"Keyed Out" - Tim Hecker [SoundCloud Audio Single]

Los Angeles and Montreal-based experimental producer Tim Hecker has shared "Keyed Out," the second single from his upcoming album Konoyo, available September 28 from the Kranky label.

Somewhat of a departure from his earlier work, "Keyed Out" is relaxed and warm compared to the ice-cold dystopic tones of the work he's been putting out for the past several years.  Hecker attributes this to the circumstances of recording in Japan:

The track was written over several sessions and finished in a small temple on the outskirts of Tokyo, during one of our initial trips to record with Motonori.  I wanted to resist the temptation to overload the music with layers and layers of hyper-edited texture, as if that would help the piece become more whole.  The song is a lonely deteriorating synth line, refracted and isolated, played alongside a small court music ensemble on what was a crisp birdsong-filled November morning.

Japanese influence is clearly present so far in this upcoming album (Konoyo meaning "this world; the present life" in Japanese).  In promotional material for the tour, it was revealed that the album features performances from the Tokyo Gakuso ensemble, and "Hecker’s signature manipulation of source material — keening strings are stretched into surreal, pixelated mirages; woodwinds warble and dissipate as fractal whispers of spatial haze; sparse gestures of percussion are chopped, isolated, and eroded, like disembodied signals from the afterlife."

For more information and tour dates, check out Tim Hecker's Zumic artist page.