It’s hard to imagine Tim Hecker purposefully seeking out even more desolate soundscapes on his upcoming album Virgins. His last record, 2011′s Ravedeath, 1972, was the sound of coldness and stinging air; its jagged, distorted drones hardening the lightness of the bright synthesized noise. Perhaps partially inspired by last year’s collaboration with Daniel Lopatin on Instrumental Tourist, “Virginal II,” the album’s first single, is not too far removed from a Replica-era tune.

The opening piano loop is like something out of an episode of Unsolved Mysteries, but as the track progresses things begin to bubble to the surface. The jangling piano briefly gives way to a dense, buzzing drone until everything melts away in a wash of harmonics. A skipping MIDI horn-like noise introduces similar feelings of digital decay that Hecker experimented with on his 2003 album Radio Amor, but executed in a more subdued way here. If Ravedeath was the equivalent of walking alone through the tundra, Virgins is shaping up to sound like being swallowed by molten magma from the Earth’s core.

Virgins is out October 14th via Kranky.