News / / 12.11.12

TIM HECKER & DANIEL LOPATIN

INSTRUMENTAL TOURIST (Software Records)

17/20

In Ravedeath 1972 and Replica respectively, Hecker and Lopatin released two of last year’s finest records, both breaching the midpoint between electronic experimentation, studies in ambient, and noise. Those expecting a composite of Hecker’s organic manipulations and Lopatin’s digital mangling won’t be let down. Utilising a palate composed of “the acoustic resonance of digitally-sourced ‘Instruments of the World’”, Instrumental Tourist is a record that swells with a sense of deep sadness, with the duo’s exploratory, improvisational approach to sound resulting in a lonely, haunted sonic field. Ghostly synthetic choral vocals writhe around the deep drones of Vaccination (For Thomas Mann) and Ritual for Consumption, quasi-Oriental-exotica flourishes ripple under the surfaces of Racist Drone and Grey Geisha, distorted, dislodged arpeggios abound on Uptown Psychedelia. This digitisation of the real creates an album that’s more intrusive than Brian Eno’s Music for Thinking series and less abrasive than, say, Blanck Mass, or Wolf Eye’s more pensive moments. Instrumental Tourist burrows deep inside the listener, and deep listening is rewarded with a quietly monumental piece of work. It’s as good as anything the duo have released individually, and that’s high praise indeed.

– – – – – – – –

Words: Josh Baines

CONNECT TO CRACK