STM 034 - Aidan Baker

“Secret Thirteen Mix 034” is a transcendental and hypnotizing musical compilation that showcases the use of varied electric guitar, pedal effects, uncommon instruments, and subtle electronics in mostly live-recorded and shaped compositions from honorable artists such as David Daniell, Rhys Chatham, Duane Pitre, Nigel Wright, K.K. Null, James Plotkin, and other talents.

The author of the mix is Aidan Baker (born in 1974), a Canadian musician, writer, and poet, currently residing in Berlin, Germany. Baker is classically trained in flute and self-taught on guitar, drums, and many other instruments. Associated with experimental, ambient, drone, jazz, metal, post-rock, and contemporary classical music, Baker explores his genuine sound identity. In addition to his solo work, Baker also performs with the following ensembles: Nadja (with bandmate and spouse Leah Buckareff), Whisper Room, Infinite Light Ltd., Adoran, B/B/S/, and ARC. He has composed and performed work of a more classical nature for the Penderecki String Quartet, the Riga Sinfonietta, and the Monday Morning Singers. Baker has released numerous albums (over 100) in various formats on independent labels such as Alien8 Recordings, Broken Spine Productions (Baker’s co-founded independent label), Beta-Lactam Ring Records, etc. He has toured in both North America and Europe, and has made appearances at the OM Festival, MUTEK, South by Southwest, and the Distillery Jazz Festival. He is also the author of four books of poetry and has published poetry, short fiction, and criticism in literary and scholarly journals.

“Secret Thirteen Mix 034” is a spatial and generous musical selection that consists of fourteen sensuous and nostalgic collectors’ records released between 1994 and 2012. Baker actually assembles records from contributors and from artists who inspired his forthcoming album “Origins & Evolutions,” and this thoroughly reflects his fundamental taste in music, knowledge, and philosophy. The basis of the mix is formed from airy and durable meditative atmospheres, fused with a gentle and phlegmatic arrangement of sonorous classical instruments. Cathedral-type sonics bring a rich listening experience to this ideologically and emotionally powerful recording.

“Secret Thirteen Mix 034” is like Amedeo Modigliani’s striking and erotic painting “Liegender Akt,” where graceful figurative distortions and large flat areas of color shroud a natural beauty that seems lethargically asleep and exists only in her unexplored imagination. Baker’s mix definitely uncovers abyssal depths of calmness, intelligence, and subtle elegance.