Klimek - Biography
Electronic musician Sebastian Meissner has produced work under several different monikers such as Random_Inc, Bizz Circuits and Autokontrast. He has recorded for some of Europe’s top experimental labels including Sub Rosa, Mille Plateaux and Ritornell. It’s his work as Klimek that is perhaps the best known. Under this guise Meissner crafts shimmering shards of minimal ambience defined by a deep melancholy. Over the last ten years he has employed a focused sonic palette and measured production value to create one of the most intriguing bodies of work in ambient electronica.
Born on September 27, 1969 in Czenstochowa, Poland, Meissner migrated to Frankfurt as an adult. He soon began working in electronic music and sound design. In Frankfurt he met Achim Szepanski, the founder of the experimental techno label Force Inc and of the legendary electronic label Mille Plateaux. In the late 1990s Meissner was working in partnership with Ekkehard Ehlers as Autopoieses and Mille Plateaux issued the duo’s excellent La Vie a Noir in ’99. It was Meissner’s debut on record and opened the creative floodgates for the producer. Solo work followed under several different monikers, most notably Random_Inc’s stunningly deep electroacoustic work from 2002, Walking In Jerusalem.
Meissner released his debut as Klimek in that same year with the Milk & Honey EP for techno giant Kompakt. Two long tracks feature guitar tones processed into constantly shifting elastic patterns drenched in droning reverb and crackling noise. The following year Klimek contributed two tracks to Pop Ambient 2003, Kompakt’s yearly series of ambient music. “Milk And Honey” and “Sun(Rise)” further defined Klimek’s singular sound of swirling, heavily processed guitar plucks and strums and shuddering drones.
2004 brought the release of the first Klimek full-length. Confusingly also titled Milk & Honey, the album features eight tracks of icy, drifting guitar based ambience and hypnotic minimalism. Meissner coaxes an astonishingly wide range of emotions from his very limited palette. The music is like a combination of Christian Fennesz and Vini Reilly’s Durutti Column as guitar sounds are stretched, twisted and filtered into a slithering, fractalized and distorted take on some kind of electronic folk music.
After contributing a track to Pop Ambient 2004, the following year saw Meissner release Listen, The Snow Is Falling on Komapkt. Comprised of four tracks based on recordings of harp by Katja Leber and samples of Claude Debussy, plus a cover of “Gymnopedie No. 1” by Erik Satie, the EP explores what Meissner’s processing techniques can achieve on sound sources other than guitar. He again added a track to Pop Ambient 2005.
The second Klimek full-length, Music To Fall Asleep, was released in ’06. Moving back toward his reverb and delay aided guitar sound, Meissner maintains a consistent mood throughout these twelve new pieces. Picking up where Milk & Honey left off, these tracks are darker and denser. Tracks like “Kingdoms Here We Come” and “Catalyst” feature ghostly, haunted melodies that flicker like dim patterns of light in a dark room. Despite its sameness, or because of it, Music To Fall Asleep is an utterly mesmerizing album. Again a Klimek track appears on Pop Ambient 2006.
In 2007 Meissner moved the Klimek project away from Kompakt to find a home on American ambient composer Ezekiel Honig’s Anticipate label. That year brought the release of his third album, Dedications. Slightly more varied in tone this collection of tracks is arguably the most successful Klimek record. Meissner moves through a wider range of sounds, from decayed piano to swirling radio static. The songs also feature a stronger sense of melody, lending stretches of the record a soaring cinematic feel.
After giving Kompakt a track each for the 2007 and 2008 editions of the Pop Ambient series, Meissner returns to Anticipate for 2009’s Movies Is Magic full-length. As the title would suggest this record focuses on widescreen grandeur by focusing on the cinematic melodies Meissner hinted at on Dedications. The pieces here are defined by a lush, soundtrack feel that engulfs the listener with soaring strings, dramatic percussion and finely detailed atmosphere. While Movies Is Magic is easily the most modern-classical Klimek release, Meissner’s deft electronic processing steers the music clear of any sappy fluff.
While Sebastien Meissner has created excellent electronic music under several different aliases, it feels as if the work he produces as Klimek has the most personal weight and emotional resonance. By slightly expanding his unique palette while remaining focused on his aesthetic Meissner has crafted a very personal and original take on ambient music.
