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Today's Artist is a musician from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who has released numerous records both as a solo artist and as part of various side projects, including Nadja, ARC, Caudal and Mnemosyne. He has also written several books of poetry. He has toured around world, and has made appearances at the Unsound Festival, MUTEK, and South by Southwest. He is married to Nadja bandmate, Leah Buckareff. ..... N'Joy
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An accomplished writer and musician, Aidan Baker has his artistic fingers in many pies. After graduating from Montreal's McGill University with a degree in Literature and Religious Studies, Baker released a four-song acoustic cassette as "Aodhan" (the Gaelic spelling of his name). He also teamed up with two fellow Toronto musicians to create ARC, an ambient guitar-driven trio which garnered much praise for its innovation and integrity. The group released three albums, including Two in 2001. Having been published in major literary magazines nationally and internationally, Baker released his debut album Element in 2000. In 2001, he released his follow-up, Letters, a concept album based loosely around letters from both Jack the Ripper and the Marquis de Sade.
Aidan Baker is a classically-trained multi-instrumentalist using the electric guitar as his primary instrument. Using prepared and alternate methods of playing the guitar, along with various electronic effects, Baker creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental genre but draws on influences from rock, electronic, classical, and jazz. A highly prolific artist, Baker has released numerous recorded works, both solo and with various group projects, on such independent labels as Gizeh Records, Pleasence Records, Important Records, Alien8 Recordings, and his own imprint, Broken Spine Productions. Baker is also the author of several books of poetry. A regular live performer, Baker has toured extensively around the world, including appearances at such international festivals as FIMAV, SXSW, Incubate, Unsound, and Mutek, among others. Originally from Toronto, Canada, Baker currently resides in Berlin, Germany.
Mnemosyne was a trio formed in Toronto, Canada in 2002 featuring Aidan Baker on guitar, Richard Baker (ARC) on drums, and Rodin Columb on bass. The group created atmospheric post-rock and released one full-length album, The Air Grows Small Fingers, on Piehead Records.
ARC was a trio made up of Aidan Baker, Richard Baker, & Christopher Kukiel formed in Toronto, Canada in 2000. The group’s sound is centred on the melodic loops, textures, & samples provided by heavily-effected guitar & other melodic instruments. This is overlaid with tribal-esque rhythms provided by various percussive instruments, creating a roiling tapestry of both rhythmic & ambient sound, music simultaneously primeval & avant-garde.
Nadja is a duo of Aidan Baker & Leah Buckareff alternately based in Toronto & Berlin. The duo makes music that encompasses experimental/drone, ambient, industrail, & doom metal. Originally formed by Baker in 2003 as a solo project, Buckareff joined in 2005 to bring the project out of the studio & into a live setting. They have since released numerous albums on such labels as Essence Music, Hydrahead Records, & their own label, Broken Spine Productions.
B/B/S/, formed in 2012 in Berlin, Germany, is a trio of Aidan Baker (CA - Nadja, Whisper Room, ARC) on guitar, Andrea Belfi (IT - David Grubbs, Hobocombo, Il Sogno del Marinaio) on drums/electronics, and Erik Skodvin (NO - Svarte Greiner, Deaf Center) on guitar. The group makes improvisational music, combining abstract melodies and experimental drone textures. Their debut album Brick Mask was released in 2013 and their second full-length album Palace was released in 2016, both on Miasmah Records.
Hypnodrone Ensemble is Aidan Baker & Eric Quach (aka Thisquietarmy) joined by three drummers, Felipe Salazar (Caudal, Muerte En Pereira), Jérémie Mortier (Alice in the Cities, Lady Shot from a Tree), and Dave Dunnett (Man Meets Bear), to create propulsive, poly-rhythmic space rock. Hypnodrone Ensemble released their live debut in 2014 on Consouling Sounds & a studio-recorded follow up in 2015 on Calostro Recordings.
Whisper Room is a trio of Aidan Baker (guitar), Jakob Thiesen (drums/effects), & Neil Wiernik (bass/effects). The three members of Whisper Room moved in similar musical circles in Toronto & Montreal for many years, sporadically playing together &/or sharing stages, but did not actively come together as a group until late 2006. As an improvisational unit combining their disparate musical backgrounds, the trio creates music which explores the conjunction of electronic rhythms & textures with the pulsations & psychedelics of shoegaze & krautrock music. They released their debut full-length album, Birch White on Elevation Recordings and their follow-up The Cruelest Month on Consouling Sounds in 2014
Adoran is a duo consisting of Aidan Baker on drums & Dorian Williamson on bass. The project makes music combining elements of post-rock, drone, industrial, and sludge. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2012 and their second album Children of Mars is the autumn of 2015, both by Consouling Sounds.
Caudal was a trio featuring Aidan Baker on guitar, Gareth Sweeney on bass, & Felipe Salazar on drums. Baker’s multi-layered, heavily affected guitar overlays Sweeney & Salazar’s driving, propulsive rhythm section creating music equally influenced by krautrock, post-punk, and spacerock. Their debut album Forever In Another World was released in 2013 Oaken Palace Records. Their second full-length album Ascension was released by Consouling Sounds in 2014.
Infinite Light Ltd was a collaborative project between Aidan Baker, Nathan Amundson (Rivulets), and Mat Sweet (Boduf Songs). The trio released one album combining folk, ambient, and shoegaze sounds on the German label Denovali Records in 2011.
Scythling was a collaborative project between Aidan Baker and Josh Rothenburger of Bloody Panda exploring sounds conflating dark-ambient and doom metal. The group released one album, Smokefall, with various guest contributors on Aurora Borealis records in 2012.
WERL is a duo of Aidan Baker on guitar with Swedish drummer Tomas Järmyr creating improvisational music which explores noise, metal, drone, & freejazz. Their debut release came out in 2016 on Consouling Sounds and their follow-up is forthcoming September 2017 on Wolves&Vibrancy/Dio Drone Records.
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Ever wondered how Aidan Baker’s enthralling guitar sounds could be applied to different, if not opposite contexts? The answers lie in these treatments of his sonic sources by eleven akin artists. Remixes is more of a curiosity than a genuine Baker release; it is nevertheless worthy of a deep listen, all tracks suggesting intriguing alternative approaches to the Canadian’s entrancing figurations. Aside from the drum’n’bass/techno oddities of entities such as Millimetric and Naw (the latter’s “Cloning” sounds more Muslimgauze than Baker…), there are some real jewels in here. Andrea Marutti is rather respectful of the original piece, his reconstruction of “Metamorphose, 2nd Stage” quite beautiful with its powerful drones on the verge of explosion, whereas Cordell Klier’s “I’ve Been Waiting For You” is a cold-blooded observation of a dying world. Fear Falls Burning’s “Gossamer” is highly evocative in its nightmarish colours; the same might be told of “When You Scream…” by Troum, verily the most Pink Floydian track of the whole disc. Which is aptly concluded by a majestic superimposition of humming guitars by Duane Pitre/Pilotram, his “Disfigured” perhaps being the most incisive statement of this peculiar album.
<a href="https://multiup.org/903d826a7e272d1a31379e75a97fc548">Aidan Baker - Remixes </a> ( flac 354mb)
01 Métamorphose, 2nd Stage (Reconstruction #2) ( Rmx Andrea Marutti) 12:42
02 Interweaver (Jazzy Mix) (Rmx Millimetrik) 5:43
03 The Cicada Sings Our Love Song (Rmx Building Castles Out Of Matchsticks) 4:38
04 I've Been Waiting For You (Rmx Cordell Klier) 7:05
05 Hands Making Hands (Rmx The Blameshifter) 4:40
06 Cloning (1 Blood Made 2 Remix) (Rmx Naw) 7:50
07 Predatory Sediment (Rmx Gruntsplatter) 6:23
08 Breaking Point (Rmx Wilt) 7:54
09 Gossamer (Rmx Fear Falls Burning) 8:59
10 When You Scream... (Rmx Troum) 6:48
11 Disfigured (Rmx Pilotram) 9:38
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The continuous flow of Aidan Baker’s releases is fuelled by an incessant creativity where “ineffective repetition” and “tiredness” are banned expressions. Candescence consists of six tracks (all sounds, even the percussive ones, generated by guitar and bass) whose identity becomes recognizable as soon as the first seconds have elapsed. The consistency, the depth, the evocative factors are splendidly prominent in this series of structured meditations. Baker shows new sides of his artistic being, crossing his usual magic illusions and trademark looping with pulsating devices which, on occasion and for short glimpses, reminded us of Jon Hassell or Rapoon. Changing your listening position during these 53 minutes will cause the detection of inner murmurs and imaginary voices moving around the room and playing a game of peek-a-boo with your daydreams. This is something that only a top-rank low-frequency manipulator such as Baker can activate, and he just keeps doing it. Time and again.
<a href="https://mir.cr/4VIBM2GX"> Aidan Baker - Candescence</a> ( flac 206mb)
01 Clipper 7:33
02 Caliper 8:37
03 Calibrate 6:03
04 Candescence 14:15
06 Clairvoyance 8:35
07 Calix 8:05
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Taken from a live recording in 2004, Nagual features three artists known for their individual work -- Todd Merrell on electronics, Aidan Baker on guitar, and Patrick Jordan on "processing," with Jordan and Merrell also working shortwave radio -- in an enjoyable collaboration. As is always the case with improvisation, the performance runs a risk of simply being indulgent rather than truly memorable, but in its understated fashion the four pieces featured here show that the three performers are able to combine forces well. The overall feeling is unsurprisingly one of sheer meditative chill, often being the kind of dark, reflective electronic pieces that call to mind everyone from Mick Harris to Robert Rich at the latter's most moody, with Baker's guitar work providing anchoring undertones and shades to the slightly stern mood conjured up by Merrell and Jordan. The opening "Undertow" is well named as a result, suggesting a dark pull downward throughout in its slowly rising flow of sound and echo. That said, not all is gloom by any means -- "Diomedea" is much more enclosed and cocoonlike, with Baker's guitar parts being gentle additions to a carefully building wash of warm sound that is understatedly rhythmic as well as softly calming, a fine contrast to its concluding section where colder sonic winds sound like they're coming down from outer space. "Cygnus" blends these two impulses more carefully, Baker's soft melody providing a steady core for a series of interwoven drones that almost glow with lambent energy, serene and uplifting. 
<a href="https://bayfiles.com/feM7i9sfp2/Adn_Bkr_Tdd_Mrrll_n_Ptrck_Jrdn_Ngl_zip"> Aidan Baker, Todd Merrell n Patrick Jordan - Nagual -</a> ( flac 303mb)
01 Undertow 20:56
02 Diomedea 20:12
03 Cygnus 10:32
04 Half-life 8:47
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Originally released in a limited-edition CD-R run in 2007, then reissued on full CD three years later, I Will Always and Forever Hold You in My Heart and Mind finds Nadja's main force concentrating on some of his most flat-out beautiful work yet in any form. Instead of massive skullcrush feedback echo, the 12-part composition -- each part titled after the appropriate word in the album name itself, flowing into the next without a break -- consists of all-instrumental performances centered around core guitar loops. If the general approach has been an increasingly familiar one in the world of electric guitar and ambience since Robert Fripp and Brian Eno first sat down together, the individual flair is what remains key; Baker's own overt love of shadowy atmospherics and mood as part and parcel with performance gives the entire album its own sense of elegance. Sometimes the emphasis is almost on pure tone, as on the three-minute "And" with a subtle rhythm underpinning the extended, sweet drones; at other times it can be the interaction of contrasting elements, like the tight guitar clip looped on "You" that steadily cuts across the otherwise calm flow.
<a href="https://www.imagenetz.de/4YFbj">Aidan Baker - I Will Always and Forever Hold You in My Heart and Mind -</a> ( flac 282mb)
01 I 5:37
02 Will 5:30
03 Always 2:49
04 And 3:20
05 Forever 3:33
06 Hold 7:09
07 You 7:04
08 In 2:04
09 My 5:03
10 Heart 6:10
11 And 2:19
12 Mind 1:15
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