arms around the world is lyrical, analog, bone-deep rock’n’roll from Seattle-based musician Jon Rimmerman.  Profiled by The New York Times, GQ, Bloomberg, Forbes and The Seattle Times, Rimmerman is the voice and vision behind Garagiste, the runaway indie wine-food-culture success story—equal parts guide and provocateur to the wine and food industry. His text-only storytelling (no photography or images) is emailed around the world daily—passed around by chefs, screenshotted by buyers, and pounced on by collectors. He’s famous for finding cultural products created outside of major distribution systems and letting the experience of them—the taste, touch, terroir—be the guide to showing why they matter and what makes the sound or sight of them so special. 

The Spark. In a now-or-never moment, Rimmerman threw a bag in his Fiat and drove down the West Coast, chasing a spirit in a different medium. Late-night GarageBand sketches in motels and a Santa Cruz barter—two cases of wine for a Rickenbacker 620 that birthed the first single, "Denial"—led him to Elliott Lanam's Santa Barbara studio. "I'm here to record a record," he told him. And he did, often through the night in a two-week marathon.

The Sound. With arms around the world, Rimmerman channels his lifelong passion for exploration into sound with recording experiments that weave the warmth of vintage analog tube tones with the diamond-tipped articulation of a Rickenbacker. The result is an ethereal indie rock soundscape that introduces the world to a new Seattle sound, full of storytelling, pop hooks, and multi-layered instrumentation. Jon's work has always been about revealing the invisible web of connections that makes things matter. Now he's exploring that web through music—a way to let people know Jon as well as what he has to say. It's the piece of connection that he’s been missing.

"Everything is connected—wine, food, music, one thread," says Rimmerman. It's the philosophy guiding Garagiste and arms around the world. Context shapes content. Wine, food, music: all have terroir.  If we actively engage with the whole ecosystem, what we consume can transform our experience. arms around the world invites us to see the relationships that produce our food, music, and clothing as pivotal to the quality of our experience. It's not about perfection; it's about attention, practice, and perspective.

Jon's journey is ongoing. arms around the world is an invitation to participate.