Ravedeath, 1972 by Tim Hecker

Tim Hecker albums have always sounded like an eternal struggle between darkness and light, with glimpses of terror and tranquility lurking around the edges of every ambient loop. And while they’re all worth a late-night listen, *Ravedeath, 1972* is one of his most cohesive artistic statements yet; 12 songs that bleed into one another beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that they could have been combined into a single track without anyone noticing. Since they aren’t, it’s best to let the entire thing fill your room like the live recording that led to its creation. (Most of the record was captured in one day at an Icelandic church with Hecker’s close friend, fellow sound sculptor Ben Frost.) To listen is to let the light creep in through the bandages, and feel cleansed as the very last note flickers and dies like a rain-doused bonfire. Heavy stuff indeed.

8.6 / 10

A decade into a career that found him perfecting an immediately recognizable approach to dark ambience, Tim Hecker makes what could be his best record.

A-

The second track on Ravedeath, 1972 by Montreal sound-sculpter Tim Hecker begins with the chug of an idling garbage truck. Two songs later, it appears again, barely audible, at the tail end of “In The Fog III.” Where previous albums by this “structured ambient” artist conjured up images of stark, wintry environments, R…

8 / 10

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7 / 10

84 %

Tim Hecker’s albums tend to operate at a high level of conceptual awareness, assembling their ambient structures around a core aural theme.

88 %

It's all too easy to associate ambient music with winter and isolation, and while the same holds true for Ravedeath, 1972, it side steps convention with an inspired recording process that marries both live improvisation and studio refinement. That it was recorded in an abandoned church in the chill of fall seems entirely natural, and

4.0 / 5

Tim Hecker - Ravedeath, 1972 review: Ambient music not for the faint of heart.

8 / 10