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tim hecker / radio amor / mille plateaux

Also known as Jetone, Canadian Tim Hecker comes at us with his second full-length under his own name. Far from a sonic assault,"Radio Amor" is more of a meditation on noisy texture and fractured melodies. Consisting mainly of what sounds like heavily processed field recordings and piano "Radio Amor" stutters its way through 50-minutes of frozen melodies and glowing nostalgia. Though the source material sounds old (radio perhaps), the compositional techniques and digital production imply an extremely recent vintage. While his editing sometimes seems forced, when he lets the roughness of the source material take over there are some extremely rewarding moments. Track five, "7000 Miles," stands out in particular as Hecker gives the piece a bit more space to develop. Not quite as satisfying as recent somewhat similar efforts by Fennesz or Mitchell Akiyama but a fine release none the less.