Dwelling the fringes betwixt ambient etherealness and boundless experimentality, the work of Italian-Dutch composer Aimée Portioli, alias Grand River, is one to submerge your senses into a vibrantly hued world of slo-moving textural landslides and mind-expanding harmonics, offering a moment of graceful escapism from the day-to-day hassle we all have to go through and find a way out from.
Continuing her in-depth exploration of tight-knit neoclassical motifs and vaporous machine talk, Portioli teams up with Italian producer Pier Giuseppe Mariconda, aka Prg/M, fresh off a fine EP on Midgar, for what is the first collaborative effort of her conceptual label’s main series, One Instrument. The specificity: each record is made using a single instrument, in this case a 70’s era Rosenbach acoustic piano.
Together, Grand River and Prg/M reel out a lush, FX-dipped slice of shimmering soundscapes, drawing clear similarities with that of Philip Glass’ most vividly immersive works. Imagine canoeing across quiet rivers and fertile deltas, fenced in by towering canyons but your soul free to wander and flutter above the steep rocky grounds, full with a bushy flora and teeming exotic fauna. There you go, unshackled from the chains of a bogus world and its triple-w stamped evil twin, making one with your – real, substantial – surroundings again… Finally.
Rosenbach Acoustic Piano (70’s) is released via One Instrument on 25th December, pre-order a copy from Bandcamp.
TRACKLIST
1. Rosenbach Acoustic Piano (70’s)
Discover more about Grand River, Prg/M and One Instrument on Inverted Audio.