jeru

It is peculiar to me how some music can cause such an effect in me and yet remain undefinable. A friend recently said “All emanations recursively obscure that which originated them,” and I feel this is an apt way to describe some of Tim Hecker’s work, specifically the theme that closes out this album and the album Harmony In Ultraviolet. Konoyo captured me as soon as I had heard its opener, This Life. I had listened to it a number of times before the album came out, and when I had finally heard the entire album, I was surprised to find that it was probably the most intense song on the album. Although I had expected something a bit more aggressive, it was a welcome change from Virgins and Love Streams which are both very emotionally and thematically heavy albums.

However, this album’s arc starts high and dips and then ends middle-high, with the low point being at the end of Keyed Out. When considering the title of the album Konoyo meaning “this world”, the first track is titled This Life, while the last track is titled Across To Anoyo, with anoyo meaning “the realm of the dead”, and with clear language we are told there is more besides this world, and this life. Despite the topic of death and the afterlife, it is to me a very beautiful album conceptually, and an album that lifts me up by the end of it. There’s a lot of rememberance in his works, but this album seems almost more personal in a way…