Through self-designed software, Willits is more a manipulator of guitar tones than a guitarist, and his latest is an ode to tones from Tortoise to Fripp.
Find it at:Amoeba Music
Christopher Willits is a guitarist, but only in the sense that it's his primary instrument. Willits is, in fact, a painter, as well as a multimedia artist. (His biography also attributes such titles to him as "teacher" and "meditator.") Much of Willits' music is created through self-designed software, which means that he manipulates the conduit that manipulates his guitar-- he paints with his guitar. In a way, Willits is more of a grand manipulator than a musician, since what is paramount on Tiger Flower Circle Sun is how the guitar sounds, not so much the notes being played.
Tiger Flower Circle Sun is an ode to guitar sounds. Especially heavily processed guitar sounds. On "Light Into Branches" alone, there are the clean fingerpicks of an acoustic guitar; the warped, rubbery windings of mid-90s John McEntire-produced post-rock; creaky stoner rock soloing; and lasery, searing mid-70s paeans to Robert Fripp. The album more or less functions in this fashion: Willits takes guitar sounds-- some familiar, some not-- and rearranges them in such a way that they become a collage (there are also occasional vocals and drums, neither of which sound as belabored as the guitar does). But since Willits constructs his own software, he cannily edits the material so that it doesn't sound disjunctive or incongruous. In that respect, the album is seamless.
Yet underneath the impressive imitations and impressionistic imagery is... well, that's the rub. Though the sound design of both the individual elements and the album as a whole is often superb, there isn't much more than prettiness. Maybe it's that so many of the guitar sounds here feel so familiar to anyone with some knowledge of textural guitar music (and the audience for which this album seems to be targeted in all likelihood possesses said knowledge). But mostly, it's just that Tiger Flower Circle Sun doesn't seem to have much of a purpose beyond being aesthetically pleasing-- and that lack of depth is not immediately noticeable, but it's a nagging concern that is exacerbated over time.
The title reminds me of one of my all-time favorite albums: Boredoms' Vision Creation Newsun. That title perfectly imparts the aesthetic and purpose of what Boredoms sound like they were trying to achieve, showing how both primitive and contemporary styles of music could be united in their cosmic search for catharsis. Whereas here tigers, flowers, circles, and the sun all seem to have correlations to the sound of the album, but no deeper meaning. Tiger Flower Circle Sun is a pleasant mishmash of pleasant sounds, executed with noteworthy skill. The question for Willits is, knowing that he has the ability to create these sounds with such accomplishment: What else is there?