Januar | TRS110
Januar is a collaborative, improvisational beauty from Berlin based musician Aidan Baker, of the duo Nadja, and Canadian musician and political activist Stefan Christoff, with Aidan on guitar and electronics, and Stefan at the piano.
This is a musical landscape of dynamic scope…of contrast and acceptance, and of an indelible urgent restraint. The chiming, shivering, rolling tones of the piano flow out the windows of the large open room and are absorbed into the world without. The rumblings of industry…the throbbing drone of the world of man, and the dense echoes of his noise outside embrace the bright and melancholic melodies, and together this beauty is formed, and rises to our ears and to the sky.
The god Janus was symbolic of beginnings, transitions, entrances and gates, and time…and like the month named after him, was responsible for ushering in the future. The album Januar is an inspired soundtrack to those hopeful ideals, and this future of ours!
Januar will be available digitally, and in a physical, lathe cut record version, in an edition of just 40 copies. The clear record comes in a hand worked record jacket with an archival printed, modified sepia toned print of Aidan and Stefan as the god Janus on the front, with a central musical figure, cut from an ancient book of hymns, featuring it’s/their all-seeing eye! The back covers have a uniquely original, 100+ year old print of ancient wrought iron gates, each opening to show a printed, stamped and numbered credit sheet inside. The jackets are then bound with twine that is threaded through both a title stamped scrap, and a metal clock hand. The artists names are hand typed at the bottom of the musical sheet on a classic, German, Olympia cursive/script typewriter. As usual the fantastic sounding records are cut by Bladud Flies, in Wales, UK…
Although much of our headspace has been taken up recently with our new TRS art book celebrating a decade of our musical packaging, we are pleased to say that we have several other upcoming projects that we’ll be telling you about soon!
Januar will be available at our TRS Bandcamp page starting Saturday, January 6th 2024, at 7am California time!
Januar will ship starting the 15th of January 2024!
>>>>> Credits <<<<<
Recorded live at White Lake Studios by Sam Braun in Berlin on 19 January, 2023.
Aidan Baker on electric guitar/effects
Stefan Christoff on piano
Artwork by Colin Herrick and Maria Chenut
Released by Time Released Sound, 2024
>>>>> The Musicians <<<<<
Aidan Baker is an electronic musician from Toronto, Ontario, Canada who has released numerous records both as a solo artist and as part of various side projects, including Nadja, ARC, Caudal and Mnemosyne. He has also written several books of poetry.
He has toured around the world, and has made appearances at the Unsound Festival, MUTEK, and South by Southwest. He is married to Nadja bandmate, Leah Buckareff.
Stefan Christoff is a Canadian journalist of Macedonian origin, community organizer and musician based in Montreal, Quebec.
“I first met Aidan over coffee in the summer of 2022 on a hot day in Kreuzberg, Berlin. The conversation ranged from the ways that gentrification was impacting Berlin, the ways that independent arts spaces were being impacted and also the relationship between music and activism. I saw an openness in Aidan’s spirit and looked forward to an opportunity to play together. In winter 2023 I was returning to Berlin to play a solo piano show and Aidan arranged an afternoon in a studio. After a couple of subway transfers and a tram ride I arrived at the studio. Basically we immediately started playing, I loved the textures that Aidan was creating and most importantly how Aidan was listening. I got lost in the session and started picturing the solar system. Today I am really happy to share this release with you all via Time Released Sound. ”
Thank you for listening. –– Stefan Christoff
