This is the remastered reissue of a 1983 cassette on Palace Of Lights, home label of K. Leimer. Leimer’s latter-day recordings, The Useless Lesson in particular, have proved him a master of “intricate quiet”. He is a sorely uncelebrated genius of ambient music and modern composition, and these piece are among the earliest fruits of his recording career, recently entering its third decade.
‘Art and Science’, at nearly half an hour, bears a close family resemblance to the gentle loop experiments of Brian Eno just making their way into the collective artistic consciousness through Discreet Music and Music for Airports. It was produced by “an ensemble of five closed-loop tape players” running at varying durations over the course of a month-long gallery installation. Like Eno later expounded in his notes on generative music, Leimer wanted to create “systems-based, self determined” music, themes and variations becoming slightly different variations on themselves, giving birth to new themes. As a bonus, a live rendition of ‘Art and Science’ performed in Seattle is included to close the record.
‘Go Slowly’ blows aquarium-tank air bubbles at irregular intervals, bumping into each other and the imitation bamboo drum-machine programming, intermingling, tingling and tickling. And ‘Very Tired’, though it rainbows in synthesized curved air, would be very nice to nod off to.
Egoless and transportive, this music should be approached obliquely for maximum pleasure. Let the environment of land and water heave gently into view and you will be reluctant to take your ears off it. A firm embrace to Autumn for re-releasing this unassuming ambient masterpiece.
Stephen Fruitman
