Aperture is a sister-brother duo combining the multiple disciplines of poet/artist Elisabetta Porcinai and producer Emanuele Porcinai. Together they produce elegantly brooding songs and intoxicating spoken word, written via free associative methods. Their debut album Threads is the culmination of some full decade gradually conjoining Emanuele's musical practice with Elisabetta's spoken word and poetry (previously only deployed in conjunction with her work as a visual artist). It sees the duo drift onto fertile new sonic ground, somewhere between the emotional intensity of performance art and fringe electronic music at its most expressionistic.
Threads is an exploration of aural intimacy, with domestic sound sources forming a vital element of the album's musical bedrock. Rhythms built from footfalls and table-tapping sit comfortably alongside lush synthesizers, wistful pianos, and ambient washes, all backing up Elisabetta's penetrating spoken words. The musical and verbal halves of Aperture play with free association and improvisation alike, crafting a uniquely slow burning, yet visceral sound in the process. Moments of almost naive beauty, such as the lullabye-esque Atmen (German for 'to breathe'), are buoyed by the menace and drama of solemner tracks, such as the album's stirring opener, In These Awkward Voids.
A true collaboration, some of Threads was entirely shaped around Elisabetta's poetry and texts. Other pieces are almost entirely instrumental and of acoustic nature, stemming from Emanuele's initial sonic outputs. Despite the superficial differences between their practices though, Aperture brings the siblings' commonalities into focus.
At its core the project explores spatial and environmental perception. The duo process myriad organic sounds and everyday objects into unrecognisably synthetic new realms, while electronic source material has often been humanised often out of recognition. The collision of the organic and artificial behind Elisabetta's rapt otherworldly poetry acts a gateway, blurring the boundaries between physical and virtual into a unique nebula of emotion.
Both born in Florence, Emanuele (born 1991) now splits his time between Manchester and Berlin, while Elisabetta similarly lives between both Milan and Berlin. Also known for his solo project WSR, Emanuele has previously focused his musical experimentation on exploring possibilities arising from using self-built tactile string instruments as sound sources for his adventurous productions. As an artist, Elisabetta (1987) has an interdisciplinary background, exploring a broad spectrum of practices including photography, painting, video and installation art, and poetry.