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HARMONY IN ULTRAVIOLET

Tim Hecker

Progressive Electronic


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Tim Hecker Harmony In Ultraviolet album cover
3.94 | 12 ratings | 2 reviews | 17% 5 stars

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Studio Album, released in 2006

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Rainbow Blood (1:52)
2. Stags, Aircraft, Kings And Secretaries (4:30)
3. Palimpsest I (0:35)
4. Chimeras (3:13)
5. Dungeoneering (5:24)
6. Palimpsest II (0:38)
7. Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight (3:11)
8. Harmony In Blue I (1:31)
9. Harmony In Blue II (1:52)
10. Harmony In Blue III (2:41)
11. Harmony In Blue IV (2:02)
12. Radio Spiricom (4:52)
13. Whitecaps Of White Noise I (7:29)
14. Whitecaps Of White Noise II (5:57)
15. Blood Rainbow (4:06)

Total time 49:53

Line-up / Musicians

- Tim Hecker / performer, composer

With:
- Jonathan Parant / organ (13, 14)

Releases information

CD Kranky ‎- krank102 (2006, US)

2xLP Kranky ‎- krank102 (2009, US)

Digital album

Thanks to philippe for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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TIM HECKER Harmony In Ultraviolet ratings distribution


3.94
(12 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(17%)
17%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(42%)
42%
Good, but non-essential (42%)
42%
Collectors/fans only (0%)
0%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

TIM HECKER Harmony In Ultraviolet reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars Tim Hecker gets that "ambient" does not mean the same thing as "featureless", and that a good ambient album should exist in a curious space where it simultaneously fades into the background but also calls the listener's attention without ham-fistedly grabbing or demanding it. Harmony In Ultraviolet is an advanced lesson in the craft which takes a droning bedrock and layers onto it a range of curious sonic happenings which, like the best releases in the genre, offers a Rorschach test for the ear. Particular moods are suggested and some pieces, such as Chimeras, are positively rife with tension, but Hecker neither goes overboard nor becomes excessively spartan.
Review by BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars One of Progressive Electronic's most experimental artists, Tim's 2006 product does not disappoint. What follows, below, are my verbalized Rorschach-like impressions to each of the album's 15 songs.

1. "Rainbow Blood" (1:52) What if the bells at Edinborough's St. Cuthbert's stopped ringing? 2. "Stags, Aircraft, Kings And Secretaries" (4:30) feels like the sounds (and smells) inside London's Victoria Station, around 10:00 AM on any weekday, c. 1980. 3. "Palimpsest I" (0:35) Lost in the fog on the Shannon Estuary. 4. "Chimeras" (3:13) the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy, seen walking on the Moors, of course. 5. "Dungeoneering" (5:24) cycling in County Donegal in the night time with only a headlight to give light to your path. 6. "Palimpsest II" (0:38) shoreline is nigh. 7. "Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight" (3:11) walking home from the pub with the dulcet tones of Maíre Brennan's voice still ringing through your head. 8. "Harmony In Blue I" (1:31) walking briskly through the seemingly-endless wheat fields of Saskatchewan, at dusk, in late September. 9. "Harmony In Blue II" (1:52) lead on by the ghost of Jon Hassell, one's brisk walk turns into a run as one feels closer to the source of the Malayan Dream Theory trumpet. 10. "Harmony In Blue III" (2:41) sitting on a wet park bench in the cold fog of Christmas morning in the near-empty Stefansdomplatz in Wien, watching the locals walk by in their heavy green boiled-woolen overcoats and Hutmacher Zapf feathered hats. 11. "Harmony In Blue IV" (2:02) standing on a railway quay in rural England, early on a foggy winter's morn, waiting to catch the first train. 12. "Radio Spiricom" (4:52) view from the train window fast-forwarded 32x. 13. "Whitecaps Of White Noise I" (7:29) standing on the edge of the tarmac at Shannon Airport, watching a plane on the runway take off and then recede into the distance while the next jet lines up to repeat the same. 14. "Whitecaps Of White Noise II" (5:57) deja vu! (More planes. It's a busy afternoon in Shannon!) 15. "Blood Rainbow" (4:06) ? and then the bells came back! How long before we'd stop noticing?

Total time 49:53

My respected and quite prolific (if breviloquent) compatriot from ProgArchives, Arthur "Warthur," King of the Britons, Brit Tonnes, and British "tons," concisely nails Tim Hecker's talents with the comment that "[the artist] gets that 'ambient' does not mean the same thing as 'featureless', and that a good ambient album should exist in a curious space where it simultaneously fades into the background but also calls the listener's attention without ham-fistedly grabbing or demanding it." Arthur then appropriately posits his opinion that Harmony in Ultraviolet "offers a Rorschach test for the ear." I like both of these assertions very much: they feel spot on. (No pun intended.)

As with many of the albums in the Progressive Electronic sub-genre, the instrumental, often "ambient" music offered can be quite challenging to bring words to. For me, this is more the case with brief "tests" of the mind and ears than the long mesmerics provided by so many of the other artists of the subgenre. As Arthur pointed out, the pieces of Tim's music offer tests in which the listener is provoked into an mental-emotional/psychological or psycho-spiritual response. In the case of much of the organ- and computer-treated music of this album I can honestly say that my response has been fairly uniform: feelings of general agitation and discomfort pervade--not quite enough to make me run away (though in times of old this may have been my response). I made it through. I can't say that I actually enjoyed it--that is, I can honestly say that I never felt any joy commencing to gush up from within the wells of my being--but I did find the music--the process

The surprising and obviously incongruous feature of my review is that almost all of my Rorschached-up memories/projections are of scenes from my many trips to the British Isles whereas Tim is Canadian!

A-/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of inventive Progressive Electronic music from one of the sub-genre's envelope-pushers. If it weren't such a typical (though wonderfully consistent) Tim Hecker album, I'd might be bold enough to proclaim this a minor masterpiece in the sub-genre.

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