New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Christopher Tignor's upcoming album The Art of Surrender, set for a
September 29th release via Western Vinyl, marks a return to life, sown from primal impulses and hard-won emotional truths. Unrestrained melodic rapture soars above a propulsive kick drum, speaking a need to move, to dance, to love.
The music is as ambitious as its origins are personal. Tignor plays with scale, crafting multi-movement epics alongside one-minute miniatures. The smallest, most fragile violin gestures, where the finger barely touches the string to extract natural harmonics exist side by side with angular, exotic melodies, asymmetric rhythms, and rapid-fire string crossings. On this album, Tignor digs even more deeply into the violin and its technicolor re-imaginings under his electroacoustic treatments.
These themes were seen and heard in "Ritual of a Thousand Limbs" and "Off-Centered Hearts," and now in his latest single "She Comes In Waves." A new lament for old souls, the new single opens like a dirge and closes like a futurist fanfare, arpeggiators and kick drum'ed bass swells lofting long violin lines skyward. What lies between is some of Tignor's most polyphonic work on the album, showcasing his unique techniques for live-processed violin played with both hands and feet, locked in a classical duet with himself. These interweaving gestures are of two minds, but one heart, yearning for breath between waves.
Tignor has also announced a string of East Coast live dates kicking off this weekend and going through the album release show for The Art of Surrender on October 11th at Public Records in Brooklyn, NY. The album release event features violinist/vocalist/composer
Christina Courtin (Nonesuch Records) and renown classical violinist Johnny Gandelsman (The SIlk Road Ensemble). Tickets are available here, and the full list of dates are below.
The album title refers to the process of letting go of expectations, submitting to the will of the creative process. Following a collapsed relationship that left Tignor alone half-time with his daughter, this period was also one of surrendering to a dark unknown, rebuilding life's basic meanings from passion and artistic drive.
Likewise, Tignor's unwavering approach to live performance embraces the rewards of taking risks: using his custom setup with meticulously controlled violin processing and drum triggered synths, this LP, like its predecessors, was created without pre-recorded tracks or live looping, allowing bodily gesture to invite audiences into the process of music making.
Christopher Tignor is a composer, violinist, lecturer, and software engineer, with a PhD in music composition from Princeton. In his early years, he was the personal assistant for LaMonte Young, and was the technical director for
Music at the Anthology, a new music festival produced by Philip Glass.
As a composer he has written and recorded work for ensembles including The Knights, A Far Cry string orchestra, and Brooklyn Rider string quartet, performing alongside them at premiere venues including Carnegie's Zankel Hall. As a string arranger he has worked with Rachel Grimes, Helios, Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, John Congleton, This Will Destroy You, Meshell Ndegeocello, and several other artists at the boundaries of popular music.
Live Dates:
9/2 - Toronto, ON @ Intersection Arts Festival
9/3 - Toronto, ON @ Sonic Boom
9/4 - Montreal, QC @ MAI/SON w/ Hidden Attachment, Jeremy Young
9/7 - Brattleboro, VT @ Epsilon Spires w/ Jeremy Young
9/8 - Troy, NY @ Troy Listening Room
9/9 - Newburgh, NY @ Lodger
10/11 - Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records (RECORD RELEASE) w/
Christina Courtin, Johnny Gandlesman
