Tim Hecker has always interested me as a composer. His experimental compositions and use of sounds manage to be distinctive and also give him a very strong aesthetic that makes his work recognisable, once you know what to look for.

On “That World,” the looping and detuneing audio mangling of woodwinds creates wide and haunting textures, typical of his work. At first, these drift in and out of the piece in the background of a plucked string instrument. But over time, these swell and develop into the center of the piece.

They are accompanied by a bass line, which provides a clear root note. This grounds the warbling pitch of the flutes, giving structure and changing the whole mood of the piece.

Tim Hecker rarely directs the listener towards strong emotions. Instead, the instrumental vagaries hint at feelings, subtlety working their way into the piece and your thought processes. Although, over time, the instrumentation in his music has changed, his treatment has stayed faithful, lending a consistency to his unique vision and way of stirring up that same subtlety of feelings for the listener, time and time again:

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