Aidan Baker

With the rather fluid output of recordings from Toronto’s Aidan Baker, you shouldn’t be surprised to discover this isn’t his latest release by the time you read this. Nor should you be disappointed upon listening. Concretion further delves into Baker’s ambient guitar explorations over three lengthy tracks, each revealing a unique sense of isolationism. But unlike previous albums that combined several layers to create magnificent washes of sound, Baker’s shift toward a minimal aesthetic gives substantial weight to each melody. This new pocket of space between notes reveals a new sedate-yet-eerie quality to his music. The album peaks during the second track, when Baker expands on the traditional hymn "’Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.” Tweaking the familiar melody with a slight fuzziness reveals a new sense of beauty on the inside. And with ambient guitar textures and a subtle vocal line swirling and rotating around the familiar, it’s hard not to recognise Baker’s version as having soundtrack potential.