Off World (CA)
Friday June 3, 2016 - Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MAC)
Mastered by Pheek.

WHO: Toronto-based Sandro Perri (Polmo Polpo), with Lorenz Peter (Processor)

STYLE: Acoustic, electronic, melodic, noisy, rock, jazz, folk, classical, psychedelic and experimental

LATEST WORK: A forthcoming trilogy of albums as Off World (2016)

LABELS: Constellation, Alien8, Intr_version, Audi Sensa, DFA, Phonica

MORE: Many collabortions, including Glissandro 70 with Craig Dunsmuir, Double Suicide with Ryan Driver, Continuous Dick with Adam Marshall and Andrew Wedman, Dot Wiggin with Todd Fox

MUTEKs: Montréal: as Polmo Polpo, 2005; Peter with Processor, 2014

An inventive musician and producer whose sensitivities and proclivities seem to know no boundaries, Sandro Perri has been an integral figure in Toronto’s music scene for almost 20 years. Known for several discs of exquisite songwriting under his own name – mixing folk, jazz, pop and rock into touching and transporting melanges, he also works in the netherworlds of electronic music.

Polmo Polpo was a project from the late 90s characterized by propulsive underwater bass, lapsteel, accordion and strings that sounded like psychedelic dub and a backhanded invitation to dance. Enamoured of the late cellist, disco minimalist and singer Arthur Russell, there is something of a shared exploration for groove, acoustic timbre, glam, prog and punk that reverberates through Perri’s various projects too. In 2013 a series of remix EPs underlined his continued interest in dance and remix culture featuring versions of material from Impossible Spaces from Zongamin, Larry Gus and Tom Croose.

His latest is another fusion of organic and synthetic sensibilities that comes off like (off)world music – reminiscent of an imagined folk music indigenous to the moon. Off World is an umbrella name for several different projects for Perri, including a UK-based version that connects again with Zongamin and Mickey Moonlight, and American producer Drew Brown, while longtime collaborator Lorenz Peter from Toronto joined him for the MUTEK live debut of this iteration.