Perfect Worlds

Nadja & our friends from Japan Vampillia will be heading out on tour next week for some select dates in Western/Central Europe:

May 14 – Les Instants Chavires, Paris, FR *
May 15 – Magasin4, Brussels, BE *
May 16 – OCCII, Amsterdam, NL *
May 17 – DBs, Utrecht, NL *
May 18 – NK, Berlin, DE * ~
May 20 – Hafenklang, Hamburg, DE *
May 21 – Hühnermanhattan, Halle, DE *
May 22 – Pilot Klub, Prague, CZ *
May 23 – Rhiz, Vienna, AT *
May 24 – Stadtwerkstatt, Linz, AT
May 25 – W71, Weikersheim, DE
May 26 – Halle14, Karlsruhe, DE

* = w/ Attila Csihar as part of Vampillia
~ = w/ Crystal Shipsss

The tour is in support of a forthcoming re-issue of Nadja & Vampillia‘s collaborative album The Primitive World, re-mastered, re-worked and with a new track and accordingly re-titled The Perfect World. This will be out shortly on CD and limited LP from Important Records. We should also have copies of our new LP Flipper due any day now from Oaken Palace Records.

New World Pre-Order

There are now a couple pre-order opportunities for debut releases from two of Aidan‘s new projects, Caudal and Adoran. If you haven’t already checked out either project, Caudal is a something of a spacey krautrock trio featuring Gareth Sweeney on bass, Felipe Salazar on drums, and Aidan on guitar. Adoran is a sludgy, drone-doom duo featuring Dorian Williamson from Northumbria on bass and Aidan on drums. Both albums can be streamed and/or pre-ordered below:

Pre-order LP from Oaken Palace Records.

Pre-order CD from Consouling Sounds.

Oaken Palace Records will also be releasing the next Nadja album as well, hopefully in time for our upcoming EU tour with our Japanese friends Vampillia. The first track from the album is streaming here:

And speaking of tours, Nadja will be playing a handful of shows in the Toronto area this coming weekend:

11-04-13: The Spill, Peterborough, ON
12-04-13: New Harbours Music @ Christ Church Cathedral, Hamilton
13-04-13: Feast In The East @ Polyhaus, Toronto

And Whisper Room, my trio with Jakob Thiesen on drums and Neil Wiernik on bass/laptop will be playing their first show in who knows how long at:

16-04-13: The Ambient Ping at Supermarket, Toronto, ON

Music Makes Me Sad

Some reading material:

An article on slowcore I wrote for Noisy.

Some listening material:

A mixtape I made for Klankschap featuring some of my favourite female artists, including songs by contributors to my forthcoming album Already Drowning.

Some opportunities to leave the house:

Aidan Baker CA/US East Coast Tour w/ Insect Ark:

28-03-13: Casa Del Popolo, Montreal, QC – also w/ Benoît Pioulard
29-03-13: Aviary Gallery, Boston, MA – also w/ Animal Hospital
30-03-13: Big Snow Buffalo Lounge, New York, NY
01-04-13: First Unitarian Church, Philadelphia, PA
02-04-13: Metro Gallery, Baltimore, MD
03-04-13: Garfield Art Works, Pittsburg, PA
04-04-13: MOTR, Cincinnati, OH
05-04-13: The Burlington, Chicago, IL – also w/ Steven Hess
07-04-13: June Records, Toronto, ON – also w/ Clara Engel

Nadja GTA Dates:

11-04-13: The Spill, Peterborough, ON
12-04-13: New Harbours Music Series @ Christ Church Cathedral, Hamilton, ON
13-04-13: Feast In The East @ Polyhaus, Toronto, ON

And lastly, some more opportunities to accumulate:

My collaboration with Plurals, part of Southern Records Latitude Series is out now. Available from Southern Records, the Broken Spine Webshop, and digitally here:

Der Seltene Fang

My new solo album Already Drowning has just been announced for release April 15 2013 from Gizeh Records. This album is a much more structured than previous releases, with each track featuring a guest vocalist, and is something of a song-cycle inspired by myths and folktales of female water spirits like Mélusine, Lorelei, and Rusalka. The first and title track is streaming here:

And if you visit the Gizeh Records site, you can download it as part of their new releases sampler.

Clara Engel sings on the title track. The other guest vocalists are: Jessica Bailiff, Valérie Niederoest & Maude Oswald (from Toboggan), Joanna Kupnicka (from The Cold Hand), Geneviève Castrée (aka Ô Paon), Liz Hysen (from Picastro), and Carla Bozulich (from Evangelista, The Geraldine Fibbers).

I will be touring in support of the album in the UK/EU next month with A-Sun Amissa:

17-02-13: Mad Ferret, Preston, UK
18-02-13: Wharf Chambers, Leeds, UK
19-02-13: Taylor John’s, Coventry, UK
20-02-13: The Exchange, Bristol, UK
21-02-13: Cafe Oto, London, UK
22-02-13: Poortegebouw, Rotterdam, NL
23-02-13: Vera, Grongingen, NL
24-02-13: Gängeviertel Fabrik, Hamburg, DE
25-02-13: Best Monday Ever, Copenhagen, DK
26-02-13: 1000Fryd, Aalborg, DK
27-02-13: Ljud, Aarhus, DK
01-03-13: Schokoladen, Berlin, DE

New Year Of Snake Listenings

Happy year of the Snake!

If anyone would like a teaser of songs from Caudal‘s forthcoming release Forever In Another World on Oaken Palace Records, here is a recording of our debut show in Berlin last month:

And if anyone would like to sample the first track from B/B/S/‘s likewise forthcoming debut Brick Mask on Miasmah Records, you can stream it here:

B/B/S/ will be heading out on a short tour at the end of the month:

01-23 @ Monarch, Berlin, DE
01-25 @ Christuskirche, Bochum, DE
01-26 @ Plane Ari Home Gigs/L’auréole, Bethencourt, FR
01-27 @ Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels, BE

And in other new project news, Adoran Aidan‘s collaborative project with Dorian Williamson (of Northumbria) will be releasing a full-length album with Consouling Sounds later this year. An unmastered excerpt of the first track from this album is streamable here:

Some of you may recognize Adoran‘s name from the Drone Compendium Series slowly making its way into the world via Beta-lactam Ring Records. I know this series has been long-delayed…but these LPs will eventually get out there! The third in the series, Mnemosyne‘s Air Grows Small Fingers, should be out soon!

And finally, here are a few older/out-of-print Aidan Baker/Nadja releases newly available on the BSP Bandcamp page as pay-what-you-want downloads:

End Of Days

As the penultimate month of 2012 nears its end, we’ve a few last shows of the year to announce. Nadja will be performing in Israel (assuming the ceasefire holds) for the first time on December 6 at Uganda in Jerusalem and December 7 at Levontin 7 in Tel Aviv.

Aidan will be opening for Scott Kelly of Neurosis at Jägerklause in Berlin on December 14.

And lastly, Caudal, Aidan‘s new “rock” band, will be playing their debut show December 15 at Antje Øeklesund in Berlin (presented by Cranky Booking).

Here is a rough mix of one of the tracks from Caudal‘s forthcoming debut on the UK charitable label Oaken Palace Records:

And if anyone might be interested in what we are listening to ourselves these days, we did three mp3 “mixtapes” recently for your downloading pleasure: CVLT Nation: Sonic Cathedrals Vol LXXVIII, Secret Thirteen Mix 034, and
Self-Titled Mag: Needle Exchange #112.

And lastly, here’s an older, out-of-print solo album from Aidan available as a pwyw download: Periodic.

Documenting Daydreams &/or Wanderlust

As some of you may have noticed, the pre-order for Dagdrøm has already sold out. Rest assured, the regular black vinyl, cd, and digital versions will be available by the end of next month…and for those of you who ordered the limited green vinyl, we will start shipping once Aidan returns from his tour with Noveller, which starts tomorrow. Full dates are:

28-09-12: Salon Remise, Berlin, DE
29-09-12: Cineding, Leipzig, DE
30-09-12: Halle14, Karlsruhe, DE
01-10-12: Bosch Bar, Zürich, CH
02-10-12: Plattfon, Basel, CH
03-10-12: Cave12, Geneve, CH
04-10-12: Bourg, Lausanne, CH
05-10-12: Le Grattoir, Gerardmer, FR
06-10-12: Espace En Cours, Paris, FR
07-10-12: Théâtre De l’Aparté, Vendôme, FR
08-10-12: Un singe en hiver, Le Mans, FR
09-10-12: Baraka, Clermont-Ferrand, FR
10-10-12: La Bastille, Grenoble, FR
11-10-12: Sonic, Lyon, FR
12-10-12: KTS, Freiburg, DE
13-10-12: Complex23, Heilbronn, DE
14-10-12: Extrapool, Nijmegen, NL
15-10-12: Loophole, Berlin, DE

For those of you unable to attend The Extended Amorphous Drone For Multiple Heads event in Berlin last week, my curated night at the You Are Here aka The Maze Festival, Selektives Hören Archiv has posted a nice review and some audio snippets from various moments in the three hour performance. Here is the last twenty minutes of the night:

Ariadne’s Thread

B/B/S/, Aidan’s new trio with Erik Skodvin (Deaf Centre, Svarte Greiner) and Andrea Belfi (Hobocombo, David Grubbs, etc.), will be playing two shows next week with Carla Bozulich’s Evangelista at two of Germany’s nicest venues:

12/09/12: Berghain Kantine, Berlin
13/09/12: Ut Connewitz, Leipzig

Aidan is also playing in Köln 24/09/12 at Stadtgarden with Contagious Orgasm and Chikashi Miyami and presents The Extended Amorphous Drone For Multiple Heads at the Berlin You Are Here aka The Maze Festival at West Germany 21/09/22.

Performers in The Extended Amorphous Drone For Multiple Heads include:

Aidan Baker
Andrea Belfi
Soren Brothers (Man Meets Bear)
Dirk Dresselhaus (SchniederTM)
Will Gresson (Fausto Maijstral)
Jasmine Monique Guffond
René Margaff (Pillowdiver, Twopeopleinaroom)
Jérémie Mortier
Stefania Pedetti (OvO, ?Alos)
Federica Rossella (Du Champ, Fausto Maijstral)

Nadja will also be playing this festival as part of Stephan Lackman‘s benefit for Tom Carter on 22/09/12.

And then at the end of the month, and on into October, Aidan will be heading out on tour with Noveller. Full dates (so far) and info here or on the Julie Tippex site.

[A] deep, autumnal tone, / Sweet though in sadness

Having survived the trolls of Scandinavia and the roads of Eastern Europe, we’ll be winging westward next month for a few shows in our old stomping grounds, the first in over two years:

17-06-12: The Garrison, Toronto, ON – w/ Picastro (part of the NXNE Festival)
18-06-12: Suoni Per Il Popolo Festival, Montreal, QC – w/ Grouper & Picastro
20-06-12: Glasslands, Brooklyn, NY – w/ Noveller & Lazurite
21-06-12: Kungfu Necktie, Philadelphia, PA – w/ James Plotkin

I won’t be playing any solo shows whilst in Canada, so to make up for that here is a recording of my show at Soup in Tokyo last February:

Free Music Archive: Aidan Baker – Live @ Soup – Tokyo, JP – 2012-05-02.

“Jag dras in som en nattfjäril och jag flyger norrut igen…”

Happy International Workers’ Day!

In the spirit of socialism, here’s a free album to download:

Nadja is flying north next week for a Scandinavian tour with additional dates in the Baltics and Poland, ending up back in Berlin in time for Occulto Fest:

09-05-12: Alte Meierei, Kiel, DE
10-05-12: KB18, Copenhagen, DK
11-05-12: tba, Malmo, SE
12-05-12: Revolver, Oslo, NO
13-05-12: Betong, Oslo, NO (AB solo show)
15-05-12: Fyklingen, Stockholm, SE
17-05-12: Dynamo, Turku, FI
18-05-12: Von Krahl Bar, Tallinn, ES
19-05-12: Kino Balle, Liepaja, LV
20-05-12: XI20, Vlinius, LT
22-05-12: Sen Pszczoły, Warsaw, PL
23-05-12: Alchemie, Krakow, PL
26-05-12: Occulto Fest, Berlin, DE

(bonus points to anyone who can figure our what the google-translated title of this post refers to)