Esperi

Juxtaposing acoustic guitar and a whole host of odd instruments and percussion, esperi mailman Chris Marr seems to be making all the right waves. - The List

Next up was Esperi who hails from Edinburgh and wow what a setup this man has! I was intrigued merely seeing him arrange his gear around the stage and unpacking suitcases of unusual items. His performance consists of many loops based around acoustic guitar, bass, ukulele, glockenspiel, bells, a chaos pad (mainly for beats) and a hell of a lot more stuff I cannot even think to name. The audience loved every minute of it. When looking around the room I was greeted with bewildered faces, smiling and peering over to see the arched back of Esperi, tinkering with some utensil and squeezing some melodic sound from it. I particularly liked a green tube that he pulled from his suitcase and began to spin around his head to create a very unusual, hovering sound. But the novelty of these things aside, Esperi proved to be a great songwriter, presenting poetic and authentic lyrics that fit into an almost through-composed structure. I loved how he made something so simple as “walking the dogs on the beach” as complex through his sound. When performing he even showed some concern for the length of time it took him to setup for one song, and saying as his last piece lasted 20 minutes I don’t blame him! However, this said I hold no criticism for the time he took. Esperi walked into Su Casa with a blank canvas and created a masterpiece of sound, vibrant and flourishing with creative and original ideas. If you have the chance to see him, do it. I can honestly say I have never seen a performance quite like it and somebody who experiments with sounds and can implement them into original compositions should be merited. Check Esperi out by clicking here.
- Watch This Space

From the very first notes of the record it’s clear that Esperi isn’t just going to be content to sling a few chords together and whine about how bad things are. Each of these songs is a miniature and considered epic – consciously designed, carefully crafted and given just the right amount of embellishment to shine. “Dialled” has a winding, almost jazz-influenced rhythm section which twists and turns through the song while light touches of the drums are barely audible under the delicate acoustic guitar playing. Chris‘ voice is clear, soft and engaging – delivering the sometimes homely and often surreal lyrics in a warm, Scottish burr. It’s a simple enough tune but it’s far from fragile, as it builds towards an epic finale – a swift change of timing and the gentle patter of drums gains a little force to support a huge swell of keyboards. As a Christmas single last year, Esperi released a brace of winter themed tracks in an absurdly limited and rather fantastic knitted cover. The first of these, “Made for Life” echoes Esperi live shows by introducing a range of other instruments including his trademark coloured plastic handbells. It includes one of those wonderful but all too rare heart-swelling moments too, when a sudden spiral of strings rise from the simple, quiet guitar backdrop and transport the song. But there is nothing over-egged or pompous here – it all fits into the warm, human world of Esperi‘s lyrics comfortably. - Songs Heard on Fast Trains