I’m sure you know the feeling. You’re listening to an album, and you’re so caught up in how weird, crazy, and new it all sounds that you can barely form a coherent opinion about it — positive or negative. As my auditory palate has improved over the years, this has become a rarer and rarer occurrence, but I can say without hesitation that one of the last albums to have that effect on me wasn’t released all that long ago; it was 2009’s Acid in the Style of David Tudor (TMT Review) from German computer musician Hecker (first name: Florian). It’s difficult. It’s inaccessible. And at the time, the only reaction that I could muster was a scrunched face and shifting eyes.
Innovation, regardless of where it takes place, sometimes has that effect on people, which is why you should have your face pre-scrunched in preparation for Hecker’s newest release Chimerization, due out November 27 on Editions Mego, in a 3LP bundle.
Why three LPs, you ask? Well, each LP is in a different language — English, German, and Farsi. What’s in a different language, you ask? Well, the album is centered around an “experimental libretto” written by Iranian writer and philosopher Reza Negarestani, specifically at the request of Hecker himself. I had to google it, so I may as well give you the definition here: a “libretto” is the “text of an opera or other long vocal work.” For Chimerization, a group of speakers recited the libretto in “anechoic and sound-attenuated chambers,” which are rooms designed to eliminate reflections of sound — perfect for “psychoacoustic investigations on difficult-to-define areas between language and non-language,” the underlying concept of this release.
Download and/or listen to the entire thing ahead of its release date here. For those struggling to form an opinion, let me assure you, it sounds pretty awesome.
• Hecker: http://florianhecker.blogspot.com
• Editions Mego: http://editionsmego.com
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