Christopher Bissonnette - The Wine Dark Sea (Dronarivm

WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE:

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WHAT WE SAY:

As our fears manifest & the future becomes more uncertain, the simplistic yet poignant electro acoustic ambient swells of the new Christopher Bissonnette LP for Dronarivm seem like an apt soundtrack for our empty streets, shuttered businesses & closed front doors.

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WHAT YOUR EARS SAY:

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WHAT THE RELEASE NOTES SAY:

The Wine Dark Sea is Bissonnette’s fifth solo studio album. The album’s title is derived from the writings of Homer, where he oft referred to a rough and stormy sea as “wine-dark”. Homer’s descriptions of colour are devoid of any reference to the colour blue. And any suggested meaning in his description of the sea point to the colour red. This apparent contradiction has brought much speculation about the significance and understanding of colour in ancient Greece. Keeping with the motif of colour, track titles on the album are based on references from contemporary artists and their insights on colour, form and implied meaning.


The album represents a shift for Bissonnette’s work, moving from an exclusively synth-based series of explorations to a hybrid of electronic and acoustic methods. The result is a rolling and slow-moving tide of tones and undulations. The textures are in some passages soft and mollifying but fluently shift to moments of tension and unease. The Wine Dark Sea is an aural allegory to sound and colour and our tenuous understanding of abstract meaning.