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Harmony in Ultraviolet
2006 studio album by Tim Hecker From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Harmony in Ultraviolet is the fourth studio album by Canadian electronic music musician Tim Hecker. It was released on October 16, 2006, via Kranky. The album was described as ambient, using multiple instruments throughout. The album received positive reviews from critics and was ranked in multiple lists from Pitchfork.
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Release and artwork
Harmony in Ultraviolet was recorded from 2005 to 2006 in Montreal and Banff, Alberta.[1] The album was released on October 16, 2006 through Kranky.[2] The album was distributed by CD.[2] In an interview with Hecker, he said that "[it's] hard thinking about the right label – mostly because I'm not that well-versed in contemporary music, in the sense that I am aware of every label and what they are doing" and that he was interested in Kranky years before the release of the album.[3] The title of the album is a reference to Harmony in Red, a painting by Henri Matisse.[3]
The album's front cover art is a photograph of an anti-fascist memorial in Bologna.[4][5] In an interview, he said that the memorial was chosen for "the basis of its visceral qualities, but also how it fits with the music on a bunch of levels".[4]
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Composition
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Harmony in Ultraviolet has been described as experimental,[6] ambient,[7] noise,[6] glitch,[7] and drone.[8] Critics noted that the album was loud and dense.[6][9] The album had guitars and keyboards,[10] which one critic described the keyboards as "degraded".[9] According to Hecker, the album was a continuation of his older work.[4]
Opener "Rainbow Blood" contains a "screeching" drone and a processed guitar.[6][3] "Stags, Aircraft, Kings and Secretaries" also has a processed guitar, and the track transitions to "Palimpsest I", which the track was described to be a transition between "Rainbow Blood" and "Chimeras".[3] "Chimeras" has "lumbering, looping tones" and arpeggios.[6][11] "Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight" was described to be "violent" by a critic.[6] The track is followed by a four-track suite named "Harmony in Blue", which evolves throughout.[6] "Radio Spiricom" includes heavy use of keyboards and static, with synths near the end.[3][12] After, a two-track suite named "Whitecaps of White Noise" follows.[9] The suite uses distortion throughout, and fades into a drone with degraded keyboard sounds.[6][9] The album ends with "Blood Rainbow", a companion piece to "Rainbow Blood", making the album a "loop".[3][13]
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Reception
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The album was generally praised by critics, with Pitchfork writer Mark Richardson saying "Harmony in Ultraviolet is sensual body music of a very particular kind, and it's the sort of record that asks a lot. But if you trust it and go along, it knows exactly where to lay its hands."[6] Writer Marisa Brown for AllMusic described the album's tracks as "work[ing] together to form an idea that's greater than its individual elements: a sense of exploration and sadness and understanding of the infiniteness and uncertainty and expanse of the world."[10] In an issue of the Kansas State Collegian, Mark Sibilla said that the album was a "refinement of Hecker's skills and sounds from previous albums".[14] Nate Dorr for PopMatters said that the album was Hecker's finest work, saying it was "intricately textured ambient noise".[9] Christine Hsieh for Remix said that the album was "those rare albums that creeps unnoticed into the listener's headspace".[11] A writer for Sputnikmusic gave it a perfect score out of five, describing it as a "bit of a drug trip reverie".[15] P. Funk writing for Tiny Mix Tapes noted that the album had similar tones to Hecker's Radio Amor, and that one of the strengths of the album was its structure, saying "there's a strange logic to the way sounds mutate into one another".[7] Michael Henning for independent magazine Treblezine compared the album to Brian Eno's On Land, saying that Harmony in Ultraviolet is equally "organic", although more "digital".[12]
Harmony in Ultraviolet would be ranked in two Pitchfork lists: "The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time" at ninth[16] and "Top 50 Albums of 2006" at fourteenth.[17] Writers for independent magazine Treblezine put the album in its list of "10 Essential Ambient Albums"[18] and its list of the twenty best Kranky albums.[19] In a list from writers of Pitchfork, where each writer lists their favorite albums from 2006, the album would be listed ten times.[20]
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Track listing
All tracks are written by Tim Hecker.
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Personnel
References
External links
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