Perry Frank :: Scenario (Shady Ridge)

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Founded in 2006 by Sardinian composer Francesco Perra, the one-man project Perry Frank crafts a deeply immersive sonic world where ethereal drones, degraded glitch textures, and echoes of ancient Sardinian folk traditions dissolve into a dreamlike meditation on memory, stillness, and time suspended.

Echoes between stillness and signal

Renowned for creating immersive and dreamlike soundscapes, Perry Frank combines ethereal drones, glitch textures, and Sardinian folk influences to craft a unique and evocative listening experience. To the scholar, Sardinian folk music is renowned for its ancient, distinctively non-Italian pastoral roots, most famously featuring cantu a tenore—a polyphonic throat-singing technique. Perry Frank‘s music explores ambient, drone and post-rock territories through processed guitars, tape loops and atmospheric sound design. I hear dark old movies projected upon a phantom glitch foundation. The unique sound of Perry Frank evokes dreamy textures on which arpeggios and melodies move with a timeless and spaceless feeling. Repeating textures and suspended harmonies evoke the feeling of moving forward while remaining emotionally still, setting the contemplative tone for the entire record. This ambient, noise, Post-rock, electronic and psychedelic music project started in 2006, as a one man band, by the Sardinian musician Francesco Perra. Scenario invites deep listening, encouraging reflection, meditation and blossoming inner imagery.

Nine short (2-3 min) pieces, except for the last one which approaches 10 minutes in length. Rough scratchy glitchfare, where it sounds like an old movie, the feeling could actually pull from the past, we hear an old shadow of an orchestra, all the sounds are curiously decayed, often like one long tone or several slowly alternating tones, somehow at the same time there are many subtle things going on at once.

The album unfolds slowly, the opening suggests travel as a mental state rather than a physical journey, “Road to nowhere” (2:50), establishes a sense of motion without destination, dark empty shadows, breathing in and breathing out easy and restful. Here nothing happens, simple alternating tones that are fuzzy, complex, and never sharp. A powerfully haunted dreamy old movie, all fuzzy and murky, in a pinch, glitchy film-tracks.

Now something almost happens, “Back of my mind” (2:34) is where repeating melodic components explore the subtle presence of memories that never fully disappear. This track drifts in and out of focus, a few notes repeated back and forth again and again, like thoughts emerging from the background of consciousness, more energetic and complex than the first track. The atmosphere is intimate and restrained, alternating chords filter in and out, slowly swaying back and forth, smeary strings and a slow motion haunted bassu, contra, boche and mesu boche choir sound, an imaginary assembly of angelic voices gathered in a cathedral or a big old echoey cave.

For sure now nothing is about to happen, which adds to the sustained atmosphere. “Devotion” (2:56) Devotion is built around repetition and patience. There might be only one continuous sound, a warm glowing hum presence, a flutish vocal or vocalish flute, a drone tone throne, constantly enabling more colors while at times also growing darker. This slow evolution reflects dedication not as intensity, but as persistence. The track grows almost imperceptibly, emphasizing commitment to a feeling, a sound, or a state of mind over time. The textures feel worn yet warm, one long single note building, soon other sounds hum along, each gets stronger and adds new features until we come to a machine at the end, some kind of a throbbing engine. A fragile and melancholic piece, suggesting acceptance rather than regret, and a quiet beauty in emotional vulnerability, “Gently wasted” (3:11) reflects on time slipping away softly rather than abruptly. Are there helicopters near here?

Pastoral static in slow orbit ::

Maybe we are underwater, getting some distant light. The track plays with contrast, allowing silence and near-silence to speak louder than sound. Here, absence becomes presence. “Loudest Silence” (3:03) has a flickering connection, maybe an orchestra, maudlin, sad. This track emphasizes negative space, where restraint and minimalism amplify emotional weight. Almost dark, more new colors and new flickering patterns, slow rolling rainbows and waterfalls sizzling, hissing through time. The tide flows in, the tide flows out, back and forth, which slowly keeps the flow smooth.

Named like a memory or a person from another time, “Donovan” (3:12) might be just one tone sustained, creating an atmosphere that has emotional content. The track carries a nostalgic undertone, with gentle melodic fragments emerging through layered atmospheres, suggesting remembrance without explicit narrative, dragons yowl here. I hear a dark mysterious steadily strengthening complex tone, always slow and extended through complex washes of old sounds, just a little dull, always full and emotional. Donovan feels personal and reflective.

On the surface of the ocean at night, flickering upon calm dark unsteady endless liquid, “Wait for me” (2:48) balances hope and uncertainty, endurance remaining unresolved. The slow pacing and sustained tones suggest distance and anticipation, like going to sleep one last time, dark, sad, moody and grim, as if time itself is being stretched. Neither day nor night, existing in a tragic liminal state, the soundscape represents transition, stillness, and the beauty of moments that resist definition. Out here the darkness gives way to a deeper Aurora Borealis, the truth is revealed. “Eternal Twilight” (2:55) is forever glowing softly, things slow down some more as the emotional intensity swells, long tones like horns under darkness, hovering between near light and shadow.

A buzzy cloud comes for us, it slowly dissolves, allowing the album to fade rather than stop. Are these bees? Dangerous dark troubling sounds, “End” (9:39) leaves space behind, suggesting continuity beyond silence and inviting the listener to remain within the atmosphere even after the sound has disappeared, leaving deep wells burning. The closing track is not a conclusion, but a release. Here the kingdom is illuminated, energy winds and builds, things are coming together with a feeling of power, here comes the orchestra, one tone getting louder and bigger more and more, I think they brought the whole stained glass choir, not just the bassu and contra. In the end I can almost feel the waves crashing on the beach.

Perry Frank is a one man band project of ambient, post-rock and acoustic music. With a discography that spans albums, EPs, and collaborations with globally acclaimed artists, Perry Frank’s music is a journey of experimentation and emotion. Guitars, tape loops, synth, keyboards, all are combined to create raw imaginary sounds and visions. The influences include Basinski, Brian Eno, Boards of Canada, Fennesz, Tycho,Bonobo, Robin Guthrie and Harold Budd. Francesco Perra released eight albums Music To Disappear (Idealmusik 2012), The Neptune Sessions (Clubland 2013), Soundscape Box 1 (Tranquillo 2014), Reverie (Dynamo Tapes 2020), Selvascapes (Lauge, Valley View 2021), Nuit Ensemble (Valley View 2022), Atlas (Cyclical Dreams 2025) and Scenaria (Shady Ridge 2026). Highlights include the ambient guitar sessions, live performances recorded in breathtaking natural and urban locations.