Sandro Perri - plays Polmo Polpo

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4...according to our Phil on Wed 15 Nov, 2006.

Moving swiftly onto SANDRO PERRI Plays Polmo Polpo which is a CD/LP on Constellation. Well it's a mini album of sorts. What you get for your money is 5 tracks totalling about 26 mins which doesn't seem enough considering the price. Mind you Constellation gear ain't cheap and they know you'll buy it anyway. The packaging on their releases is always special which goes in their favour. Musically this sounds like it's improv stuff crossing genres like jazz, folk and Americana. It ebbs and flows gracefully though and you never once feel patronised. A few of the latter tracks have vocals which seems to give it more structure. Overall it's an enjoyable thing to be cherished.

Sandro Perri, aka Polmo Polpo, has been performing under his own name, in Toronto and the surrounding region, for the past couple of years. These performances have ranged from solo voice and acoustic guitar, to duo shows with Eric Chenaux, Ryan Driver, and more recently with 4-6 piece bands. Perri has been recording the results, in various locations and with various configurations of players, since 2004. In 2005, he self-released a first batch of songs on CD-R, featuring re-interpretations of material from his Polmo Polpo album Like Hearts Swelling (cst026). We fell in love with it, and a fifth track has been added for the Constellation release.

These are lovely tunes that extrapolate beautifully from their origins in Perri's more diffuse, multi-layered, pulsing electronic compositions. But they also serve to remind that Perri has always played guitar; Polmo Polpo merely swaddled it in a throne of drones and submarine beats. Perri still takes the clustered, layered approach to propel the opening track, "Romeo Heart (slight return)", using an additional nine players (from Toronto's out-music and improv community) to generate a rippling fabric through which the original melody now weaves. The four songs that follow are each distinct in approach, but strip back to Perri solo or with one or two other players. In every case, Perri's voice carries an infectious, quietly ecstatic tune.

A must for Polmo Polpo fans and a sweet collection of songs in its own right, Sandro Perri Plays Polmo Polpo is another window on Toronto's improv and avant songwriter culture, alongside the Eric Chenaux album released concurrently. A Sandro Perri full-length is due to follow next spring.

Sandro Perri Plays Polmo Polpo is available on CD and 180gLP. The LP jacket is a 2-colour silkscreen assembled by hand.

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