Tim Hecker has released a new song, “Keyed Out.”
The nine-minute, exploratory track is one of seven on Hecker’s upcoming album Konoyo, which was recorded in collaboration with Tokyo Gakuso, an ensemble dedicated to a Japanese classical music form known as gagaku.
Written over several sessions, the song was finished in a small temple on the outskirts of Tokyo, Hecker said in a press release. Though there’s plenty going on in “Keyed Out,” from strange synth sounds to light percussive elements, the Canadian composer revealed the track was a product of deliberate restraint.
“I wanted to resist the temptation to overload the music with layers and layers of hyper-edited texture, as if that would help the piece become more whole,” he said. “The song is a lonely deteriorating synth line, refracted and isolated, played alongside a small court music ensemble on what was a crisp, birdsong-filled November morning.”
Konoyo is out September 28. Hear “Keyed Out” below:
