Robert Leiner

One of the great tracks to be heard on R&S Records in 1992 was the deeply mysterious "Neuromancer" track. 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.

Robert’s first recording for R&S was released in summer 1992 as an untitled blue label promo and resulted from a live jam. It immediately found it’s way to the worlds influential DJ’s and is now highly sought after, as only a few hundred copies were pressed. But it was the 1993 album "Organized Noise" that really turned Robert’s moniker "Source" into a household name, including 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, which launced Robert on the live front across Europe and the States. This was uncompromising, organic and brimming with pure undiluted energy. 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, Jon Hassel, Kraftwerk, Jean-Michel Jarre, George Clinton, YMO and Tangerine Dream, but when acid and house started to happen he was one of the first DJ’s 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.

On the other hand, the more subdued side of Robert’s 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.

Over the three years since Robert parted company with R&S –due to a lack of artistic freedom – he built a new studio in Gothenburg, Sweden, prepared a new album and kept up with his work-load of remixes and software development. But more especially he has used this period (after 14 years of hectic deejaying and live commitments) to collect new energy. He has also taken care of the pre mastering for Samuel L's recording label SLS. His commitment to exposing us all to stimulating and challenging music marks Robert Leiner as a major figure in modern music. In Robert’s own words:

"It has always been there, you just have to discover it".