Trade Winds, White Heat

22. Tim Hecker - Trade Winds, White Heat
Nonpareil Canadian drone maestro Tim Hecker is well known for his prolific output and admirable eclecticism within the limited stylistic bounds of experimental ambient music. “Trade Winds, White Heat,” while able to be treated as an understated epilogue to Radio Amor, stands in its own right as an exemplification of Hecker’s exceptional finesse in handling the most fragile of sounds. Despite its relatively short duration, its simplistic, single-layer arrangement provides space for soothing anticlimactic resonance – the soft, caressing melody that pervades provokes that rare, wonderful kind of poignancy in endings that lingers on long after. For a piece so restful, “Trade Winds, White Heat” summons an impossibly powerful and overwhelming energy. (Mac Nguyen)