Taken from her 3rd album, All Above, devoted to the memory of famous speculative artist and Editions Mego creator Peter Rehberg.
On ‘Human,’ a sensational assemblage of acoustic instrumentation and classy synthesis from the Berlin-based, Dutch-Italian author and noise designer Aimée Portioli, muchbetter understood as Grand River, a limited stress inbetween shortlived minutes of corporeal appeal and a ravaging wave of artificial sublimity pervades. Gently faltering samples, looping vocal chatter and choral peals drift inbetween the heart-breaking vibration of resonant piano and artist Marco Ciceri‘s images, heavy mist curtained over the rocks around a waterfall, the sounds of hidden voices resounding around sheer rock. Starting as little more than a flutter, the increasing rise of driving bass synth starts to clear the air, the arrival of a quiet, monochromatic gush, rippling clouds of foam and spray signalling a modification in the psychological tide of the track. While continuously threatening to overwhelm the shortlived mortal charm of voice and struck string in this electronic deluge, we’re neverever absolutely immersed, neverever subjected to the squashing weight of the waterfall’s base, as elaborate twinkles echo in the range, the ever-present piano and heavenly haze of choirs and voice continue to swirl through the deadly existing, caught as an considerably duplicating, sluggish movement waterfall.
Taken from Portioli’s 3rd album as Grand River, All Above, ‘Human’ is asign of the extensive scope of the record, which sees the artist structure voices, strings, organs, guitars and synthesis around acoustic piano structures, which resonates at the heart of each. It is the psychological heft of the piano that Portioli looksfor to channel throughout the record, which looksfor to checkout the directing forces behind our internal drives and prompts, mapping various instruments onto various stateofminds, utilizing plans to chart development through various states of being. Drawing from her training as a linguist, this sonic vernacular is developed as an psychological language transcendent of cultural restraints, shunning visual metaphor and images for non-verbal types of self-expression. With his visual for ‘Human,’ Marco Ciceri accomplishes something comparable, neverever revealing us the source of the water, rather pulling focus on the unstoppable force of the waterfall’s terminal speed and the roiling river beneath. What we are left with is an image of natural sublimity abstracted, with Grand River’s structure ringing in our ears.
‘Human’ is taken from All Above, which getshere on February 24, 2023, through Editions Mego. The album is devoted to the memory of famous speculative artist and Editions Mego creator Peter Rehberg, who passedaway allofasudden last year at the age of 53.
For more info about Grand River and her work you can discover her on Instagram and checkout her site. You can discover Marco Ciceri on Instagram and at his site.
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