Christopher Bissonnette
In Between Words
By Dimitri Nasrallah

Though In Between Words is Windsor, ON resident Christopher Bissonnette’s second album for Kranky, Bissonnette has been a part of the fragmented Canadian ambient landscape for years now as a member of the Thinkbox Collective. Thinkbox Collective was necessarily a compendium of its numerous members and their divergent tastes, so whereas the Thinkbox output always varied greatly depending on the release, ranging from dark techno to guitar experimentation to noise, ever since Bissonnette made the jump to Kranky, he’s been exploring the subtle side of longer, drone-ier ambient guitar music. Fittingly, none of the six tracks on In Between Words jumps out and grabs the listener, or even aims for jarring atmosphere. Rather, Bissonnette opts for quiet guitar tonalities that wash over the audience one layer at a time. 2005’s Periphery was a darker work, but here he explores the minor chords for music that’s equally subdued but leaves a brighter aura. Granted, ambient music has more captivating producers — one thinks of Oren Ambarchi, for example, using his guitar in just an abstract way to more immediate effect. But In Between Words rewards those willing to pay close attention, especially in the more distinct passages that make up the second half of the album.

From cover art to sound, In Between Words has a much warmer tone to it than Periphery.
I wasn’t really interested in repeating myself. My intentions going into this project were somewhat different than Periphery, but creative output has a way of designing itself. For In Between Words, I focused on more field recordings and studio recorded elements. I attempted to allow the natural occurrence of recorded sounds to play out in the recordings as is. Cover art included, I intended to create a somewhat warmer artefact. I’ve considered my last few years as being somewhat more light-hearted, despite a natural tendency to produce melancholic and sometimes moody sounds. I have had a couple of really great reasons to lighten up.

Is the Thinkbox Collective still an ongoing entity?
Thinkbox continues to exist in a somewhat more limited capacity. We all decided to focus on some personal projects. We still perform together from time to time. A few of the members also moved to outside of the Windsor/Detroit area, so group endeavours have become increasingly difficult. That is not to say that we won’t continue to work together again. (Kranky)
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