Tim Hecker in Vancouver Reviewed

Source: I Care If You Listen.

Vancouver New Music‘s concert series for the 2015-2016 season opened with Tim Hecker‘s sold-out set at The Orpheum Annex on Saturday November 28, 2015. Unlike most other shows, this one took place in complete darkness, devoid of any acoustic instruments, and lasted approximately one hour without pause or interruption. Though this may seem like an atypical setup, it is in fact ideal for an audience to participate in Hecker’s live performance this way– in a black box, as he prefers– because his music engulfs its listeners. Some describe what they hear as loud while others call it ambient drone; neither description wrong, per se, but neither is quite accurate either. Hecker delivers deep sounds that infiltrate, morph, and expand in all directions, so his work is by nature a difficult thing to define. In experiencing his music, one is enraptured by losing sense of all else, perhaps even language.