Tim Hecker Shares “Castrati Stack”

For years, Tim Hecker's complicated, haunting soundscapes have earned him acclaim and collaborations from the ambient and experimental circles all over the world. The Montreal sound artist will return with a new album Love Streams on the legendary 4AD this April, and according to a statement to Pitchfork, was inspired “liturgical aesthetics after Yeezus” and the “transcendental voice in the age of auto-tune."

Concerns of the sacred and eternal are not new to Hecker (listen to his beloved Ravedeath, 1972 ASAP, largely recorded on a pipe organ in an Icelandic church) but on “Castrati Stack,” the first dispatch from Hecker's new world, the glittering harmonies of the Icelandic Vocal Choir do something unexpected - they push through the surrounding maelstrom of electronics and stand their ground.