OA14
Aidan Baker + rsn - Bottom Layers of A Surface
Two leftfield legends check each other's creative pulse.
Through years of friendship and prolific collaborations, Aidan Baker and rsn have tuned their aesthetic antennas to similar channels. They use that history to create ‘Bottom Layers of A Surface’, an exercise in randomness and artistic faith, or, as Frank Zappa called it, “xenochrony”. Bass and piano are recorded independently, without knowledge of what the other artist has put to tape, and when collated, a complexity emerges. Sounds fold onto sounds, complementing and pushing the boundaries of individual recordings, slowly painting the overall sonic picture of the audible surface. The result is a profound interweaving and overlapping of tones - bass-heavy layers interweave with distant-sounding piano tones as the music builds on itself, conditions itself, and creates an atmospheric unity - as if it were all happening right now and right here. Through happenstance, Baker and rsn have created a bridge of musical connection across time and space, laid bare in imbricating soundscapes of constant black-hole drones (“ Connecting Point”) and sporadic, scattered explosions of sound (“Separation Layer”).
Thomas Rosen - bass - recorded 2024 in Duisburg
Aidan Baker - piano - recorded 2024 in Mexico City
Mixed in 2025 in Berlin by Aidan Baker
Mastering: Bartosz Szturgiewicz @ Okla
Tracklist
A1. Connecting Point 20:02
B2. Separation Layer 19:50
‘Bottom Layers of A Surface’ is a rousing record whose two songs may sound different, but form a unity.
About the Artist
Aidan Baker is a classically-trained, multi-instrumentalist focusing on the electric guitar as his primary instrument. Using prepared and alternate methods of playing, along with various electronic effects, Baker creates music which generally falls within the ambient/experimental
genre but draws on influences from post-rock, shoegaze, electronica, neo-classical, and jazz.
A highly prolific artist, Baker has released numerous recorded works, both solo and with various group projects - most notably his dreamsludge duo, Nadja.
Originally from Toronto, Canada, Baker currently resides in Berlin, Germany.
rsn is the interdisciplinary art project of Thomas Rosen, born Kempka. It unfolds in the fields of sound aesthetics, photography, and the design of sound objects.
rsn explores how perceptions can be changed. Abstract photographs and immersive soundscapes open up intermediate spaces in which the now is intensely concentrated. The art of rsn aims to change perception and materiality by creating a focus on the here and now through immersion.
The work is both self-sufficient and open to other areas of artistic creation, focusing on the moment, the process, and the flow.
Thomas Rosen studied media studies (M.A.) and theater studies (B.A.) at the Ruhr University Bochum.
