Permissions

"Permissions is a bit more conventional in its structural design as its seventy minutes features sixteen settings (ranging from two to seven minutes). In addition, though Leimer composed all of the material and is credited with digital synthesis and signal processing, the recording appears to be 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 (acoustic guitar plucks, electric guitar shadings, processed piano, bowed strings, percussion), 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 (mysterioso in the piano-heavy sixth), but the elements drawn upon are not only pastoral in nature as industrial sounds surface, too, as part of the overall sound design. 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 is a compelling document of his artistry." – Textura