The prolific and rising star of atmospheric guitar music glides effortlessly on this his first release on Gears of Sand. Pendulum is a powerful example of Aidan's ability to manipulate guitar loops into fascinating tone poems. The slow building sense of urgency on these 5 wonderous tracks brings to mind the power of Troum but in far more minimalist trajectories--that is to say, one guitar as entry into a crescendoing tunnel of warming caterwaul.
"...The static quickens and pops effortlessly: The sound of sky before nightfall. Or was it a curtain closing? Never far from a new beginning. The ascent of morning splashed in wings and feathers. The layers of bird song is never far from communication. An endless pulse on return. That is to say, an arc just-in-time: Pendulum."
-BFS
"In recent times, many people have invested in digital delay units and built whole careers around nothing, selling the results as some sort of meditation. Not so Canadian musician and writer Aidan Baker, one of the very few artists in the past decade whose discography has grown hand in hand with his compositional skills. His loop stratification technique features the guitar as the primary sound source, though voices, violin, flute and found sounds all have their place in a deceptive pulsating complexity of evocative siren calls, beguiling fears and hypnotic malady. Percussion is often looped too to create a peculiar variety of drum'n'bass in evidence on the albums Eye of Day (Foreign Lands) and Butterfly Bones (Between Existence). Trained in classical piano and flute, Toronto-based Baker is a self-taught guitarist, drummer and saxophonist, and also the author of several books of poetry (I recommend you get hold of a copy of Fingerspelling) and a regular contributor to various international journals, providing not only poetry but also criticism and works of fiction. Over the past seven years he's released well over 20 albums, solo or in collaboration with other artists, many of which are among the most intense and beautiful loop-based listening experiences you could have the good fortune to discover."
-Paris Transatlantic Magazine, August 2005
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