Periphery - Christopher Bissonnette

Before the second of September (the date I purchased this album off of iTunes) I had never heard of Christopher Bissonnette before. I found this album in the Suggested For You area while i was looking through relevant music, but after sampling a few tracks on Youtube and iTunes alike, i realized i had to have this album.

I seek uniformity in the albums i choose to buy - a unified idea, sound, or place in which the music resides - and this album has it. Living in the suburbs of Seattle, wedged between two great lakes and the Puget Sound, there's a lot of water, a lot of nature, and a lot of great bike paths which wind their way around grand highway overpasses, through wetland gardens of algae and bullrushes - and don't forget the rain. This album feels very local, as i'm zipping past the sprawling metropolis. On my bike, i am disconnected from the chaos of the highways, residing on paths that feel very much like the road less traveled - an outsider, who is there in spirit, but not in participation with that mad, noisy bustle. There i dwell, on a footpath skybridge that arcs over the cityscapes and roadways.

To me, this is the nature of Christopher Bissonnette's album "Periphery". Filled with a definite atmosphere of vague tension, countered by high reliefs and accented by various connotations of intelligence. So far, my favorite track has been 01 - In Accordance. The piano keys which open this song are like the first recurring thoughts that you've achieved a certain level of Paradise. The rest of the album builds off of this like a conversation, or a column of ecstatic-sedated realizations.

If you, or someone you know is the ghostly kind who likes visiting lonely, urban places for meditation, then this album comes highly recommended.