Robert Leiner

One of the great tracks to be heard on R&S Records 1992 In Order To Dance 4 compilation was the deeply mysterious Neuromancer. The name SOURCE had not yet appeared on any R&S release list, yet the man behind the Source, immensely gifted Swede ROBERT LEINER, had been studio manager and engineer of the labels own recording facility for some time. Robert had been DJ ing from the age of 15 and had built his own recording studio in his hometown Gothenburg combining the two great passions in his life; electronics and dance music. His work for Swedish record companies and artists brought him recognition and an underground reputation in Scandinavia, however he relocated to Belgium in the early nineties to broaden his artistic scope. Roberts first recording for R&S was released as an untitled blue label promo and resulted from a live jam. It saw the light of day in the summer 1992 and immediately found its way to the worlds influential DJs; it is now highly sought after, as no more than a few hundred copies were ever pressed! But it was the 1993 album Organized Noise that really turned Roberts moniker SOURCE into a household name: throughout eight elaborated avant-dance tracks he delivered a unique blend of thunderous beats, sparkling acid and trance ingredients that was greeted with rave reviews and set alight dance floors all over the global techno village. This was dance music at its very best: uncompromising, organic and brimming with pure undiluted energy. Organized Noise launched Robert on the live front. Before he had been spinning in either techno or ambient mod now he was playing live in front of ecstatic audiences across Europe and the States. Nurtured by a wide variety of influences, Robert has never confined himself to a single genre. His interest in electronic music was aroused by artists such as Brian Eno, Can, Yello, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, George Clinton, YMO and Tangerine Dream but when acid and house started to happen he was one of the first DJs in Scandinavia to spin the latest discs from Detroit-, Chicago, New York and London. THE SOURCE EXPERIENCE (the Source banner was dropped when an English pop/dance combo carrying the same name threatened action) comes as the tech/trance emanation of the aspiration, as the eponymously titled double 12-inch which appeared late 1993 illustrated so well. Various reviewers hailed it as ROBERTS finest work, with Record Mirror using the phrase pure unbridled techno magic and Echoes discovering the long-lost singing robo-penis (!?) rearing in the breakdown of the track Elektra. On the other hand, the more subdued side of Roberts musical personality was first displayed on the 12-inch/CD Dream Or Reality. The track, taken from his album Visions of The Past and coupled with two brilliant alternative mixes, proved an impressive foretaste of this epic masterpiece, which since its release has acquired mythical proportions in the record collections of cognoscenti of electronic listening music all over the world. As Mixmaster Morris described the album in the January issue of i-D: Lighter than a soufflé, sleeker than a panther, this fine offering from the man behind Source drifts from airy techno to pure ambience with supreme confidence. NME coined the phrase Fireballs to melt the snow away. Robert next adopted his SOURCE EXPERIENCE guise for another devastating work: with an aural arsenal ranging from analogue terror tones to layers of digital refinement, Different Journeys and the single Point Zero contained the ultimate in sensurround techno. This widely acclaimed album launched Robert on a heavy schedule of live and DJ dates around the globe, which the inspirational Zyklus 12 inch has only helped to build upon! As both creator and DJ, Robert Leiner gives breathtaking visions of a far higher and different level than just the norm. His commitment to exposing us all to stimulating and challenging music marks Robert Leiner as a major figure in modern music, a fact that this is beyond discussion. In Roberts own words: it has always been there, you just have to discover it.!