a r t i s t : Tim Hecker
        t i t l e : Atlas
          d a t e : 2007
        l a b e l : Audraglint
	    c a t : AG117
      s o u r c e : 10" Vinyl
        g e n r e : Ambient
  r l s.  d a t e : Jan/2008
      t r a c k s : 02
    b i t r a t e : VBRkbps
          s i z e : 30,2 MB

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     It's hard to know what to say about Tim Hecker that you won't
     already know. Afterall, it can't be that long since we were
     raving on about his Norberg live CD-R for Room40, but Atlas
     marks a real advancement in Hecker's musical evolution. While
     much of the Montreal-based soundsculptor's recent output has
     delved further and further into nebulous, plume-like noise -
     riddled with droning undercurrents, Atlas features a far more
     emphatic use of real instruments. The distortion and haze is
     still very much a part of Hecker's modus operandi, but spouts
     of melody erupt from this music's molten core. Chiming
     passages of electric guitar feature prevalently throughout
     'Atlas One', while on the B-side, 'Atlas Two' begins with the
     kind of exquisitely filtered ambience you'd hear from Boards
     Of Canada at the height of their powers. Buried in there
     somewhere is a quivering mass of piano that slowly irons
     itself out into an expanse of glowing tonal sumptuousness,
     only to die out gracefully, evaporating into a rasping static.
     Gorgeous music - Essential Purchase! - boomkat

     You put music by Montreal's Tim Hecker on the headphones and
     go for a walk around your neighborhood, and all of a sudden
     your other senses are heightened. The colors of the leaves are
     more vibrant; the stench wafting from an alley dumpster has an
     extra note of pungency; the sunlight on your face feels a
     little warmer. His music is designed for immersion, and it has
     a tendency to transform the space in which it's heard. The
     first time I listened to last year's Harmony in Ultraviolet I
     was riding on a bus, sitting in back, feeling the rumble of
     the engine beneath my seat. The windows had a plastic coating
     of some kind that gave everything an orange tint. As we idled
     at the corner, the glass shook and warped and it looked like a
     huge, brightly-colored earthquake outside, and the music
     reinforced the idea that the ground would rupture at any
     moment.

     So anyway. I've missed Tim Hecker a bit this year, but he
     returns with a vinyl-only 10" EP later this month. Atlas
     consists of two tracks, each in the ten-minute range. Here we
     have the A-side, "Atlas One", which combines shifting drone,
     feedback, and plenty of digital crackle with random-sounding
     clusters of guitar harmonics that sound like they're being
     played by a gusty wind. Rather than building to a big peak, as
     he sometimes does, this track feels more like one of his dense
     travelogues, a steady unspooling of richly-textured tone and
     color. The pictures to go with it are up to you.  -pitchfork
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      01-Atlas One                                              [11:20]
      02-Atlas Two                                              [10:14]
                                                                -------
                                                                 21:34 min