Tim Hecker – No Highs

No Highs starts on a riff that looks like Morse code, intertwined with an electric frequency then a siren track, then punctuated with elecronically treated bow strokes, chained with borborygms by reed instruments. The waves follow one another, dark clouds cajole the horizon. Then come modulations that are a little more innocent, abstract painting without apparent rhythm, joyful and peaceful colors. The third element on this album is dramatic, grating, very emotional. We go back to a discourse of short phrases-motifs exposed in staccato (different Morse code!) , around which the composer builds “Lotus Light”, another slow and sure rise in intensity, inspired course on a false flat. A lull of filtered guitars, almost transformed into choirs, precedes a much heavier sequence, but just as linear, hypnotic and, all in all, fascinating. The echo effects multiply on the phrases exhaled by the colleague Colin Stetson, followed by an electro cycle, linear but contrapuntal. And so on. In Tim Hecker’s case, an artist who is first associated with electronics, the use of modern or traditional instruments is different than in the recent chapter of his work (Anoyo and Konoyo), but is nevertheless a material of choice in No Highs. We can already say that he manages to refresh his proposal sufficiently by maintaining the main signs of it and this, the whole created in a conjuncture of high uncertainty, inspiring such cheerful titles as “Monotony”, “Total Garbage”, “Winter Cop”, “Pulse Depression”, “Anxiety”,”Senses”, “Suppression”.