Strange Paradise Tigue

TIGUE

STRANGE PARADISE

album art by Devra Freelander and Gregory Wikstromrelease date: April 27, 2018 — album art by Devra Freelander and Gregory Wikstrom
release date: April 27, 2018

Strange Paradise is the sophomore album from Brooklyn-based composer-performer percussion trio Tigue, co-released by New Amsterdam Records (CD + digital) and NNA Tapes (vinyl) and following the group’s widely-celebrated debut album, Peaks (2015).

The album has received much praise, included being highlighted as "complex, danceable and contemplative" by Rochester City Newspaper and "a resplendent array of colours and textures" by Textura. Furthermore, Cleveland Classical called the record "genre-ambiguous, and striking," and the group performed selections on WNYC's New Sounds, which proclaimed that "percussion trio Tigue has been taking the new music world by storm."

Tigue is a group of three percussionists with a fluid musical identity. Praised for their energetic and focused performances, the members of Tigue (Matt Evans, Amy Garapic and Carson Moody) have continued to to develop their own language of instrumental minimalism while simultaneously performing in collaborative endeavors over the past five years. Strange Paradise sees them creating as a unit, pushing each other to transcend the limits and expectations of their percussion instrumentation through the construction of long-form, radiant hypnotic soundscapes described by the group as “rendered in ecstatic complexity.”

The music on Strange Paradise flows directly from the hands and minds of the members, the result of a deep human connection that can only come from playing music together for nearly a decade. The group wrote the music with a sense of immediacy — everyone together in a room, with vibraphones, drums, synthesizers, gongs and garbage — with every sound maintaining an intimate connection to its creator. The members’ distinct musical voices interlock seamlessly, and the pieces radiate with warmth.

As a result, Strange Paradise is a luminous, abstract, non-narrative world that funnels inspiration from patterns, objects, and relationships. Built on an intricate patchwork of tones where instrumental lines and textures shift in and out of alignment to produce a vibrating landscape, Strange Paradise is designed for a mode of “extended listening” — asking listeners to explore slow gradations of change between rhythm and texture. The album creates a sound environment that envelopes the listener but continually defies expectation — shapeshifting at each point it seems understood. Though the music floats from the serene to the uncanny, Strange Paradise is perhaps most notable for providing a distinct sensation of interconnectedness.

Strange Paradise was produced by Tigue & Seth Manchester, and recorded at Machines with Magnets in Pawtucket RI and Brooklyn NY. The album was engineered and mixed by Seth Manchester, and mastered by Heba Kadry at Timeless Mastering. Special guests on “Triangle” include: Benedict Kupstas (guitar); Seth Manchester (guitar); Tristan Kasten-Krause (bass); Trevor Wilson (Wurlitzer); and Eliot Krimsky (OP1).

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