K. Leimer - Permissions

Facts 2012 release. Permissions is somewhat of a collaboration with Taylor Deupree, given that the 12k head is credited with "additional voices, post-production, edit, mix, and mastering." The detail isn't insignificant, either, as Permissions largely collapses whatever stylistic differences might normally separate 12k and Palace of Lights recordings. Arranged into concise song-like structures, the material exemplifies the concentration on fluttering micro-sound textures, electro-acoustic sounds, and field recordings that's shared by the two creators and often captured on a typical 12k release. Listed sans titles on the CD cover as simply Permissions 01-16, the settings function like snapshots that cumulatively provide an in-depth portrait of Leimer's range. The mood is generally laid-back, meditative, and explorative, but the elements drawn upon are not only pastoral in nature as industrial sounds surface, too. Despite their brevity, the pieces are often striking, such as the fourteenth, which gracefully augments a series of percussion accents with a rising ambient wave, and the sixteenth, which finds minute guitar plucks resonating against a crackling mass. Permissions offers a compelling document of Leimer's artistry.