A Light Below
Western Vinyl, 2019
8/10
An extremely prolific artist with nearly 10 albums under his belt, Christopher Tignor delivers an expressive and highly creative listen with A Light Below, where violin processing, synth, tuning forks, triangles, hi-hat and bells comprise the effort.
“Flood Cycles” starts the listen with ambient, experimental ideas that touch on classical influences but never in any traditional ways, and “Your Slow Shadow, My Inevitable Night” follows with a more abrasive approach of sound manipulation that’s both blurry and dark.
Elsewhere, “A Mirrored Reliquary” showcases Tignor’s adept violin skills in the inimitable delivery, while “I, Autocorrelations” moves with a swift pace of beat friendly, violin acrobatics amid electronic maneuvering.
The album exits on the nearly 11 minutes of “What You Must Make Of Me”, where a tuning fork provides much intrigue, as noise is handled with the utmost precision and with an artistic quality that’s present across the entire listen.
An experience that resides somewhere between post-rock, neoclassical and electroacoustic, A Light Below is probably unlike anything you’ve heard before, but you’ll certainly want to hear it again.
Travels well with: Heron- Sun Release; Colin Stetson- Hereditary