Packaging Notes
LP is pressed on 180g audiophile vinyl and comes in a thick printed jacket with artwork insert.
CD comes in a custom paperboard mini-gatefold jacket with a printed CD dust sleeve.
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Tracklist
1. Romeo Heart
2. Requiem For A Fox
3. Farewell
4. Sky Histoire
5. Like Hearts Swelling
Running time: 00:46:53
Packaging Notes
LP is pressed on 180g audiophile vinyl and comes in a thick printed jacket with artwork insert.
CD comes in a custom paperboard mini-gatefold jacket with a printed CD dust sleeve.
Description Built on foundations of multi-layered full-spectrum drones and loops, the music of Polmo Polpo is distinguished by slide guitar motifs that are more naive pop pastoral than spaghetti western. Opening track “Romeo Heart” builds inexorably from silence to jet-engine pink noise squall, coaxed along by descending bass and guitar lines — an excellent introduction to a record that gains emotional resonance and structural complexity with every song. “Requiem For A Fox” introduces the techno-inflected, underwater heartbeat pulse that marks much of Sandro’s earlier work, with whirring ring tones, detuned filters and a sardonic melody gradually giving way to the jauntier acoustic guitar groove and exuberant slide solo at song’s end. “Farewell” is a darker interlude rounding out side one, worked up on bowed bass, cello and timpani-sized drum samples. “Sky Histoire” has the most overt rhythmic foundation of any Polmo Polpo track to date, anchored by brilliant interweaving bass and string lines while leaving plenty of room for guitars and keyboards to soar. The juxtaposition of melodic figures as the song hits maximum density is glorious, fittingly giving way to a reprise complete with celebratory bells and chimes. The title track (and album finale) features Genevieve Heistek (Hangedup) looping and weaving her viola into a verdant organic landscape of squeaks, skronks and moans while accordion sways over top: a gorgeous display of sonic fauvism to end the record. Polmo Polpo crafted a subtle, enveloping, kaleidoscopic instrumental pop record, brimming and bursting like hearts swelling.
Credits
Sandro Perri: various instrumentsGuests
Brodie West: alto saxophone singing on TRACK 4Bret Higgins: contrabass on TRACK 5
Genevieve Heistek: viola on TRACK 5
Walter Kofman: accordion on TRACK 5
Recorded and mixed at home in Toronto by Sandro Perri between the springs of 2000-2003. Shortwave radio on TRACK 1 recorded by Lewis Melville with browsing by Walter Kofman and Barzin H. Mastered by Harris Newman.
Reviews
"Perfectly unstructured, structured sound." – Pitchfork
"[P]ainfully catchy, darkly luminous and memorable…" – Flash Magazine
"Perri's aural palette is far wider than that of his contemporaries - he seems to have discovered the cure for the ills of both ambient and noise musics." – Dusted
"Like Hearts Swelling features the most intimate and rewarding mesh of mini-pop and electronica I've heard in awhile." – Splendid
"Like Hearts Swelling seamlessly combines the subtlety and stability of strict minimalism, with the more grounded and gripping qualities of most avant rock..." – 30 Music
"It is so natural and saturated with organic sound - my heart beats with it. Electronic at its core, its beats are simple and repetitive. But each layer blankets the next, making it anything but simple." – Culture Bunker
"Like Hearts Swelling begins with a dusty and scratched swing record, stuck in a groove, before steering into the avant-jazz weirdness of Town & Country with its dissonant yelping instruments and sine wave undulations. It's all hot, clammy and confused, and perfectly evocative of its title." – Ink 19
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