cEvin Key maintained his position in the Canadian industrial trio Skinny Puppy while pursuing parallel ventures that included Tear Garden and Hilt. His ambient explorations, far less turbulent than Skinny Puppy’s output, originated in the mid-’80s when he joined forces with Edward Ka-Spel of Legendary Pink Dots to establish Tear Garden. The 1987 debut Tired Eyes Slowly Burning foregrounded Key’s accomplished programming and positioned him beyond the intense spotlight occupied by Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre. Preferring dense, atmospheric arrangements over the abrasive textures of his primary band, Key gave Tear Garden its own distinctive appeal. The 1992 album The Last Man to Fly contained the widely praised single “Romulus & Venus,” and the Sheila Liked the Rodeo EP appeared the following year. Work on Skinny Puppy’s The Process was halted by the 1995 overdose death of keyboardist Dwayne Goettel. Legal conflicts surrounding the album’s release dragged into 1996, ultimately awarding Key full creative authority after Skinny Puppy’s dissolution. Unsettled by the previous year’s events yet undeterred, he released To Be an Angel Blind, the Crippled Soul Divide in 1996 and Paradigm Shift in 1997, all while keeping a low profile that allowed Tear Garden to become his central concern. Two further projects arrived in 2000: the expansive compilation Wild Planet: Subconsious Communications, which gathered material from Skinny Puppy, Legendary Pink Dots, and Tear Garden, and Tear Garden’s Crystal Mass LP.
