Closed System Potentials is the result of circumstances designed to allow seemingly disparate musical phrases to coalesce – and then fall apart again. A simple structural conceit that looks longingly at becoming self-organizing. This technique was and remains interesting because it demands that the role of “composer” be reduced to that of editor. The process is inherently “limited” since an authentically closed system can generate a reduced set of relationships between its constituent parts. The variations within those relationships is all that has value since there is little or no harmonic or rhythmic significance – only an unambitious interest in how the interactions change.

Closed System Potentials is very much of its time, coinciding with the explosion of affordable home recording equipment. Produced with a Minimoog, an Oberheim module and a few acoustic instruments on two TEAC 3340 4-track machines configured for an open loop. The mixer was a TEAC six-channel model. The signal to noise ratio remained the overriding issue.

Credits

All compositions by Kerry Leimer except
“Four Pages from an Unfinished Novel” by Kerry Leimer, Robert Carlberg and Marc Barreca
Production and coordination by Dorothy Cross
Cover illustrations by Fred Birchman, © Fred Birchman
Fred Birchman is represented by the Francine Seders Gallery, Seattle

Recorded at Tactical, Seattle
Remastered at Ironwood Studios, Seattle 1999
Music and notes © Kerry Leimer