Dec 6, 2020

Sundaze 2049

Hello,  F1 is racing a mini circuit this weekend, less then 55 sec to get around, the Merc still fastest and Max still on the hunt this time trailing by 56 thousands of a sec got him third, but the big news was Hamilton, away on corona duty, was hardly missed as his replacement George Russell called in on tuesday proved as he rode to second place between Bottas and Verstappen that Lewis' percieved superiorty is non existant, it's all about the superior Mercedes car. Anyway i expect a crazy race tomorrow George won't be able to control the high G's as his body isn't accustomed-yet, he will drop back and Bottas can't stand Verstappen on his tail. The rest Leclerc , Perez will fight for third, but then logic isn't always what racing is about...


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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In a bed of oysters there may be one pearl concealed, and that is exactly what Baker's collaboration with Thisquietarmy feels like.  A massive drone project where the shortest song, the sublime opener "Imagistic Continuity," lasts for twelve minutes, Picture of a Picture is indeed an attention-intensive listen.  This is further augmented by the fact that the music stays floating, hazy and never quite clear, for the hour-long record.  The duo unite opposites in a commanding fashion, combining a huge sound with intricate subtlety, using harsh distortion at very low volumes, and riding the line between tonality and the atonal.  In its brightness it resembles Fripp & Eno's masterpiece Evening Star, and in its darker moments sounds like a less terrifying cousin of Lustmord.

Picture of a Picture is similar to Nana April Jun's fantastic The Ontology of Noise in methodological terms; Baker and Eric Quach recorded the entire album together, making sure their sound was almost entirely guitar-derived and that overdubs were kept to a minimum.  The result is something sublime.  Loops hide in the shadows only to creep out almost imperceptibly, the gentle clouds of drone breathing in and out of tonality, blurring the lines between minor and major, somethingness and nothingness.  These guys have produced a meditative sound that carries a particular gentle touch that very few have so properly executed since Brian Eno pioneered the style.  In fact, if Eno's "as interesting as it is ignorable" requirement still applies, Baker and Quach have fulfilled it with a grace that only rare producers possess.



<a href="https://mir.cr/PG7QUSYV">Aidan Baker & Thisquietarmy -  A Picture of a Picture </a> ( flac 256mb)

01 Imagistic Continuity 12:00
02 Loss of Perspective 13:19
03 Negative Space 13:56
04 Horizon Line 20:48

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Aidan Baker's vast discography continues to grow with the addition of 'Blue Figures' which is a disc of exceptionally high quality live recordings (both in terms of sound and content). Figures Part 1 & 2 were recorded in last year Berlin during his tour where he also played in Nadja.an expansive and chorus'd set of tracks that bring to mind blissfully drifting Aidan's live performances are always surprising, not to say amazing. and his previous live albums are perfect exemples of what he is capable of when he's on stage. you already know the songs but it's always a bit different, there are variations, extensions, improvisations. Aidan dig in his own material to find a new vision. and you won't be disapointed here !
Last but not least, the sound quality is stunning. .. tracks 3 & 4 were recorded in Prague 16-06-2009.



<a href="https://www.imagenetz.de/C5MwV">  Aidan Baker - Blue Figures</a> ( flac 234mb)

01 Figures Pt.1 19:51
02 Figures Pt.2 17:46
03 Untitled Drone 15:12
04 Gathering Blue 12:27

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Arkhangsels is the third album by the Canadian music group Arc, the  trio that marries post-rock drones with the heavy brood of early Sabbath......as much in sound as in spirit. Ironically, the marriage works and the album sounds intense without seeping into the avant-garde. The atmosphere created by the sounds of Aidan Baker (guitars, flutes, loops), Richard Baker (drums) and Chris Kukiel (percussion) conceptualizes doom yet creates a singluar space that is shared by angels and demons alike. "Arkhangelsk" fragments this concept into four extended 'improvised' compositions stretched over an hour of brooding guitars and psych percussions. The production is top-notch, which is esssential for the the type of dark textured layers these guys are delivering, creating a perfect sound stage that is not only hypnotic but also serves as a test drive for hi-end audio gear. The album was released in an edition of 600 copies on Epidemic Records.



<a href="https://multiup.org/23610fc5295782433d9565decb38404c">ARC - Arkhangelsk-</a> ( flac 442mb)

01 Relicary (16:39)
02 The valley of dry bones (16:11) (uit Ezechiël)
03 Angel sightings (16:18)
04 Ossuary (17:40)

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The single, same-titled track slash album by Aidan Baker is a 47+ minute continuous ambient drone, which slowly evolves and recedes back to its harmonic elements as if time simply stood still. The aesthetic of the piece is very organic, drawing only on the sounds from Baker’s 12-string guitar, which were later manipulated even further to elicit a wide range of textures, frequencies and din. The title of the album, Aneira, means ‘snow’ in Welsh, and thus appropriately fits on the Glacial Movements label, which has been gifting us with sounds of isolationist ambiance and icy soundscapes since 2006. And just like the snowflake, unique in its infinite molecule configuration, the music on Aneira continues to slowly drift, layer and melt. Berlin-based Baker is extremely prolific, and in this year alone has already accumulated half-a-dozen releases! Among them I recommend you look into his collaboration with A-Sun Amissa, titled Scarpe Sensée (Drowning, 2013), his work with Plurals on Glass Crocodile Medicine (Latitudes, 2013) and a very interesting solo record on Gizeh, titled Already Drowning. The latter is a fascinating collection of songs “inspired by various myths and folktales about female water spirits”, each track featuring a different guest vocalist. And as always with Baker’s releases, it’s nearly impossible to keep up!



<a href="https://bayfiles.com/xef1vcw0p6/Adn_Bkr_Anr_zip">   Aidan Baker - Aneira -</a> ( flac 271mb)

01 Aidan Baker - Aneira 47:43

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very underground.