The Useless Lesson includes collaborations with Leo Abrahams, (solo artist and guitarist on Brian Eno’s Another Day on Earth) Dwight Ashley (Nepenthe artist) and phonographer Anode. The CD is comprised of constructed and deconstructed pieces juxtaposed to disclose the contrasts and commonality of organizing and recognizing sound into and as music. To emphasize the attractions and repulsions of these two poles the ensembles used in each case differ broadly. The constructed – composed – pieces are mostly for string trio and are traditional and surface-oriented, placing their emphasis on the interaction of separate voices. Set in contrast with collaborative, steady-state and hybrid pieces which are heuristic, synthetic and process-derived – deconstructed – to form a solid, gapless atmosphere of densely packed voices that listeners may or may not wish to de-strand. Music is, to varying degrees, the result of learned behavior and the music of The Useless Lesson is mostly derived from considering the differences in acting on those things that are learned and acting on more spontaneous impulses.

Credits

All compositions by Kerry Leimer except Leimer + Abrahams, “Long after Dowland”;
Leimer + Anode, “Declining need of more”; Leimer + Ashley, “Anosognosia”
Production and coordination by Dorothy Cross
Cover photograph by Tyler Boley. © Tyler Boley
Recorded at Utility, Maui
Music and Notes © Kerry Leimer