Biography

Toronto, Canada native Sandro Perri began his winding journey into performance and production with the release of a 12" under the name Polmo Polpo in 1999. Equally inspired by the widely disparate styles of '60s surf-pop producer Joe Meek and minimal techno label Basic Channel, Perri's early releases were a patchwork of slow electronic pulses and gentle live instruments. Perri released four Polmo Polpo 12"s on his own label, Audi Sensa; the tracks were eventually compiled for 2002's The Science of Breath. The official Polmo Polpo debut album, Like Hearts Swelling, was released to international acclaim in 2003, earning Perri wider renown and a spot at that year's All Tomorrow's Parties festival in London. In 2006, Perri began performing under his own name, drastically reworking the sounds from Like Hearts Swelling with the EP Sandro Perri Plays Polmo Polpo. This recording surprised some fans with its move away from electronic sounds and toward a more live-sounding, electro-acoustic instrumentation. More surprising, however were Perri's plainspoken vocals, which graced these vivid re-envisionings of what were once instrumental tracks. Perri released Tiny Mirrors, his first full-length recording under his given name, in 2007. The album found him working in a delicate folk-tinged vein with definite roots in post-rock improvisation. This album also drew heavily on another of Perri's strongest influences, the '80s-era genre-bending, avant-disco producer of N.Y.C.'s downtown scene, Arthur Russell, whose song "Kiss Me Again" Perri had earlier covered in an epic 28-minute form. In addition to Perri's prolific output both under his given name and as Polmo Polpo, he frequently collaborated with other bands and artists, actively working for a time as a member of earthy acts like Barzin or Great Lake Swimmers, embarking on one-off collaborations like Dot Wiggin with the late Todd Fox, or Glissandro 70 with Craig Dunsmuir, and providing various levels of production assistance on studio work from Devon Sproule, Steven Malkmus, or Grizzly Bear's Owen Pallat. Amid constant touring, collaborations, and production work, Perri slowly pieced together his second proper full-length, 2011's gently beautiful Impossible Spaces. ~ Fred Thomas, Rovi