Closed System Potentials

K. Leimer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (December 24, 1999)
• Original Release Date: September 14, 1980
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Palace of Lights
• ASIN: B000FG5PEU
• Also Available in: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #852,801 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

About the Artist

Kerry Leimer – whose background is in the visual arts and graphic design – began writing and recording in 1978, By 1980 he had established the Palace of Lights label (palaceoflights.com) with his wife Dorothy Cross. The label was part of the original independent music movement of the late 70s and early 80s, fueled by the proliferation of inexpensive multitrack recorders. Focused on alternative and experimental musics, the label quickly acquired a number of artists including Marc Barreca, Roy Finch, Michael William Gilbert and Steven Peters. Their releases ranged from pure electronic to jazz, rock to experimental or "new music" forms. Many of the artists performed on their own and several installations, such as Leimer's Music for land and water became a routine part of the label's activities. Leimer's work was also included in a number of U.S. and European compilations. Reviews were consistently positive and sales through key distributors reached as high as 5,000 copies for any given lp, a respectable total for the budding indie movement.

PoL remained focused on supporting the rights of artists and was among the first labels to leave all copyright and ownership with the musician, making the label more of a conduit and point of contact with distributors on behalf of the musicians. But independent music, being the thorny bed that it is, was forced to the background as Leimer and Cross became more and more involved in the demands of their design firm (leimercross.com).

Music, however, remained a key area of interest and expression and after a 10-year absence from recording Leimer – still obsessed with the idea of the studio as the ultimate musical instrument – began to piece together a new studio, making the often painful change from analog to digital. This slow process culminated in digitally remastering the original catalog of Leimer's work in 1999, re-releasing those recordings in 2000 and the following release, in 2002, of The listening room, his first new album since Imposed Order.

Since 2002, PoL has worked to establish broader distribution based on the original catalog and new releases. Since The listening room, PoL has released the Leimer / Boley collaboration Brittle Soft. Leimer's most recent solo release is Statistical Truth. In addition to new solo projects, Leimer has begun musical collaboration with Dwight Ashley of the Nepenthe label and Leo Abrahams – a collaborator on Eno's recent Another Day on Earth CD – whose most recent album is Honeytrap, on Just Music. Results are forthcoming.

As a continuation of its focus on music in favor of money and artists in favor of business, the label will launch FLOOD in May 2006, a section of the PoL site that will offer the music of practicing and emerging artists at no cost, in addition to more traditional CD releases. The current release schedule includes electronic music from Marc Barreca, recordings and compositions by phonographer Anode, DJ Gregory Taylor and LA improv outfit Telescope.

Product Description

Originally recorded in 1979 and released in 1980, Closed System Potentials was in the first wave of experimental electronic indie releases of its day. It was the first full-length album released by Kerry Leimer and his Palace of Lights label. Recorded in a home studio on Teac quarter-track machines, the music draws from tightly and inter-related influences that include work by Cluster, Fripp & Eno, Harmonia and Neu! Combining loop and non-loop elements, Closed System Potentials is considered an idiosyncratic and definitive example of early ambient music.

Digitally remastered release of the 1980 vinyl.

"For us poor little Frenchmen, used to consuming United States' pop and rock under all its forms (see the display window of your usual record shop), it's incredible to realize that over there in America, lost in the great plains of the New World (my effect misfired, K. Leimer lives in Seattle, on the West Coast!), there exists a slightly whimsical musician who derives a crazy pleasure in creating his very beautiful pieces, all alone surrounded by his keyboards. More than the usual devices of the ordinary French or German glider, Leimer uses prepared tapes, magnetic loops and a piano which he has taken the care to treat beforehand, as he says, in the Eno manner. K. Leimer knows what he wants, he works in a very precise area within the confines of ambient music and so-called 'event' music. He adapts his instruments to this context and, by techniques, perfects entirely beautiful mini-symphonies. Several adjectives come to mind to describe his most beautiful recordings: Field! Characteristics, The Random in Nature, or Four pages from an Unfinished Novel, ethereal, sensual, extraordinary, subtle, adventurous, elegant, fascinating, seductive captivating. I leave it to you to continue the list." – Pascal Bussey