Tim Hecker, a Canadian-based composer and sound artist, has spent the last decade inhabiting a unique intersection between noise, dissonance, and melody. In his varied and celebrated works, digital and organic sources tightly intertwine. The result is a hybrid aesthetic that recalls electronic abstraction and psychedelic American minimalism. Hecker purposefully obfuscates the clear tonal distinctions of traditional instrumentation, preferring to cultivate enigmatic, uneasy soundscapes. The beauty and crush of Hecker’s sonically processed noise has been compared to “tectonic color plates” and “cathedral electronic music.” As the New York Times put it, he plays “foreboding, abstract pieces in which static and sub-bass rumbles open up around slow-moving notes and chords, like fissures in the earth waiting to swallow them whole.”
In 2011, Hecker was named by NPR as one of the Top 100 Composers Under 40. His 2003 album RADIO AMOR, released on the acclaimed German electronic music label Mille Plateaux, was recognized as a key recording of that year by WIRE magazine. In the years since, Hecker has worked extensively with the distinguished Chicago-based label Kranky.