Montreal, QC

Being hailed as the most significant ambient music artist since Brian Eno might daunt some, but Tim Hecker’s work stands up to the hype. The Montreal-based sound artist creates intense, multilayered soundscapes that exist at the nexus of melody and noise, chaos and order. Screaming loops of feedback, altered found-sound samples and shimmering keyboard textures bounce off one another. Distortion and echo generate eerie and surprising rhythms within a melancholy and almost spiritual envelope. Like the soundtrack to a half-remembered fever dream, Hecker’s work creates a meditative space where anxiety and comfort, tension and repetition, coexist.

Hecker originally made a splash at the beginning of the last decade creating dark, pulsating electronica under the name Jetone. Under his own name over the course of six albums and a multitude of EPs, he has become one of the most respected and influential artists in his field.