NADJA "Touched has something of a convoluted history and, technically speaking, exists in three forms [although only two have been released]." Formed in 2003 as a solo project for Aidan Baker to explore his interest in heavier, noisier, more aggressive music, Nadja has since been augemented by bassist Leah Buckareff -in order to make the project more than just a studio endeavour, and allow Nadja [currently based in Toronto, Canada] to perform live. Both Baker and Buckareff are adept at creating some of the mesmerizing drone, ambient doom metal, along the lines of Jesu, Godflesh, Sunn 0))) & Skullflower. The duo combines soundscapes, electronics, and atmospheric vocals with snail-crawl, epic riffs and dirge-like percussion, tempering the cacophany with a certain ethereal melodicism such that the listener is enveloped in a sublimating wall of amorphous sound. After several limited edition CD'R releases, Nadja released their first official album "Truth Becomes Death" on Montreal's Alien8 Recordings in 2005.They have since released material on several labels like Conspiracy Records [a collaborative record with Fear Falls Burning] and Roadburn Records -the vinyl version of the "Guilted by the Sun" EP is scheduled for an October 1st release. Aidan Baker talks to Roadburn about Nadja's recent full-length, "Touched", out on Montreal's Alien8 Recordings [stream the entire album]. For video footage of Nadja live at 'Festival Suoni per il popolo', please click here here. Words | Aidan Baker 'Touched' has something of a convoluted history and, technically speaking, exists in three forms [although only two have been released]. Most will be familiar with the currently available version of the album, which was released early 2007 on Montreal's Alien8 Recordings. But an alternate version of 'Touched' was released four years earlier as a limited edition CDR on Japan's Deserted Factory Records. This was Nadja's first recorded output, when the project was just a solo endeavour and confined to the studio. I originally began recording as Nadja in an attempt to explore my interests in heavier, noisier, more aggressive music --interests which were not addressed in my solo output, which tends towards gentler, more ambient material. 'Touched' [2003] was recorded in my bedroom in my apartment in Toronto on a digital 4-track, each track consisting of two [stereo] takes made up of sampled drum-beats, looped guitars, down-tuned and distorted bass, and heavily effected vocals / tapeloops. The results were rather lo-fi... Alien8 released our CD debut 'Truth Becomes Death' and people began to inquire about the availability of Nadja's earlier, CDR releases, most of which had been limited to print-runs of 100 and were, by this point, long out of print. Moreover, I felt these releases no longer properly represented the project as, by this point, Nadja was a duo. My partner Leah had assumed the role of bass player in order to free the project from the confines of the studio and bring the music to a live setting. Rather than simply re-issue these earlier releases, which were recorded in the same manner as the first 'Touched', we decided to re-record and re-arrange all of them in an effort to update the production and better represent the now two parties in the project. We began re-working the original songs of 'Touched' in the fall of October 2006, recording onto that same digital 4-track but then dumping them onto a computer to be re-arranged, edited, and manipulated using Cubase. There are four guitar takes on all the songs; two left and right playing the main riffs of the song, one stereo doing likewise, and a fourth creating ambient-drones and solo or melodic lines. There is a single bass track, recorded in stereo, with occasional background loops of ambient noise surfacing here and there. There are usually two vocal tracks, one featuring cleanly sung vocals, the other growling and overdriven, though both are soaked in reverb and delay. The drum tracks were constructed on the computer using individual samples of both electronic and acoustic drums and, in turn, doubled, the second track effected with delay and distortion. There is also the odd flute line here and there, although the distortion and effects generally make them sound like guitar parts... And the third version of 'Touched'? The as yet un- and may-never-be released one? This was recorded live over the course of a November 2006 afternoon in a cold studio in the midst of the woods in the nearly non-existent town of Rosedale, a short distance outside of Toronto. These sessions were engineered by Jonathan Demers, using a 16 channel mixer and recording to A-Dat, and were an attempt to capture a rawer, edgier, more live version of 'Touched' with minimal [if any] overdubs and no digital manipulation. Which is what we got... albeit a little sloppy... and, weighing this version against the one we recorded in our home studio, we decided the latter was superior. Accordingly, it was shipped off to James Plotkin [ex of Khanate, Scorn, OLD, etc] for mastering. You'll have to ask him what he did to give these tracks their final form...