Patch Notes: Grand River

Grand River is the alias of Aimée Portioli, a Dutch-Italian composer based in Berlin. Her music, which has appeared on Longform Editions, Spazio Disponibile and her own label One Instrument, draws on minimalism and contemporary sound design to create tactile sonic structures that bring an ASMR quality to her ambient music.

On this Patch Notes session, recorded in the living room of her Berlin apartment late last year during lockdown, Portioli manipulates a variety of acoustic and electronic sources.

“It was very interesting to use only some selected instruments and effects of my equipment and connect them differently from how they are usually set up,” Portioli says. “This made it possibile to decompose and recompose elements in other ways. Both my studio and my living room had a totally different purpose for that period of time and it was extremely fascinating to see how space influenced sound and sound influenced the space.”

Grand River’s latest album, Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes, is available now on Editions Mego.

[djktana]

Dope, it's very hard to build "your own sound" in the ambient / downtempo field, because its cross genre and a lot of awesome artists did their own stuff since the 70", and she does her own thing without "showcasing" for the "movement behind the machines"(its sometimes what live set artists tends to do... overmore when it's filmed and when the "instagram and short videos" things are changing the perceptions of crafting live sets videos...) .Here the manipulations are for music purpose and not "camera oriented" purpose. A very cool mix between different technical ways at the service of music. Very nice to discover her work.

[kgbinfo]

That was awesome. I love the space too. Plants create such a living, inspiring environment for musicmaking.

[matthewbucknall]

Great performance and really nice set up - I think I need to get some more plants.

[hubertpoell]

wonderful music, great "working-place" for making music, inspiring ambiente, thrilling Antagonism: open piano versus Buchla - Thumbs up!

[neuzethmusic]

Wonderful performance! The composition "floats" so well, all instruments and sounds merge brilliantly... very organic. Inspiring! An that Easel! My dream synth...

[Backinthedase]

This just blew away everything i've been listening to this month...

[Phicxtion]

Absolutely beautiful. Makes me want to add some plants to my studio.

[seanrimada]

Automations on the arp with insane scapes. What an ending!

[MarkGardnerBonnie]

What an amazing soundscape created and ended... Love this!

[Robert-kxmp]

very inspirational composition, but I had a funny thought halfway, the neighbors are like “they’re so quiet we never hear them play more than few notes on the piano”

[smguy]

Listening late at night and enjoying immensely! Wonderful rich music.

[francodamianpaez]

All the energy of the universe in one track🤯

[indigoskywalker]

This is good! Never heard of Grand River until today...

[youngsadsatan]

This channel is my favorite when it comes to synthesizers, in fact is the only one that features artists creating/composing your own sounds in practice. ❤️️️ 🇧🇷

[keykiyox]

Look ma, no computer! A bit of envy. Graceful as her appearance, and very skillful. kudos...

[cspo]

This is so good. Thank you FACT Mag and Aimee Grand River!! Perfect start to a Friday!

[osten]

Ah yes, the windows of Berlin. Marvelous performance, loved it.

[ameevamusic]

this is one of the best jams I've ever seen. Inmenively musical. wow.

[op-g.s]

I like these kind of mix between analog and synth sounds. 👍🏽

[nickbalmer]

This is so powerful spiritual performance. Thanks for inspiration <3