AIDAN BAKER - 'Blue Figures' CD (Basses Frequences)
This massive live album from Aidan Baker (Nadja) consists of two live sets (70 min+), one with 'Figures' and the other with an 'Untitled Drone' and 'Gathering Blue'. Aidan Baker's live performances are always surprising, not to say amazing. His previous live albums are perfect examples 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 dug in his own material to find a new vision... and you won't be disappointed here! Last but not least, the sound quality is stunning. Ltd x 300 copies in a gatefold digisleeve.
AIDAN BAKER - 'I Fall Into You' CD (Basses Frequences)
Reissue of the limited 2002 release from Canadian artist Aidan Baker (Nadja, Arc), originally issued on US label Public Eyesore. "Mixing drone with post rock and experimental electronics, this 5 track, 50-minute release takes inspiration from tons of different sources and stirs them together into one drifting mass of sound... heaving layers shift over one another like a Stars Of The Lid track, but instead of letting the washes go wherever they want, he introduces a very subtle beat behind it all... Combined, the first three tracks on the release are some of the best work in the area of drone and ambient that I've heard this year... if you're a fan of drone and ambient music, definitely seek out this release, as Baker is definitely doing some great things (Almost Cool). Ltd x 500 with new artwork including lyrics.
AIDAN BAKER - 'I Will Always And Forever Hold You In My Heart And Mind' CD (Basses Frequences / Small Doses)
CD reissue of this album previously released in an extremely limited edition on Small Doses. This is a stunning new full-length solo work from the man behind Nadja and Arc. A 51 minute work of shimmering, pulsating drone broken into twelve parts (one for each word of the title) that come together to form a seamless, wordless narrative. Ltd x 300 copies.
HOOR-PAAR-KRAAT - 'The Eureka Tapes: The Complete Recordings' 2 x CD (Small Doses / Basses Frequences)
The pieces that make up "The Eureka Tapes" were all created while Hoor-paar-Kraat’s Anthony Mangicapra was living in the town of Eureka, California. Indeed, the town’s name is apt as they represent a “Eurekamoment” for Hoor-paar-Kraat as a musical entity; a figurative spilling of the bath waters as Hoor-paar-Kraat found their sound. The hints of alchemical transcendence that peeped through the cracks of previous releases come brazenly into view throughout. Music dissolves into explorations of texture, acoustic phenomena and the psyche. Originally issued as three separate volumes in a variety of hard to find formats, "The Eureka Tapes" collects the three original volumes, plus Hoor-paar-Kraat’s side of their split cassette with Last and a previously unreleased recording from the same sessions. Hoor-paar-Kraat’s music finds itself travelling the same surreal by-ways as Nurse With Wound, irr. app. (ext.), The Hafler Trio and Coil’s more ritualistic output.
THISQUIETARMY - 'Aftermath' CD (Basses Frequences)
ThisQuietArmy's fourth album is partially inspired and in respect to aesthetics by the works of German visual artist Anselm Kiefer - the setting of "Aftermath" takes place in the post-apocalyptic countryside and revolves around fallen angels as unexploded ordnances. In parallel, the compositions were also inspired by the sounds of crackling tubes and failing resistors captured by amplifiers during the recording process. Drones and melodies were built around these hissing sounds to create moods of tension and transitions from the remnants of destruction. These static interferences thus remained as important compositional elements, as if the whole themed-universe stemmed from a faraway buzz, in which the dawn of a new era reveals itself. With "Aftermath", ThisQuietArmy manages to create the perfect light and heavy post-nuclear winter atmosphere, with a glimmer of hope appearing slowly like sun rays through massive dust clouds. Ltd x 500 copies in a digipak.
YUI ONODERA & THE BEAUTIFUL SCHIZOPHONIC - 'Radiance' CD (Basses Frequences)
"It's been a while since we last heard of Jorge Mantas, also known as The Beautiful Schizophonic, who plays 'sentimental laptop, paper, metal, glass, pink balloons and melancholic field recordings' and is one of the few to play bittersweet microsound music, which he does quite nicely. Here he teams up with Yui Onodera (laptop, environmental sound, electronics, piano, guitar, voice and found objects). That's seems an awful lot of instruments and sound generators for what we hear in the five tracks they recorded no doubt through e-mail. But I guess it takes the best of both. The minimal approach of Onodera is present here of course, but soft melancholy is brought in by Mantas, and leads to a highly refined album of minimal ambient music... a great combination electronics, field recordings and real instruments" (Vital Weekly). Ltd x 500 copies.
