Ravedeath, 1972
| Ravedeath, 1972 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Tim Hecker | ||||
| Released | February 14, 2011 | |||
| Recorded | July 21, 2010 at Frikirkjan Church, Reykjavík, Iceland | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 52:24 | |||
| Label | Kranky | |||
| Tim Hecker chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 86/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   |
| The A.V. Club | A− |
| Drowned in Sound | 9/10 |
| Mojo | |
| musicOMH | |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Pitchfork Media | 8.6/10 |
| PopMatters | 7/10 |
| Resident Advisor | 4/5 |
| Uncut | |
Ravedeath, 1972 is the sixth studio album by Canadian electronic music musician Tim Hecker, released on February 14, 2011 by Kranky. Musically sparse, the album was recorded primarily in Frikirkjan Church, Reykjavík, with contributions from Ben Frost. The album's central theme is of the degradation of music itself. Critical response was largely warm, with many reviewers acknowledging the album as Hecker's finest.
The album was written by Hecker during late 2010 in Montreal and Banff, Canada. The majority of the album was recorded in Fríkirkjan Church, Reykjavík, Iceland; the location was discovered as a possible recording venue by Frost. Hecker recorded the bulk of the album on July 21, 2010, playing compositions on the pipe organ which were further complemented by guitar and piano. Following this concentrated recording session, he returned to his studio in Montreal and worked for a month, undertaking the mixing and completing the record. The result, as Hecker described it, is "a hybrid of a studio and a live record."
The cover depicts MIT students pushing a piano off the roof of the undergraduate dorm Baker House in 1972 – an act which began a long-running university ritual. Inspired by "digital garbage – like when the Kazakhstan government cracks down on piracy and there's pictures of 10 million DVDs and CDRs being pushed by bulldozers", Hecker found the artwork and developed the cover concept himself, licensing the artwork from the MIT archives and re-photographing the image.
The '1972' of the album's title is a reference to the cover artwork – the inaugural piano drop occurred in 1972 – but word 'Ravedeath' has unclear connotations, even to Hecker himself. At a rave in 2010, the word occurred to Hecker, and became "the wrongest and the most right title ever. It had a life of its own after a while."
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