Advertise with The Big Takeover
The Big Takeover Issue #93
Recordings
MORE Recordings >>
Subscribe to The Big Takeover

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Shop our Big Takeover store for back issues, t-shirts & CDs


Follow us on Instagram

Follow The Big Takeover

Lights & Motion - Reanimation (Deep Elm)

4 February 2013

Lights & Motion is another superb find for the impressive Deep Elm catalog; this time, they’ve found a masterful musician, Christoffer Franzen, a self-taught musician and studio manipulator. Reanimation, his debut, is an amazing record of impeccable beauty and delicacy. This is music for the mind; grand, sweeping instrumental songs that are loud but not hard, big but not overwhelming. Piano and percussion twinkles pepper the sonic landscape throughout, giving a childlike feeling to many songs, like “Home” and “Aerials.” Franzen isn’t afraid to get loud and big, though; “Texas” sounds like an homage to established Texas post-rockers Explosions in the Sky and Balmorhea. As great as Reanimation is, it suffers from two minor flaws. At nearly seventy minutes, it’s a lot for a debut album. Secondly, Franzen only sings on one song, the closing “Dream Away.” He has a really good voice, and he needs to bring it out more—the ethereal vocalizing throughout the rest of the album notwithstanding. Still, those are only minor quibbles for an otherwise flawless debut. If you like it loud, soft, and emotionally moving, then seek out Reanimation.