@chresus jist , have you heard much Tim Hecker or are your opinions on the degree of his musicianship coming solely from this relatively very small snippet of his work? I have a number of his albums, they are widely viewed as being very rich in creativity, full of textures and submelodies, bringing a whole world of landscapes, colours and ideas to life.
Have you listened through the albums ‘Harmony in Ultraviolet’ or ‘An Imaginary Country’ ? These pieces of art would be impossible to make on a whim at 3 in the morning, yes of course certain types of ‘ambient’ can be made very easily and even just improvised/made by convenient accident on the spot – but Tim Hecker’s work is not at all like that but is very much intelligently and emotionally thought out, and put together with purpose. If you *have listened to a selection of his albums and still feel the same, I would bet that it’s very likely you just aren’t into the genre rather than Hecker not deserving of his status as a highly respected musician.
Is he a synth star? Well I’m not sure what would actually qualify someone for such a cheesily hip title, but he’s certainly more the ‘botanical engineer’ of his particular craft than a Leaf Blower.