Maximilian Hecker

Critic Neil Strauss writes: »In a long list of precious, fragile, heartbroken artists to emerge in the last two years (Tom McRae, Ed Harcourt, the Kingsbury Manx), Mr. Hecker, by legend an oft-disparaged Berlin street musician, whispers the most precious and fragile heartbreak of them all.«[1] From October 2001 to February 2002, Hecker went on his first European tour – at that time solo, with electric guitar, keyboard and groovebox –, as a headliner mostly, but also as an opening act for Bill Callahan, the Walkabouts and others.

While his sexless Germanic vocals threaten to get smothered in drippy melancholy, he’s wise enough to ease off with the string quartets as things progress, transmuting his snail pace into the kind of pin-drop quiet electro Fischerspooner would make after a pint of heroin.

In May and June 2003, soon after releasing Rose, Hecker went on his second European tour, followed by his third one in September and October of the same year, opening for Cat Power in Clermont-Ferrand, France, and this time supported by live musicians Jens Friebe on keyboard, Hans Narva on bass and Chris Imler on drums.

In January and February, he went on his fourth tour of Europe, supported by Johannes Feige on electric guitar, Philipp Neumann on bass and Snorre Schwarz respectively Nicolai Ziel on drums.

Although simpler (ie, less electronic) than his last album, 'Rose', 'Lady Sleep' is just as evocative: opulent orchestral symphonies sway with a shimmering elegance, the neo-Baroque chamber pop hints at stunning torch songs for the 21st Century and Hecker’s softly spoken vocals are gently affecting.

In summer 2006 he changed from Kitty-yo to V2 Records and released his fourth studio album, I'll Be a Virgin, I'll Be a Mountain (again produced by Guy Sternberg) in Europe, South Korea and Taiwan in September 2006.

That said, "I’ll Be A Virgin…" is a hushed introspective affair, its sweetly mournful melodies augmented by tasteful string arrangements and carrying somewhat poetically strained lyrics ("Wilted Flower" distinguishes itself on that count).

At the same time, the fast food chain Dunkin' Donuts took Hecker's song Silly Lily, Funny Bunny as background music for one of their commercials broadcast in South Korea.

Nothing bad about that, actually, I like the first Taylor-albums as much as anybody (and also Carole King, Rickie Lee Jones, Joni Mitchell or Bill Withers, to be honest) and after all he has penned a few songs that will stay in the canon of modern songwriting for ever without ever becoming kitschy or pathetic.

Erin Lyndal Martin reviewed the album for PopMatters in May 2010: »Perhaps the most startling, out of character moment is on the opening track, “Blue Soldier Night”, which is delivered in a robotic female voice.

Hecker displays less vocal monotony here than his usual, one-note-albeit-heartfelt one.«[6] In April and May 2010, Hecker played the first part of an extensive Chinese tour of 24 Chinese cities – he accomplished the second part in the autumn of the same year –, and his song Kun Zai, written along with Sodagreen singer Wu Qingfeng, was released as the first single of Taiwanese singer Wei Ruxuan's album Graceful Porcupine in Taiwan and Mainland China.

On January 23, 2011, Hecker gave a joint concert, along with American musician Rachael Yamagata at Sejong Cultural Center in Seoul, South Korea, and in autumn of the same year, he played his 8th Chinese tour – that took him to Shanghai, Shenyang, Beijing, Hangzhou and Foshan.

Then, in July/August/October 2012, he released his seventh studio album Mirage of Bliss in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the UK, Ireland, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Italy, Japan and the USA, again on his own record label Blue Soldier Records, and in autumn of the same year, the album was released in Mainland China (by this time on Gold Typhoon Music), Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea (by this time on Leeway).

In January 2015, Maximilian Hecker released his eight studio album Spellbound Scenes of My Cure in Europe (Eat The Beat Music), Mainland China (Beijing Dragon Flying Culture Media), Taiwan (Avant Garden Records) and South Korea (Leeway).

Following a solo German concert tour in January 2015 and an East Asian one (China, Taiwan and South Korea) in spring of the same year, this time as a duo, with Johannes Feige contributing electric guitar and harmony vocals, Hecker, who had been active for 15 years at this point, released a retrospective of 30 songs, The Best of Maximilian Hecker, in Europe (Eat The Beat Music), Mainland China (Want U Music), Taiwan (Hinote) and South Korea (Leeway) in spring 2016.

The album was recorded and produced in the same fashion as his predecessor, Spellbound Scenes of My Cure, together with Johannes Feige (arrangement and production) und Tommi Eckart (mix).

The autofictional novel, divided into three parts and largely written in the language of prose poetry, takes place primarily in South Korea's capital Seoul, where the protagonist – as an idol of alternative music – is initially revered by the players of the local cultural scene and those of the Hallyu, the so-called »Korean Wave«, albeit, after a short period of intense courtship, invariably abandoned by them.

The turbulent relationships with his admirers, depicted in the novel as Mephistophelian figures, ultimately inspire the protagonist to draw a metaphorical comparison between the Korean entertainment industry and the Seoul amusement park Lotte World.

Nevertheless, as a result of a sudden memory of his origin, that is of his true identity, he feels at last able to reconcile with his foreign environment that he hitherto had experienced solely as confusing and hostile, namely by exposing his distorted idea of both Seoul and his Korean admirers as a mere projection, or, as the narrator puts it, a »hallyucination«.

In a remix with the masked worlds of K-Pop, this ultimately results in a picture puzzle – at the end of which lies self-discovery.“[10] In January 2024, Hecker released his tenth studio album Neverheart, recorded in collaboration with Johannes Feige (production) and Peter »Jem« Seifert (mix).

Jörn Schlüter of the German edition of Rolling Stone Magazine about Neverheart: “On his tenth album, Maximilian Hecker, the great chronicler of unfulfilled love, sits at the piano all by himself, only carefully accompanied by spherical sounds and darkly reverberating drums.