Whether behind an instrument or the glass of a recording studio, Portland’s Karl Kling is a serial collaborator. Alongside his studio efforts (including 2015’s I Need You, 2019’s instrumental A Little Piece of the Sky, and 2020’s Body & Mind), Kling spent nearly a decade making music with Grammy-winning remix-turned-synth-pop outfit RAC - co-writing songs, DJing, and touring the world as vocalist/bassist of the RAC live band. In what little downtime he has left, he runs the vinyl-centric dance imprint Mani/Pedi records with Mark Penner (aka Cyclist), and spends days in the studio, producing records for a diverse range of artists from Venezuelan funk/disco masters Los Amigos Invisibles (on their Grammy-nominated El Paradise record) to indie-americana darling Beth Bombara.
On Body & Mind, Kling is sometimes soft, sometimes manic, usually danceable and always intensely personal. After investing time and energy in outside projects, he decided to take a step back to catch his breath. He kept the production close to home, writing and recording at his own A/D Agency studio with longtime friend Stacey Winter. During an odd snowy-not-rainy Portland winter, the duo fleshed out these largely introspective songs, drawing sonic inspiration from psychedelic soul, early hip hop & rave, electronic jazz, and Kling’s ever-growing collection of vintage synthesizers, guitars, basses and drums. Despite the short personnel list, the result is a dynamic yet focused collection of songs, born from the fluidity and friction of yet another fruitful Karl Kling collaborative effort.
