Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Sandro Perri - Impossible Spaces






















(Constellation Records, 2011)

It is both a pleasure and a frustration to be at a loss of words when trying to express properly the wonderful, magical turns of a nearly perfect album. A pleasure for hearing, for being a lover of music, for having unequivocally a new master work with which to sink into. A displeasure for the ways in which the music magnifies your inadequacies as a writer. Sandro Perri's Impossible Spaces is performing this bitter-sweetness on me.

Of course, for those operating outside of the hype machine, Impossible Spaces is simply a reprieve. An actual island where a listener can rest its ears and suck in the sweet goodness, relieved from the exhaustion of an industry clambering for the next big thing.

Sandro Perri likely is not the next big thing (not that he doesn't deserve to be). He's simply not young enough, for one. He's also not burrowed into the singularity of a strike-while-it's-hot genre explosion. Perri's been around for awhile now, operating in various capacities for a decade's time. Nope, they do not award 'next big thing' to individual's with Perri's CV.

That decade-length experience is well exhibited on Impossible Spaces as Perri's fluid, multi-layered songs cover a variety of sonic territory while maintaining a personality all its own.  Impossible Spaces is soul music.  Flush with breezy, muscle relaxing jams and more introspective, tenderly rapturous moments, the album feels to me like a more successful version of The Dirty Projector's Bitte Orca, or a more focused version of Skeleton's Money.  Comparisons though do Perri's work a disservice.  This is a singular record that demands its own space.  Here's hoping Perri finally gets his due.

Love & Light by Sandro Perri

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