Off World

Well into a decade of their existence, Off World present 3, their poignant swan song - a planned conclusion to a trio of releases begun in 2016. The project is built around numerous and varied collaborations, helmed by producer Sandro Perri. Perri has worked with Constellation since 2003 and is one of the label’s most artistically diverse music makers.

“Quite literally a work of pure fiction” is the way that Perri describes the exploratory synth project Off World. Perri’s reference is to the composition process - the ways in which the unrelated performances, sound worlds, and audio files were fused together to create something entirely new.

Chiefly a studio-based endeavour, Perri will be the first to insist that Off World is not “his” project: tracing its origins as far back as 2008, with Perri and fellow Torontonian Lorenz Peter (Processor, Corpusse) working together on tracks and very occasionally performing live, the project expanded to encompass collaborations between Perri and many others.

Off World 1 was released in September 2010, and featured Drew Brown (Lower Dens, Blonde Redhead, Beck), Susumu Mukai (Holy Tongue, Vanishing Twin, Zongamin), M J Silver (Mickey Moonlight), Mike Smith, Jesse Zubot (Zubot and Dawson, Great Uncles of the Revolution, Fond of Tigers), and Andrew Zukerman. Boomkat described it as "some of the most inventive, spellbinding work in [Perri's] catalogue...one of the most original and satisfying albums we've heard this year", whilst The Line Of Best Fit wrote, “Space isn’t just an allusion on 1, it is a guiding principle.”

Off World 2 was released in October 2017, and featured Drew Brown, Eric Chenaux, Matthew Cooper, Craig Dunsmuir (Glissandro 70, Kanada 70), Brandon Hocura, Susumu Mukai and Lorenz Peter. It was a record which The Quietus deemed to be “genuinely explorative… demonstrating an unusually considerable balance of precision, cautiousness and imagination.”  Meanwhile, Echoes and Dust described the album “... much like how an experience on some distant planet would be, one that feels like the home we’ve come from, but works on a different set of rules to what we’re normally used to. Familiar, and yet alien.”

The music that yielded from these many and varied collaborations is strange, hypnotic and charming, conjuring the image of a lonely drone trucking over the surface of another world and the sights it captures on its mission.

The Wire magazine featured the project in their November 2017 issue and shared unreleased tracks from a range of producers involved in the project. Details here.

Returning members for Off World 3 include Susumu Mukai, Drew Brown, Matthew Cooper (Eluvium), Jesse Zubot and Andrew Zukerman. Nicole Rampersaud (Eucalyptus, Joseph Shabason, James Irwin, AIM Toronto Orchestra) and Martin Arnold enter the fold as new participants.

Off World 3 arrives on Constellation on 03 November 2023, and Sandro Perri is working on new material that should surface in 2024.