Tim Hecker @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 4 Oct

Tonight's support act take to the stage a little late. “Sorry for the delay,” Super Inuit's Brian Pokora murmurs after the first song. Did we just start this night with a pun? The Edinburgh purveyors of dark ambient are a nice group to ease the crowd into the night. A make or break factor in drone/ambient is atmosphere, and their manipulated guitar and soft, looped vocals that gently reverberate around the darkened Dissection Room set a pleasant tone for the evening.

Tim Hecker arrives bang on 9.30pm and the room falls deathly silent, though he needs a minute to get his gear ready. The room falls darker still and Hecker begins to blend the sonic elements needed to create his most recent album, last year's Love Streams. Things progress slowly for a few minutes before some of the meatier tones and textures come into play. Hecker builds and chops, constantly moving parts around to track the rise and fall of carefully conjured electronics.

Much is made of the Hecker's loudness at live shows, but tonight's performance doesn't seem to hit the mark of sonic assault that was expected. It's perhaps an issue with the sound system, or a decibel cap (as the venue is being used for other things at the same time, and is part of a residential area), but beyond a few choice tonal shifts, the sound never approaches a challenging limit tonight.

However, that doesn't necessarily affect the music's impact. It's performed smoothly throughout, and in almost total darkness. The bright blue Fire Exit sign is distracting to begin with, but soon it's part of the setting, casting hazy silhouettes across the venue and creating an impression of the audience as eerie extras from Les Revenants; static, passive, but rapt. Hecker himself seems to fade into the background at times (he is never more than a flickering movement on stage), especially as your eyes get used to the darkness, and shapes and objects begin to merge and contrast becomes difficult to discern.

Hecker plays for a scant fifty minutes, the brevity of the set leaving a bit of a sour taste, but if you can allow yourself to be immersed in the deep sonic layers that Hecker creates, your reward is a brief transcendental experience.