Wikipedia

Harmony in Ultraviolet

Harmony in Ultraviolet is the fourth studio album by Canadian electronic music musician Tim Hecker. It was recorded in two years, and released on October 16, 2006, via Kranky and distributed through CD. The album has been described as genres such as ambient and experimental, and uses multiple instruments (including electric guitars, pipe organs, string instruments, and keyboards) with distortion and samples throughout. Some tracks evolve, and some titles reference myths.

Harmony in Ultraviolet
A memorial with pictures of people assorted in a grid.
Studio album by
Tim Hecker
ReleasedOctober 16, 2006 (2006-10-16)
Recorded2005–2006
Genre
Length49:54
LabelKranky
Tim Hecker chronology
Mirages
(2004) 		Harmony in Ultraviolet
(2006) 		An Imaginary Country
(2009)

Harmony in Ultraviolet received positive reviews from magazines such as Pitchfork, PopMatters, and Tiny Mix Tapes, describing it as "sensual" and "strange". The album would appear in several rankings, with one from Pitchfork saying it was the ninth best ambient album of all time.

Background

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Tim Hecker is a Montreal-based musician known for his work in ambient music.[1] He debuted under the name Jetone in 1996,[2] with a techno release.[3] Under his real name, Hecker released the albums Haunt Me, Haunt Me Do It Again (2001), Radio Amor (2003), and Mirages (2004) before Harmony in Ultraviolet.[4] His work has been positively reacted to by critics.[3]

Release and artwork

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Harmony in Red, the painting which the album title references.

Harmony in Ultraviolet was recorded from 2005 to 2006 in Montreal and Banff, Alberta.[5] The album was released on October 16, 2006 through Kranky,[6] and was the first album of his to be released on the label.[7] The album was distributed by CD.[6] In an interview with Hecker, he said that "[it was] hard thinking about the right label – mostly because I'm not that well-versed in contemporary music, in the sense that I am aware of every label and what they are doing" and that he was interested in Kranky years before the release of the album.[8] The title of the album is a reference to Harmony in Red, a painting by Henri Matisse.[8][9]

The album's cover art is a photograph of an anti-fascist memorial in Bologna.[10][11] In an interview, he said that the memorial was chosen for "the basis of its visceral qualities, but also how it fits with the music on a bunch of levels".[10]

Composition

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Harmony in Ultraviolet has been described as experimental,[4] electronica,[12] ambient,[13] noise,[4] glitch,[13] and drone.[7] Critics noted that the album was loud and dense.[4][14][15] The album had electric guitars, pipe organs, string instruments, and keyboards,[16][17] alongside with distortion.[16] The album uses a variety of heavily edited samples from instruments and other releases.[8] According to Hecker, the album was a continuation of his older work.[10]

 
"Rainbow Blood"
"Rainbow Blood" contains a "screeching and trebly" drone and a processed guitar.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

The album has fifteen tracks.[14] The opener "Rainbow Blood" contains a "screeching and trebly" drone and a processed guitar.[4][8] "Stags, Aircraft, Kings and Secretaries" also has a processed guitar, and the track transitions to "Palimpsest I", which the track was described to be a transition between "Rainbow Blood" and "Chimeras".[8] "Chimeras" has "lumbering, looping tones" and synths with arpeggio.[8][18][7] The title references the Chimera, a creature in Greek mythology.[19] "Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight" was described to have a slow pacing and to be "violent" by critics.[4][19] The title is a reference to the Spring-heeled Jack, a character in English folklore.[19] The track is followed by a four-track suite named "Harmony in Blue", which evolves from a "nice and warm" tone to "like a gradually descending slope into a coal black pit".[4] "Radio Spiricom" includes heavy use of keyboards and static, with synths near the end.[8][20] The title is named after the spiricom, an invention which was claimed to be able to talk to spirits.[19] After, a two-track suite named "Whitecaps of White Noise" follows.[14] The suite uses distortion and static throughout, and fades into a drone with degraded keyboards.[4][14] The first part of the suite uses a sample of an organ, arranged with staccato.[7] The album ends with "Blood Rainbow", a companion piece to "Rainbow Blood", which some critics said it made the album a "loop".[8][21]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [16]
Pitchfork8.7/10[4]
PopMatters8/10[14]
Remix     [18]
Sputnikmusic5/5[22]
Tiny Mix Tapes     [13]

The album was generally praised by critics, with Pitchfork writer Mark Richardson saying "Harmony in Ultraviolet is sensual body music of a very particular kind, and it's the sort of record that asks a lot. But if you trust it and go along, it knows exactly where to lay its hands."[4] Writer Marisa Brown for AllMusic described the album's tracks as "work[ing] together to form an idea that's greater than its individual elements: a sense of exploration and sadness and understanding of the infiniteness and uncertainty and expanse of the world."[16] Saul Austerlitz for The Boston Globe described the album as "more than the sum of its parts".[12] Cokemachineglow writer Dom Sinacola said that the album was "meticulous and sprawling, a paranoid piece of contemporary anti-structure ridden with the awesome expenditure of any thriving society's morals, fuels, politics, and energy".[7] Emerson Dameron for Dusted compared the album to Hecker's earlier works, saying that Harmony in Ultraviolet's artwork and structure "[suggests] a heavy, shenanigan-free affair", and that his older works "come out of the oven sad, lonesome and loud".[15]

Nate Dorr for PopMatters said that the album was Hecker's finest work, and that it "pulls unlikely beauty out of jarring noise".[14] Remix writer Christine Hsieh said that the album was "those rare albums that creeps unnoticed into the listener's headspace".[18] A writer for Sputnikmusic gave it a perfect score out of five, describing it as a "bit of a drug trip reverie".[22] P. Funk writing for Tiny Mix Tapes noted that the album had similar tones to Hecker's Radio Amor, and that one of the strengths of the album was its structure, saying "there's a strange logic to the way sounds mutate into one another".[13] Michael Henning for independent magazine Treblezine compared the album to Brian Eno's On Land, saying that Harmony in Ultraviolet is equally "organic", although more "digital".[20]

Pitchfork called Harmony in Ultraviolet the ninth best ambient album of all time[17] and the fourteenth best album of 2006.[23] Writers for Treblezine put the album in its list of "10 Essential Ambient Albums"[24] and its list of the twenty best Kranky albums.[25] In a list from writers of Pitchfork, where each writer lists their favorite albums from 2006, the album would be listed ten times.[26] After the release of Love Streams (2016), Hecker's eighth album, Lindsey Rhoades for Stereogum said that Harmony in Ultraviolet was the second best album in his discography.[19]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Tim Hecker.

Harmony in Ultraviolet track listing[27]
No.TitleLength
1."Rainbow Blood"1:52
2."Stags, Aircraft, Kings and Secretaries"4:31
3."Palimpsest I"0:35
4."Chimeras"3:13
5."Dungeoneering"5:24
6."Palimpsest II"0:38
7."Spring Heeled Jack Flies Tonight"3:11
8."Harmony in Blue I"1:31
9."Harmony in Blue II"1:52
10."Harmony in Blue III"2:41
11."Harmony in Blue IV"2:02
12."Radio Spiricom"4:52
13."Whitecaps of White Noise I"7:29
14."Whitecaps of White Noise II"5:57
15."Blood Rainbow"4:06
Total length:49:54

Personnel

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Credits adapted from liner notes and AllMusic.[5][16]

  • Tim Hecker – performer
  • Denis Blackham – mastering
  • Jonathan Parent – organ stab (on tracks 13–14)

References

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  1. ^ Hecker, Tim (November 1, 2013). "Tim Hecker's Angels and Demons". Interview (Interview). Interviewed by Hannah Ghorashi. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  2. ^ Hecker, Tim (n.d.). "Tim Hecker: Sculpting Sound and Emotion Through Sonic Experimentation" (Interview). Waldorf Music. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  3. ^ a b Currin, Grayson Haver (April 25, 2023). "Tim Hecker Helped Popularize Ambient Music. He's (Sort of) Sorry". The New York Times. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Richardson, Mark (October 16, 2006). "Tim Hecker: Harmony in Ultraviolet". Pitchfork. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  5. ^ a b Hecker, Tim (October 16, 2006). Harmony in Ultraviolet (Liner notes). Kranky. krank102.
  6. ^ a b "KRANK 102 - Tim Hecker, "Harmony in Ultraviolet"". Brainwashed. Archived from the original on November 10, 2006. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  7. ^ a b c d e Sinacola, Dom (November 7, 2007). "Tim Hecker: Harmony In Ultraviolet". Cokemachineglow. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Hecker, Tim (March 3, 2007). "Tim Hecker interview by Simon Hampson". Cyclic Defrost (Interview). Interviewed by Simon Hampson. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  9. ^ Rodriguez, Juan (May 23, 2009). "Reflecting the wonder and mystery of life". The Gazette. Montreal. p. 4. Retrieved July 22, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ a b c Hecker, Tim (September 27, 2006). "Tim Hecker". Stylus Magazine (Interview). Interviewed by Macdonald, Cameron. Archived from the original on April 26, 2025. Retrieved May 30, 2025.
  11. ^ Del Re, Gianmarco (July 2013). "A Long Way..." Fluid Radio. Retrieved July 18, 2025.
  12. ^ a b Austerlitz, Saul (December 26, 2006). "Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet (Kranky)". The Boston Globe. Boston. p. 69. Retrieved July 22, 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ a b c d Funk, P. "Harmony in Ultraviolet - Tim Hecker". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  14. ^ a b c d e f Dorr, Nate (November 10, 2006). "Tim Hecker: Harmony in Ultraviolet". PopMatters. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  15. ^ a b Dameron, Emerson (October 6, 2006). "Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet". Dusted. Archived from the original on October 20, 2006. Retrieved July 30, 2025.
  16. ^ a b c d e Brown, Marisa. "Harmony in Ultraviolet - Tim Hecker". AllMusic. Retrieved March 9, 2013.
  17. ^ a b "The 50 Best Ambient Albums of All Time". Pitchfork. September 26, 2016. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  18. ^ a b c Hsieh, Christine (October 2006). "Rotations: CD Reviews". Remix. Vol. 8, no. 10. p. 90. ISSN 1532-1347.
  19. ^ a b c d e Rhoades, Lindsey (April 29, 2016). "Tim Hecker Albums From Worst To Best". Stereogum. Retrieved July 20, 2025.
  20. ^ a b Henning, Michael (May 8, 2007). "Tim Hecker : Harmony in Ultraviolet". Treblezine. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
  21. ^ Wasacz, Walter (March–April 2011). "The Ice Storm". XLR8R. No. 138. p. 40.
  22. ^ a b Observer (September 16, 2012). "Harmony in Ultraviolet - Tim Hecker". Sputnikmusic. Retrieved June 9, 2013.
  23. ^ "Top 50 Albums of 2006". Pitchfork. December 18, 2006. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  24. ^ "10 Essential Ambient Albums". Treblezine. August 1, 2012. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  25. ^ "Kranky: 20 Essential Albums". Treblezine. November 12, 2023. Retrieved May 31, 2025.
  26. ^ "2006 Individual Albums Lists". Pitchfork. December 18, 2006. Retrieved July 17, 2025.
  27. ^ "Tim Hecker - Harmony in Ultraviolet". Bleep. Retrieved July 19, 2025.
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