Duane Pitre / Aidan Baker
Duane Pitre is an American avant-garde composer, performer, and sound artist. His work often focuses on chaos and discipline, site-specificity and alternate tuning schemes that utilize microtonality. He has created works for various instrumentation configurations such as string orchestra, his own bowed harmonic-guitar ensemble, string/wind ensembles, as well as solo works for himself.
He has presented and performed his live works across the U.S., U.K., and Europe at spaces such as Café OTO, The Stone, Muziekhuis Utrecht, and ISSUE Project Room (where he was Artist In Residence for spring 2009). Pitre has been featured in publications such as The Wire, Foxy Digitalis, Pitchfork, Dusted, and NewMusicBox. His work has been released by various labels including Important Records, Root Strata, NNA, and Quiet Design.
Pitre’s 2012 album, “Feel Free”, received critical acclaim and was included on several ‘best of’ lists, including The Wire’s ‘2012 Rewind’; The Wire’s ‘Subscribers’ Releases of the Year’ list; and Uncut Magazine’s ‘Wild Mercury Sound Top 112 of 2012’ list. In addition, “The Out Door,” Pitchfork’s experimental-minded column included “Feel Free” on its ‘Best of 2012: The Big Four’ list.
Aidan Baker is a Canadian musician & writer currently based in Berlin. A classically trained multi-instrumentalist, his primary instrument is the electric guitar with which he creates music ranging from experimental/drone to ambient post-rock to contemporary classical. A prolific artist, Baker has released numerous albums on such labels as Gizeh Records, Beta-Lactam Ring Records, & Alien8 Recordings under his name and with such group projects as Nadja, B/B/S/, and Caudal.
His forthcoming solo release “Triptychs” from Important Records is a collection of short, neo-classical compositions with contributions from Peter Broderick, Julia Kent, Felicia Atkinson, and Leah Buckareff, among others.