Violinist/composer/programmer Christopher Tignor is preparing to release a new full-length, Along a Vanishing Plane, and to help pave the way, he has shared with us a video for album cut “Arrow In The Dark.”
Trying, as he puts it, to bring “the body back” to electronic music, Tignor’s new work combines live performance with his self-made processing software, which allows him to create, alter, and arrange original electronic sounds and samples through physical/instrumental means in real time. The “Arrow” video shows off this setup, Christopher running a violin and bass drum through his laptop to generate a dense, nearly orchestral soundscape that’s magical to listen to and impressive to see in action. (Read all about his original software here — maybe even download some for yourself!) Here, Tignor is developing a complex and experimentally technical performance style that calls back to the musician’s roots as both a professional live sound mixer (for CBGBs and Philip Glass, among others) and as a former collaborator to La Monte Young.
Elaborating on how this style of in-the-moment live electronic embellishment taps into the “ritual” quality of the music, he further contextualizes via email:
Like so many musicians, I grew up singing in a church choir. Long after I parted ways with organized religion, the power of performing inside that resonant body stuck with me. Many voices, converging as one, transforming us into something so much more.
Through software, I built a way to rejoin that choir, using live, precisely controlled string harmonizers. I’m trying to wage my own secular, one-man liturgy here; a public act grounded in ritual. Part lament, part hopeful meditation, I think of this song as a wordless hymn you might use to focus your own contemporary values.
Along a Vanishing Plane will be available September 16 from Western Vinyl — you may pre-order it here. To help celebrate the release, Tignor will be performing in NYC at Le Poisson Rouge tomorrow (Friday, September 2).
“Arrow In The Dark” is one part of a full visual album, made in collaboration with Sara Kinney, which will be released alongside the music itself. Watch the video, which we have the pleasure of premiering, below: