Kerry Leimer & Like A Villain - FTS001

We knew this is coming and we're pretty hyped... introducing First Terrace.

The first in a new series of split 12"s, conceived to bring complementary and contrasting styles from two artists onto one disc. FTS001 sees an experimental veteran go side to side with one of Portland, Oregon’s best kept secrets.

On FTS001 , Kerry Leimer plunges us into a tranquil meditation, delighting the head and the heart with warm details, plucked from expansive generative compositions and carefully arranged across four tracks with a deft and knowing hand. Conversely, listening to Like a Villain ’s composition for the Split Series is like allowing someone to take your heart between their thumb and forefinger - excitement, pleasure, fear and pleading. In this piece she rips through her own pristine melodies like a hurricane, relentlessly and remorselessly circling back again and again until all prettiness is returned to noise.

Like A Villain is Holland Andrews, an extended technique vocalist, musician and performer. Andrews explores the vast capabilities of the human voice, composing vibrant sonic landscapes that are at times cinematic and dissonant. In addition to her solo work as Like A Villain, Andrews has composed and performed work for theatre, dance and film projects and was a vocalist and composer in the recent release of Peter Broderick -led project The Beacon Sound Choir who released their album Sunday Songs via First Terrace earlier this year to critical acclaim. Kerry Leimer was born in Canada and raised in Chicago before eventually settling in Seattle in 1967. In the 70’s, inspired by artistic movements like Dadaism and Surrealism and German Kosmiche music, Leimer realised the potential of composing with minimal training and scoured pawnshops for cheap or unconventional instruments to compose and record with. With his punk ethos, new age, ambient sounds and experimentations with twitchy dance music, Leimer produced a broad range of records throughout the 70’s and 80’s that made him hard to pin down.

First Terrace Records was created by Alex Ives and Joe Summers in 2016 off the back of a show they have on Radar Radio, started as an outlet to further push some of their favourite artists they had featured on the show. Released alongside their LPs and cassette compilations, the 12” split releases are an opportunity for the label to pair two artists on one record, but without an A or B side, instead using I (‘line’) and O (‘circle’) to denote the different sides designed to be a non-hierarchical categorisation of the music.

The First Terrace Split Series offer windows into two artistic worlds, inviting listeners to observe and reflect on potential parallels in the music, or indeed relish the oblique shift in tone offered between two distinct musical perspectives.