Hecker, Tim

***An Imaginary Country continues from the trajectory of TIM HECKER’s last album, the critically acclaimed Harmony in Ultraviolet, while also showing a few new tricks. Tim has incorporated more pulses into this work and also works with a sound pallete including overdriven mellotron strings and synthesizer. At times this album is less overtly aggressive than previous works, but the notion that this is pastoral work would be dead wrong as there are plenty of the agitated crescendos that he is know for. This music backs off from the void of immensity in favor of a terrain of lushness and warmth. Strings, synthesizers, pianos and guitars all fade away into the fog of what they once were. All the tracks are landmarks in a dream cartography. With this album Tim Hecker expands his palette as well as his range, further cementing his reputation as a singular and significant entity in the world of contemporary music.