Tim Hecker & Vincent de Belleval Jung an Tagen & Rainer Kohlbeger

The latest work by Canadian composer Tim Hecker serves as a beacon of unease against the deluge of false positive corporate ambient currently in vogue. Whether taken as warning or promise, No Highs delivers – this is music of austerity and ambiguity, purgatorial and seasick. A jagged anti-relaxant for our medicated age, rough-hewn and undefined. On No Highs, Hecker arranges electronic music into acoustic assemblages with instrumental layers like mantric horns (including Colin Stetson’s exquisite modal saxophone) and cathedral keys.

Jung An Tagen’s musical evolution ranges from techno to industrial noise to electroacoustic avant-garde. He himself describes his music as “dissociative” – or in other words: While at some points the rhythm is in the foreground seemingly suddenly you can hardly immerse yourself in the music. His releases combine a pointed but fearless arrangement in dealing with sound structure, time and sound. Artist and filmmaker Rainer Kohlberg has created the visual layer that goes with this way of working.