Aidan Baker | id

Aidan Baker is a musician and writer from Toronto, Canada, currently based in Berlin, Germany. Classically trained as a flutist, he is self-taught on the guitar, drums & various other instruments. As a prolific solo artist since 1999, his releases have explored the deconstructive sonic possibilities of the electric guitar as a primary sound source, creating music that ranges across genres. As well as being a founder-member of various side-projects, including Nadja, ARC, and Mnemosyne, he has also published several books of poetry & works of fiction. He is married to Nadja bandmate, Leah Buckareff. A regular performer in and around Toronto, Baker has also performed in New York, Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, and music festivals as The Om Festival, Mutek, SXSW, and The Distillery Jazz Festival.

He is known to utilize a very experimental style of playing guitar, inspired by artists such as Caspar Brötzmann, James Plotkin, Kevin Shields, and Justin Broadrick. Early influences for his characteristically deconstructive sound included Sonic Youth, Swans, Sunn O))), Red House Painters, Godflesh, Codeine, and PJ Harvey.

He performs in the experimental collective ARC and the drone doom project Nadja. He has also composed works for The Penderecki String Quartet and The Uxbridge Chamber Choir. Most of his records consist of some lengthy songs and are usually improvised, as are his live shows.

He is also the author of two books of poetry, two poetry chapbooks, and has published poetry, fiction, and criticism in various international and scholarly journals.

Official site: http://www.aidanbaker.org .