Telekinesis

Telekinesis serves as the songwriting outlet for multi-instrumentalist Michael Benjamin Lerner, whose output merges summery indie rock with buoyant power pop. Usually handling every instrument himself on recordings, Lerner delivered a classic pop approach across his initial releases, 2009’s Telekinesis! and 2011’s 12 Desperate Straight Lines, before exploring vintage synth pop on 2015’s Ad Infinitum and later finding equilibrium on 2019’s Effluxion.

Operating from Seattle, Lerner managed nearly all instrumental parts on the project’s debut album, Telekinesis!, which Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie produced and which appeared in spring 2009. The subsequent tour featured supporting players Chris Staples, David Broecker, and Jonie Broecker. Lerner assumed production responsibilities for the 2010 EP Parallel Seismic Conspiracies, yet returned to Walla for the full-length follow-up, 12 Desperate Straight Lines. That release’s tour introduced a fresh lineup including bassist Jason Narducy and guitarist Cody Votolato. For the third Telekinesis album, 2013’s Dormarion, Lerner recruited Spoon drummer and producer Jim Eno.

Over the ensuing two years Lerner immersed himself in vintage synthesizers and keyboards, culminating in the retro synth pop focus of the fourth album, Ad Infinitum, issued in September 2015. Effluxion, arriving in February 2019, reconciled the pristine electronic textures of that record with the warmer, more organic methods of earlier work.