JASON DILL IS DEAD

Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces

Techno as a word evokes a state of constants or sameness, repetition or maybe subtle alteration. If Destroyer’s Kaputt was married to disco, Impossible Spaces is in bed with with techno just not the kind that evokes any of those words. The only constant is change. These tracks although in constant state of flux also seem to seem like they are destined to arrive at a destination at the end and for the large part they do. I’ve been listening to Impossible Spaces for about four months now, very regularly and it’s starting to dawn on me how incredible it really is. I can think of fewer pleasantries than being on the desk of some big music magazine and having to review this. My album of last year, Kaputt, was the record it was because of it’s complete lack of contemporaries. This in many ways is it’s unexpected companion piece, if not for it’s complexity, beauty or density than for the ease in which it delivers it. 

I am more interested in techno than pretty much any other musical medium particularly the German Kompakt pop ambient influenced stuff - think Gas and The Field. Impossible Spaces is a singer songwriter record but Perri is a techno artist at heart, although I assume Villalobos and other early 00’s mediterranean techno may be more where he concentrates his interest. Perri’s voice is the most unremarkable thing here but for many reasons that adds to the ease of the record. He can sing, very well and the constant presence of his familiar and reassuring and rarely changing voice guides you through the record like a sherpa, a skilled man who knows his way around. The fluttering guitars and wandering synths are left below to do as they please. His vocal presence assists in building a confidence to inhabit these soundscapes he’s created and restores order to what would otherwise be an impossibly dense record. Just when you think he’s dunked you too deep into a bizarre techno laden landscape he brings about a chorus that instantly restores familiarity.

The few times he does leave you on your own is when this record becomes something else entirely. After the first few minutes of the opening track he momentarily leaves you alone letting you bask for a few minutes in the incredible beauty of what he’s created, the last few minutes of Changes are the type of thing I wish would last for eternity. His voice is such a necessary delivery mechanism for this music, he teases you throughout the rest of the record until the time you reach the second last track, “Wolfman”, you are more than ready one confident to tackle the ten minute beast. Just as he did on “Changes” Perri switches things up around halfway thorugh, but his voice never leaves completely leaving every now and then to offer the records instrumental highlights through flutters of horns, droning synths and stunning steel string guitar work. There’s a moment during this song when the weird flute like sound that occupies the sixth and first half of the seventh minute drops away to that deep drone, the steel string guitar becomes warped and electric and Perri’s voice, more confident than ever is reintroduced and it is one of the most stunning, complex and beautifully delivered musical moments I’ve encountered in a quite a while. Impossibly brilliant, Impossible Spaces is on par with Kaputt, Stott’s We Stay Together and The Field’s Looping State of Mind as one of the best records of a year that offered a lot of quick fixes and not a huge amount of keepers. 

Listen to the whole album here  -  don’t be put off by the lack of 50% opacity images, people having sex, triangles or helvetica on the cover. 

http://soundcloud.com/constellation-records/sets/cst085/