Apocalyptic Ambient music producer Tim Hecker released his seventh studio LP entitled “Virgins” this October, and it is a discordantly beautiful magnum opus filled with sound, fury and pianos. 

On the coattails of his sixth studio effort, “Ravedeath, 1972”, which was an auditory panorama of what it possibly would be like if you were last one on Earth to tread the barren wastelands of a place you used to call home, “Virgins” takes a more cacophonous and technical approach, yet manages to keep the same beauty as its predecessor.

Key tracks such as “Virginal I” start with this seemingly unprecedented piano phrase with small variations of the same phrase being laid on top of each other like an ominous stack of flapjacks. The track inconspicuously changes its shape and texture by blending bulging one-note bass lines and subtle reverberations.

If you listen closely, you can hear eerily beautiful melodies that resemble some of the Cocteau Twins’ work. The same goes for the sixth track, “Virginal II,” which is a continuation of the second track, but a different piano phrase is used and the climax is a bit more immediate and pleasant-sounding with its segue into some gorgeous cascading synths that swim in a sea of piano reverberations of the former piano phrase giving it an indescribable effect.

The following track, “Black Refraction,” starts off the bottom half, and my more preferred half, of “Virgins” as Hecker trades in his raucous piano phrasing for a more somber piano ballad that sounds as if it was thrown into a randomizer as it cuts in and out.

Finally, Hecker takes it home with the twelfth track, “Stab Variation”, which is more synthesizer-oriented but still beautiful and ambient. The reverbs provide a fetching yet melancholy atmosphere whilst perpetuating this sense of finality.  

If his last album was the end of Earth, then “Virgins” is the birth of the new and ultimate end in Heaven. Synths ricochet on both channels while being submerged in reverb and grandiose movements that sound like thunderous machinery initiating before submitting to the lull of the air and the end of the track like it was inevitable.

Alas, this album came with some, but very few, minuscule gripes. At times, Hecker was a bit overindulgent with the cacophony and it got a bit unpleasant and uninspired.

Also, the tracks were a bit too alike and got mundane, which is why my favorite tracks spread between both sides of the LP. In comparison to his previous work, it was not as good as “Ravedeath” but “Virgins” definitely stands strong with its legs crossed as a formidable LP and a gem in Hecker’s consistently good discography.

If you enjoyed this album, you would probably enjoy his “Ravedeath, 1972” and his side project with Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) called “Instrumental Tourist”. 

4/5