Pendulum Aidan Baker

Aidan Baker is a Canadian musician making experimental ambient music. Three tracks of ambient/drone/space-rock, originally released on CD by A Silent Place in 2006.

A collaborative album of glitchy ambient guitar drone with French duo Ultra Milkmaids, originally released on Infraction Records.
According to their website, Ultra Milkmaids have been around for over ten years, starting as a punk band and slowly evolving towards instrumental rock and hazier musical ventures that has culminated on this disc with Aidan Baker, someone that should be familiar if proper attention has been paid. The disc begins as though a blanket is being drawn across the sky and an eternal night is ready to spread its jaw over the world - the music is sleepy and soft, buzzing with the warmth of dying guitars…

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…

Pianist Aidan Mikdad contributes an interesting pairing to the Royal Academy of Music Bicentenary Series. Scriabin and Ravel share some notable characteristics: both drew inspiration from poetry and both expanded the sonic and tonal possibilities of the piano. As such, Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit has the characteristics of an orchestral transcription; Scriabin’s Prélude and Nocturne for the left hand gives the false impression of two busy hands; and his almost Impressionistic second sonata takes its inspiration from nature, akin to the French master. Aidan Mikdad is one of the exceptional artists, including Liam Bonthrone, Junyan Chen, Edvard Pogossian and Charlie Lovell-Jones, who are the recipients of the Academy’s Bicentenary Scholarships scheme for 2021/22.

On KASSANDRA, composer Anthony Brandt and librettist Neena Beber explore two leading issues of our times — climate change and sexual harassment. Based on the Greek myth of Apollo trying to seduce Trojan princess Cassandra, Brandt and Beber tell the tragic yet familiar story of Kassandra, a scientist whose forecasts of climate change are discredited as a result of rejecting sexual advances from a venture capitalist. In the ancient myth, Apollo places a curse on Cassandra: she will see the future but no one will believe her. In today’s world, scientists face a similar curse, their warnings of our warming planet too often ignored. Brandt and Beber’s chamber opera challenges us to heed Kassandra’s predictions.