Sandro Perri’s Impossible Spaces

On the surface, Sandro Perri’s Impossible Spaces is an ordinary pop album: We hear pleasant guitar, intelligent percussion, and a voice that, while lovely, is easily appreciated, palatable, unchallenging. But there’s a depth and darkness to this music that begs to be uncovered.

It’s the sweetness of the voice and the liquid tone of the guitar that draw me in, but the subtle shifts in key, the clever instrumentation, the aching cello and odd flute, the broken lines and strangely abbreviated melodies that make me listen again, confuse and enchant, charm and intoxicate.

With the video for “Love & Light,” the second track from Impossible Spaces, Portuguese filmmaker Pedro Maia says he wanted “to explore the relationship between a musician and filmmaker and their personal reflection on memories.

The album’s seven songs flow together, end too soon, and reward repeated listens with their many colors and textures. This is rich, sumptuous, soulful music, intelligently composed and passionately performed.

Impossible Spaces is scheduled to be released by Constellation Records on October 18, but you can listen to a couple of tracks, including my favorite, “Futureactive Kid, Part 1,” now.

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