Virgins

Virgins is the first Tim Hecker album more focused on performance than process. Most of it was recorded with a small group of orchestral musicians affiliated with Bedroom Community, and its a record that grows on you in the subtlest and most intriguing way. I 'd given this album a listen or two, and as time passed, melodies logged in my head would surface, evoking the records' warm, inviting yet uncanny echoing sound, with instruments sounding like they're richocheting from every angle, evoking a cavernous hangar, reflecting a barely there tension that is nothing short of captivating, if that makes any sense...Its very hard to describe that dynamics of this record, but its something that'll stick, fascinate, perhaps frustrate but always a rewarding to return to. Apart from Radio Amour, which in my opinion is Hecker's best, this record is a wonderful gem on its own and a welcome addition to the continual innovation in electronic music. And its just sounds good...

Bursting collages of fuzz and feedback squelches, drips of busted electronic fizzles trickled over heaps of gutted and wrecked piano chords, discombobulated machinery torn open, spurting notes from tubed gashes, shocks of wattage humming from underneath twisted rubble ambiance, tangled wires writhing in showering sparks, whipping over delicate pools of circuitry reflecting a glowing rumble, while inconspicuously, the pulsating core transforms slowly into an unfathomable star flower. Hecker, is part scientist, part god in his deconstruction of melody, splicing its fundamental organic elements with inorganic material, building fragmented sequences of engineered chaos that are both breathtakingly stark and shockingly beautiful. Hecker imagines the disintegration of sound only so he can regenerate music as freely as possible, without definition or expectation, needing to be unencumbered by the world that once was thus facilitating an apocalypse in order to serve his experimentation. "Virgins" is Tim Hecker at his heaviest and most profound.

You are sitting in a room. I am sitting in a room. Is this Tim's prettiest album? Yeah, probably it is. Not EZ listening for sure, but it's no screamin jay noise machine, either. By the way, it is great. Has anyone seen him perform this live? Is it awesome? I bet it is. Loads of acoustic considerations. If the last one was based on a church organ, then this one is based on chamber music for piano and strings. Via music and context of words/pictures themes emerge political, religious, precious, precarious. I think a lot of other people have written reviews; you may read them (ResAd's was pretty good). Kranky is such a good record label.

Definitely not prototypical electro-ambient music. There are alot of orchestral swells of chimes and clanging bells that create a repetetive, hypnotic wall of sound effect, recorded on loop sequences that progressively arc higher and louder to abrupt conclusions. The atmosphere is very mesmerizing and dreamlike, but not especially warm or soothing to listen to. As a result, not very suited to background "music" or dinner parties.

Not sure how to classify it. Electronic? Noise? Minimalism? How about awesome.

Quality wise, everything is absolutely excellent, with incredible album art, presentation, and sound quality. No pops or hisses. A+

Great album, and great packaging on the vinyl!

Tim Hecker's newest won't disappoint fans. As on his previous albums, one of the most enjoyable aspects is how noises are re-contextualized, as the melodies that emerge beneath give them new significance. This time around, though, the sounds are more diverse, featuring elegant woodwinds as well as cascading layers of feedback and distortion. A new feature is the focus on (somewhat) unprocessed piano, which adds an immediacy and organic quality which, when combined with distorted, ceiling-shaking bass tones, is reminiscent of Ben Frost's  By the Throat  ("Live Room"). At times unaccompanied, looping disjointedly, the effect of the piano can be disconcerting, or even jarring, as on the opening track. On "Virginal I", he slowly deconstructs the piano tones, taking them from starkly hammered keys to intermingling ambient traces. At other times, he emphasizes the clarity of the instrument, making it quite serene and beautiful as on the gorgeous, almost modern classical "Black Refraction."Tim Hecker's albums could never really be faulted for lack of beauty, but it's great to see that he continues to evolve, expanding upon his successful formula while keeping intact his appreciation for moving melodies.

Gift for relative

Excellent, it is Tim hecker, what can I say ...

Many a poet has tried to express what their opinion of beauty, most notably the Romantics, and I’m sure they’d have something to say about this album.I’ve never listened to TIm Hecker before, but if Virgins reminds me of anything, it’s a sadder Aphex Twins’ Selected Ambient works, because this album is really sad. A Piano sounds like it is dying in ‘Black Refraction’ and the strings that open following ‘Incense at Abu Ghraib’ feel so sorrowful. We are taken through Virgins with our eyes closed and our hands bound in pleasure until we reach the brutal stabbings of ‘Stab Variation’, which really isn’t too far from the eerie atmosphere of opener ‘Prism’.It’s really with ‘Live Room In’ and ‘Live Room Out’ that this album shines, and it’s doesn’t really shine, it just moves into a different room in the haunted house, a room filled with awe. The creaking piano notes and the strange sounds that are being thrown at me, I don’t even know how they were created, and I like that. And the ending to ‘Live Room Out’, it gets me every time.Overall, Virgins is an album when listened to through speakers becomes an incredibly detailed and layered experience that you could divulge in forever, soaking in it’s comfortable waters, but when listened to through headphones becomes compact and lonely, a brooding sadness for lonely winter nights that will never bring you to tears because it is cruel in its beauty.

Tim Hecker riesce nel difficile compito di bissare un disco di importanza seminale come Ravedeath.Un disco sentito, profondo, commovente.Consegna impeccabile come sempre.

Für mich ist das sein bestes Album... alles an diesen 13 Titeln stimmt einfach.Die Atmosphäre ist einfach unglaublich... Besonders nachts höre ich es gerne, man wird praktisch in eine andere Welt versetzt.