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Saturday, November 13 2004 Hear excerpts from the live show courtesy of Todd Merrell's Web site. [mp3] [ogg]
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Todd Merrell, Patrick Jordan and Aidan Baker "Merrell and Jordan construct and traverse a fascinating "Aidan is the required healer for sore consciences, a studious assembler of immaterial imaginations by the utter command of an instrument that in his hands, spools and spirals towards a labyrinth of veritable emotional truth"- Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes
Aidan Baker explores the deconstructive sonic
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soundscape ‹ choral undulations, mechanical grindings, distant swoops and plunges, waves of white noise. As one vein is exhausted, they find another to mine, moving the piece along at just the right moment and settling momentarily, at just the right place." -Lou Mazzolli, The Art Institute of Chicago
Since 1978, Todd Merrell has been fascinated with the imperceptible environment of electromagnetic radiation that shortwave radio and processing can capture, and transform into an immersive, musical environment. In 1991 he began exploring the musical possibilities of this world in a collaboration with Patrick Jordan. The result was 'SWR', a two movement work that was performed several times in Chicago, and on WBEZ National Public Radio. The duo have since developed these techniques and incorporated them into a larger, more visually and sonically evocative world, with an emphasis on live performance, and the thrilling contingency and danger that such site- and time-specifically dependent work produces.
possibilities of the electric guitar as a primary sound source, creating music that ranges from experimental to electronica to ambient. A regular performer in and around Toronto, Baker has also performed at such festivals as The Om Festival, Saturation Bombing, and The Distillery Jazz Festival. He has released numerous cds on independent labels from around the world and performs with the experimental collective ARC , the improv space-rock trio Mnemosyne, and the ambient/doom metal project Nadja. He has also composed work for the The Penderecki String Quartet and The Uxbridge Chamber Choir.