Aimée Portioli is a Berlin-based Dutch-Italian composer and sound designer who records and performs as Grand River. Portioli makes experimental electronic music with rich emotional colours. Her work, influenced by minimalism and ambient music, is atmospheric yet rhythmically complex, incorporating a wide range of contemporary compositional and production techniques.
The name Grand River evokes nature, scale, and movement, all key forces in Portioli’s work. Her first release as Grand River was 2017’s Crescente EP, which was named by XLR8R as one of the best releases of the year. She followed this with her debut album Pineapple (Spazio Disponibile, 2018), which garnered praise from The Quietus among others, while its follow-up Blink A Few Times To Clear Your Eyes (Editions Mego, 2020) was positively received by Resident Advisor and The Verge, and was elected among best albums of 2020 by Inverted Audio. Her work has separately appeared on compilations by Ghostly International, Tresor, and Longform Editions. Her third album All Above will be released in 2023 once again on Editions Mego.
All Above live is a moving and immersive experience specifically created for the new album tour. When hearing the pieces of Grand River’s latest release on stage, we are immersed in an emotional experience, a journey throughout different states of being, atmospheres timbres, rhythms and melodies, which makes All Above probably the most diverse output of the artist.
Grand River draws unexpected and experimental paths in the live performance and lets everything run smoothly through high impacting melodies. Light and visual stage design is created and performed live by Marco Ciceri, Grand River’s long time collaborator. Between light and darkness, light projections, smoke and mirrors on moving engines reflecting beams of light, the show is an intangible setting for contemplation and immersion, inviting the spectator to let go.
Grand River – All Above Album Release
Friday, 3.3.2023
silent green | Gerichtstrasse 35 in 13347 Berlin
Support: Justin (live)