'It is not what you play, but how you play it' is a common aphorism in music, and rarely do we get to experience someone who embodies both the virtuosity and the primordial force of musical expression. Chris Lynch is one of those musicians. Multi-instrumentalist, film composer, arranger, producer, and engineer, are just a handful of titles you could pin on Lynch, though he is foremost a violinist. The violin has been the centerpiece of Chris' musical story arc since moving to Santa Cruz from Minnesota in the early 2000s. He began scoring films like Code and Response (Austin Peck), touring with Marty O'Reilly, Brothers Comatose, and The Shook Twins, to now, putting out his debut solo album entitled 'Migrations' on Sonderhouse Records.
If you've seen Chris Lynch live, you know his ability of reminding us how to feel music, rather than hear it or understand it. Lynch plays with such focused emotion that it's hard to tell where the violin ends and the person begins. Oftentimes a recording falls short in matching an artist's live essence, but his debut violin album 'Migrations' manages to bottle up his ineffable quality for its full thirty-five minutes. With a collage of violins as the foundation of these tracks, one may be quick to draw on their back pocket Andrew Bird reference, but there is clearly something different being offered here. The culmination of Chris' classical music background combined with two decades performing in varying blues, jazz, folk, and experimental rock groups has fused into a rich sound on Migrations that feels both familiar and utterly unique. Chris has shown on Migrations that the violin is versatile across any genre. What we're hearing on this debut is a conversation between all the parts of the violin that Chris has unearthed in his relationship with the instrument. The conversation is sometimes layered and light like in the beginning of 'Scraps.' In other moments it sits behind a deep groove with the help of bassist Ben Berry and percussionist Matt Goff. There's uninhibited classical elegance on tracks like 'Arpeggio.' We hear influences from classic Indian and Chinese folk songs. The banjo makes an appearance on 'Larkspur,' played by Kendl Winter (Lowest Pair). At 2:06 in 'Oshie Prowls' a gorgeous synth melody enters the conversation, and throughout all this diversity in approach, the album feels seamless, organic, and human.
