Aidan Baker – one half of drone metal legends Nadja – is one of the most prolific artists of our times, and it was an honour to work with an artist I’d long admired. Soil is a record for deep listening; a cerebral album of calming ambient, drone and treated field recordings released by small-run cassette only label Utility Tapes. With Aidan Baker having such a large discography – and with journalists receiving many of his works in their inboxes – my challenge was to give music writers something unique and expressive to write about, especially for such a minimalist composition.
ACCOLADES
“Soil is a largely distant and hazy wash of droning and reverberating noise, but an undercurrent of discomfort pervades a good portion of these massaging tones.”
~ Now Then
“The mind’s eye is invariably drawn to the overtly tonal elements here, but there’s also a beautiful blustering static at the edges.”
~ ATTN
“Through use of looping, fragmentation and static noise, the aptly titled Soil cleverly simulates the movement and process of erosion in a way that immerses the listener in it’s flow, creating a trance-like, almost meditative state of being.”
~ Sonic Dissonance
FROM THE PRESS KIT
Soil is a truly minimal wonder evoking a warm and down to earth scope of sound that effortlessly captures its subject matter. These immersive, drifting drones shuffle and shift subtly like bugs scuttering through the soil. Baker’s attention to sonic detail results in an atmospheric record that gets under the listeners skin, beaming with the purity of nature.
Released June 12th 2020 on Cassette and Digital by Utility Tapes.
PR TRAIL 