Sandro Perri makes music across a broad spectrum of sound, popular and otherwise. Both instrumental and vocal, dance, noise, drone, ambient, pop, jazz and folk, his music is borne of a curious ear and a love of re-invention. His latest record, Impossible Spaces, is an approach to song and production beyond any of his efforts to date. Pitchfork named it #38 of 2011 and it was recently long listed for the Polaris Music Prize. Dance labels DFA and Phonica each released a 12? of remixes from the album in 2012. Read More...
Sandro Perri makes music across a broad spectrum of sound, popular and otherwise. Both instrumental and vocal, dance, noise, drone, ambient, pop, jazz and folk, his music is borne of a curious ear and a love of re-invention. His latest record, Impossible Spaces, is an approach to song and production beyond any of his efforts to date. Pitchfork named it #38 of 2011 and it was recently long listed for the Polaris Music Prize. Dance labels DFA and Phonica each released a 12? of remixes from the album in 2012.
Since 1999, Perri has released over a dozen solo and collaborative records. He founded a 12? label (Audi Sensa) for his early music but has since worked almost exclusively with Constellation Records. Previous releases, as Polmo Polpo, explored dance music at it’s fringes. Slowed-down techno, crumbling rhythm and white noise served as a bed of sound for lap steel guitar, cello and electronics. Much of this music was compiled in 2002 as The Science Of Breath. In 2003, he recorded a 28-minute cover of Arthur Russell’s dance classic Kiss Me Again, forging a mellow, monstrous blend of disco and drone. Also in 2003, he released Like Hearts Swelling, 5 long tracks of looped strings, guitar, percussion and electronics, creating a meditative record of “perfectly structured, unstructured sound” (Pitchfork).
In 2004, he transformed his sample-based approach into live playing, forming a band and reshaping his work. Some of this was documented in 2006 on Plays Polmo Polpo. Proposed as a re-imagining of instrumentals from Like Hearts Swelling (with vocals) it was said to sound “like his earlier music coming apart at the seams” (Dusted Magazine). He furthered this approach in 2007 with Tiny Mirrors, a record of mellow, liquefied pop songs played by some of Toronto’s freest avant-jazz improvisers. Throughout this period, Perri also continued to explore dance music, joining forces with guitarist Craig Dunsmuir to form Glissandro 70. Looping guitars, odd-time rhythms and chants, they melded elements of mutant disco, math rock, juju and noisy electronics into a self-titled LP released in 2006.
In the studio, Perri has provided various levels of assistance as producer, tracking, mix, remix and mastering engineer to a range of artists including Owen Pallett, Stephen Malkmus, Deep Dark United, Devon Sproule, Bonjay and many more. Some past and present collaborators include Eric Chenaux, Ryan Driver, Fond Of Tigers, Great Lake Swimmers, Andre Ethier, Lorenz Peter, Zongamin, Mickey Moonlight and Giancarlo Vulcano.
In live performance, both solo and with band he has appeared at Primavera Sound, ATP, MUTEK, Wordless Music Series, MOMA PS/1 Warmup, Suoni Per Il Popolo, Nuit Blanche (playing Erik Satie’s Vexations for solo piano) and various other festivals since 2003. He has also opened for the likes of Philip Glass, Michael Hurley, Destroyer, Andrew Bird, Tortoise, Pan Sonic and Oval.
