes of digital feedback:



"No Drums" unfolds under thick waves of liquid organ:



And the striking "Studio Suicide," with its ghostly drones and uplifting washes of keyboards:



But it is the longer, multi-part pieces that form the core and heart of the record. "In The Air I-III" owes its obvious debt to Eno's ambient output, melding icy, treated piano with shuffling, digital atmospheres:



"In The Fog I-III" rolls in with echoed and reversed piano, moving into drones of organ and synthesizers, and eventually erupting into a cacophony of digital abstraction:



In the end though, aside from the carefully crafted backstory behind Ravedeath, 1972, what really matters is whether the music touches you in some way. These pieces are technically challenging, but are not impenetrable. In fact, I will go so far as to say these pieces are some of the most beautiful music you will hear all year.

Rating Guide

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top albums of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been trimmed or polished.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.