Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country

Tim Hecker is an ambient composer from Montreal, Canada and An Imaginary Country is his sixth studio album. Arguably one of his more accessible albums, this one's nonetheless a good indicator how to compose ambient-music that is more than a dull wall paper, something that absorbs the listener. Like Fennesz, one can detect the integration of noisy surface and melodic undercurrents. Unlike him, Hecker does not submerge the melodic elements under the noise, but allows the white noise to float above them, like nebula. The listener perceives the textures created by mellotrons, synthesizers and occasionally guitar and piano as well, as nebulous and hazy. The result bears some affinity to what shoegazers have achieved, but firmly in ambient vein. The album opener "100 Years Ago" and the album closer "200 Years Ago" contain a theme based on dramatic and memorable mellotron line that gives the album a bookend effect. Between the bookends there are ten more compositions that are good examples of the best sort of ambient-noise music.