HARMONY IN ULTRAVIOLET

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.