{"title":"K. Leimer","description":"","products":[{"product_id":"rervng07","title":"Savant - Artificial Dance","description":"\u003ch3\u003eCAT: ReRVNG07\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelease Date: September 4, 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of electronic music pioneer \u003cstrong\u003eKerry Leimer\u003c\/strong\u003e continues with a focus on his auteurist studio project \u003cstrong\u003eSavant\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCompiling the standalone album, 1983's \u003cem\u003eThe Neo Realist (At Risk)\u003c\/em\u003e, with Savant's debut 12\" and a grip of compilation and unreleased tracks, \u003cem\u003eArtificial Dance\u003c\/em\u003e documents Leimer's complete collaborative venture into the unpredictable realities of music, exploring the gulf between what is expected by its creators and what is eventually - and eternally - committed to tape.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSavant was designed by Leimer to tap into entropic truths, asserting an uncaged counterpart to the loop-based minimalism he produced in isolation (recently surveyed on RVNG Intl.’s \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review (1975-1983)\u003c\/em\u003e). Aligning himself with the Cage-ean principles of chance operations and musical contingency, Savant was a band sans jam. Allegorically, a blindfolded collaboration whose happenstance source music Leimer would sample, loop and sculpt at will.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLeimer was creatively autonomous to the point of being a persona absentia in Seattle's 80s rock scene. Unconcerned by social status, Leimer enlisted musicians from experimental and post-punk groups in the area to come record as Savant at his home studio, Tactical. Among them were ambient composer \u003cstrong\u003eMarc Barreca\u003c\/strong\u003e, \u003cstrong\u003eJohn Foster\u003c\/strong\u003e (founder of Op Magazine - the experimental music publication), \u003cstrong\u003eJim\u003c\/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eDavid Keller\u003c\/strong\u003e of the \u003cstrong\u003eNew Flamingos\u003c\/strong\u003e, and their bandmate \u003cstrong\u003eAlex Petit\u003c\/strong\u003e. Others, like \u003cb\u003eRoy Finch\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003eDennis Rea\u003c\/strong\u003e, came from a similar orbit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEven with these musicians at his beck and call, Leimer implemented a disarming musical strategy. Savant would have no fixed line up and often musicians would be asked to play instruments far outside their forté. Leimer would however give loose rhythmic direction for the musicians to develop spontaneously against click-tracks. When the performance locked in with Leimer listening at the controls, he'd capture it to tape. These moments became the soul of Savant and the combustive elements that would variegate its timbres.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSavant tonally operates in a space between \u003cstrong\u003eThis Heat's\u003c\/strong\u003e dark primitivism and the found sound collage of \u003cstrong\u003eBrian Eno\u003c\/strong\u003e \u0026amp; \u003cstrong\u003eDavid Byrne's\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003cem\u003eMy Life in the Bush of Ghosts\u003c\/em\u003e. These analogies are simply stylistic, as the narrative behind \u003cem\u003eThe Neo-Realist’s\u003c\/em\u003e production makes clear Leimer was concocting via more alchemic means, avoiding genre aspirations by looking for accidental moments of musical intrigue and discovery. Leimer explains this process in the collection's liner notes: \"I was looking for flaws, for faults to act as the stand-out features of the music.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFar from a provisional stab at avant-garde sensibilities, Savant represents Leimer’s repudiation of ambient music's passive side. \u003cem\u003eArtificial Dance\u003c\/em\u003e embodies a perfectionist’s family portrait of outré musicians conforming to Leimer's nonconformist musical ethos. Fitting for its name, Leimer created conditions for asocial brilliance with Savant, materializing an outward offering from an inward studio and a collaboration of audacious invention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSavant’s \u003cem\u003eArtificial Dance\u003c\/em\u003e is available now as double LP set, CD, and digitally. Extensive liner notes and artist interviews were overseen by \u003cstrong\u003eAaron Leitko\u003c\/strong\u003e. The collection was assembled by RVNG and K. Leimer, who continues making music to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/7ifWsyo6Dng\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003ciframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/N49yY6wzrN4\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ReRVNG07","offers":[{"title":"DIGITAL - $10","offer_id":15167269765189,"sku":"ReRVNG07DIGI","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Ltd. Ed. DBL LP - $30","offer_id":13103304802373,"sku":"ReRVNG07LTDLP","price":30.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"DBL LP - $25","offer_id":13103304736837,"sku":"ReRVNG07LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD - $12","offer_id":13103304769605,"sku":"ReRVNG07CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0026\/6993\/6709\/products\/p-6061-ReRVNG07_560x560_f7237ba7-262c-437b-8c23-adc35546b9d5.png?v=1599774940"},{"product_id":"rervng03","title":"K. Leimer - A Period of Review","description":"\u003ch3\u003eCAT #: ReRVNG03\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRelease Date: May 13, 2014\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor the third installment in RVNG Intl.’s archival series, the tape is wound back to 1970s Seattle, home place of ambient music savant \u003cb\u003eK. Leimer\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review (Original Recordings: 1975 - 1983)\u003c\/em\u003e unearths unreleased portions of Leimer’s vast archives and highlights the work of a self-taught visionary whose use of generative compositions ferried his music to infinite resonance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eKerry Leimer was born in Winnipeg, Canada. He was raised in Chicago before his family permanently settled in Seattle in 1967. Kerry's teenage interests and artistic experiments blossomed from the seductively strange tendrils of Dadaism and Surrealism. In the early 70s, Leimer found musical parallels to these visual movements by studying backdated copies of \u003cem\u003eNME\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eMelody Maker\u003c\/em\u003e and inquiring with local record store clerks about the exotic descriptions he read of \u003cb\u003eCan\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eNeu!\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eFaust\u003c\/b\u003e - innovators who were bringing the wild dictates of 60s art-discourse into music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tape-manipulated serenity Leimer experienced with \u003cb\u003eCluster's\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cem\u003eII\u003c\/em\u003e was a key revelation. Leimer realized the potential to compose with minimal training and scoured pawnshops for cheap instruments and recording equipment to transpose his wayward musical instincts. Leimer’s sound palette and composition soon refined and heightened with the accessibility of dynamic equipment such as the Micromoog and TEAC multi-track tape machines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSynchronously, the \u003cb\u003eTerry Riley\u003c\/b\u003e indebted loop-based compositions of \u003cb\u003eRobert Fripp\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eBrian Eno's\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cem\u003eNo Pussyfooting\u003c\/em\u003e inspired Leimer to form recursive musical passages of bare timbre and melody that would become hallmarks of his sound. “The loop provided an instant structure - a sort of fatalism,” recollects Leimer in \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review’s\u003c\/em\u003e liner notes. “The participation of the tape machine in shaping and extending the music was a key to setting self-deterministic systems in motion and held a clear relationship to my interests in fine art.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe underground music scene of Seattle-Olympia in late 70s was small but seeded. The vestiges of prog rock pompously pummeled the few clubs and record shops before punk and New Wave became the rage. Leimer sought to support a growing community of experimental composers by launching the Palace of Lights record label in 1979 with his wife \u003cb\u003eDorothy Cross\u003c\/b\u003e (this was years prior to the birth of regional titans K Records and Sub Pop).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePalace of Lights took philosophical and logistical cues from the flourishing DIY cassette culture, but demonstrated a different elegance in its music and design. A testament to his independent and uncompromising spirit, all of Leimer’s recorded work would be released in varying formats and editions on Palace of Lights from ‘79 to ‘83.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLeimer rarely performed live, averting the litmus of instant appreciation for his solitary studio pursuits. Tellingly, the \"K.\" that abbreviated Leimer's first name was a nod to Kafka's doomed pariah Josef K (from \u003cem\u003eThe Trial and The Castle\u003c\/em\u003e). This gives a sense of the reclusive and literary realm Leimer was fond of working in. Despite his reticence, Leimer’s debut 1980 album \u003cem\u003eClosed System Potentials\u003c\/em\u003e would reach a receptive audience, and eventually sell more than 3,000 copies thanks in part to Cross’s persistent advocation to independent distributors and magazines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Period of Review\u003c\/em\u003e focuses on unheard material outside of the work Leimer offered on Palace of Lights, though even that music could be considered relatively “unheard.” The thirty tracks of \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review\u003c\/em\u003e may have remained a mystery on moldy reels until now, but Leimer’s entire catalog of generative music remains pristine in its absolute power.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe pieces of \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review\u003c\/em\u003e draw on many influences of the time, articulating gestures that embrace coolly composed stoicism, saturated fields of percolating beats, stark razed spaces and grave and gently developed glimpses of beauty. Overall, a genuine diversity of expression underscoring just how much range Leimer had at his disposal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eA Period of Review\u003c\/em\u003e is a rewarding step into the canopied, unheard world of K. Leimer and necessarily grand in scope. With its hypnotic, arcadian terraces and nearly narcotic glacial beauty, \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review\u003c\/em\u003e has a rightful place in the canon of pioneering ambient music.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eK. Leimer’s \u003cem\u003eA Period of Review (Original Recordings: 1975 - 1983)\u003c\/em\u003e is available now as a double LP set, CD and digitally via RVNG Intl. Liner notes were crafted by Seattle writer \u003cb\u003eDavid Segal\u003c\/b\u003e. Top-tier mastering was done by \u003cb\u003eGreg Davis\u003c\/b\u003e, who produced the compilation with Palace of Lights artist \u003cb\u003eRobert Carlberg\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eRVNG\u003c\/b\u003e and \u003cb\u003eKerry Leimer\u003c\/b\u003e himself, who continues making music to this day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003ciframe src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZDSFmaIvZOU\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ReRVNG03","offers":[{"title":"DIGITAL - $11","offer_id":13980871819333,"sku":"ReRVNG03DIGI","price":11.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"DBL LP - $25","offer_id":13130908401733,"sku":"ReRVNG03LP","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"CD - $12","offer_id":13130908434501,"sku":"ReRVNG03CD","price":12.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0026\/6993\/6709\/products\/p-5892-RERVNG03_COVER_1500x1500_4ab0971e-a1f4-40a2-8a9d-0c35f45b763a.jpg?v=1599777957"}],"url":"https:\/\/igetrvng.com\/collections\/k-leimer.oembed","provider":"RVNG Intl.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}