Aidan Baker - Karen Willems - Nonland - Download (2017)

Labels: Gizeh
Review by: Alex Deller

Cuts from three improv sessions here, wherein one half of drone/ambient act Nadja quietly collides with a member of a band called Inwolves. Opener ‘Like A Soft Rain Coming’ pitter-patters nicely, bringing together looped guitar harmonics and gently dappled percussion in a manner that’s calm and softly enveloping. This tranquillity is, perhaps, a little deceptive, because while the following five tracks are hardly ragers there’s a quiet sense of challenge about them that demands your full attention. Guitar abstractions murmur and groan, while jazzy drum patterns stutter off in different directions and do their best to politely wrongfoot you. There’s an enjoyable sense of push and pull that renders the whole experiment intriguing and at the same time entertaining, a feat exemplified by the borderline rowdy interplay exhibited on ‘In My Head It Is Kind Of An Escape’.