Beschreibung
While
Alien8 Recordings has had the pleasure of releasing three full-length albums by
Aidan Baker's ambient doom project Nadja, as well as his collab- orative effort
Fantasma Parastasie with Tim Hecker, this marks our first solo release with the
artist. Although we consider Liminoid/Lifeforms to be a solo effort, there are
in fact no less than eight guest musicians helping out on the recording. These
include Canadian noise legend Knurl (a.k.a. Alan Bloor) who has been released
three times on Alien8 Recordings prior to this recording, as well as members of
Arc, Picastro, Forest City Lovers and Whisper Room. Liminoid is a composition
for large ensemble exploring sonic immersion in drones and textures, rhythms and
pulsations. Incorporating composed and improvised segments, the piece uses
elongation of sound and layered polyph- ony in an attempt to create a liminal
and/or numinous state. This recording of Liminoid is from its premier at The
Music Gallery's X-Avant Festival in Toronto, October 25, 2008. The piece
features a powerful vocal performance with every member sharing the vocal
duties. The lyrics have been adapted from 5th-8th century Coptic Christian texts
and inspired by the book Ancient Christian Magic by Marvin W. Meyer &
Richard Smith. The ensemble members for this performance were: Aidan Baker
(guitar/ voice), Clara Engel (guitar/voice), Nick Storring (cello/voice), Jakob
Thiesen (drums/voice), Richard Baker (drums/voice), Tillman Lewis (cello/voice),
Laura Bates (violin/voice) and Jonathan Demers (guitar/voice). Lifeforms is a
composition for strings, prepared/effected guitar, and amplified metal works.
Likewise incorporating written and improvised material, the piece was originally
commissioned and performed by The Penderecki Quartet in 2003. This recording was
made in August 2008 at Commonwealth Studios in Toronto. The performers were:
Aidan Baker (guitar), Nick Storring (cello), Mika Posen (violin) and Alan Bloor
(metal works). This recording has been both skillfully mixed from multiple
recordings and mastered by James Plotkin.
