From pure pop and soul, via psychedelia and New Wave, Thomas Leer arrived at the end of the Seventies with his seminal DIY indie release, Private Plane, to help jump start a movement still evident today. With shrewd invention often born of necessity, he blended conventional instruments with tape loops, electronic experimentation and treatments to forge a compelling pop with a dark heart, swooping seamlessly (or not) between the pretty and the (pretty) disturbing.

A few years of indie cult status led inevitably to his recruitment to the major labels, where as reluctant synth boffin, he sought to challenge the listener, undermine or reinvent form, and playfully subvert expectation. It would never last. Finding what he hoped was a natural haven of like-minded souls at ZTT, Thomas formed and disbanded the finely honed but blissfully ignored ACT in little more than a year. Tired and a little bit jaded, he took a (quite) long break from releasing any music to regroup and pursue some personal projects.

Recording again in recent years, Thomas Leer seems resolute in his doggedness to avoid classification. If his music draws on wildly varied sources (and it does), it’s always stamped with his own brand - as ever, striving to celebrate the eclectic in music creation. A true original.