Nadja

Nadja

Labyrinthine

Broken Spine

Nadja’s latest full-length offering Labyrinthine, recorded during the pandemic and concurrently with their Southern Lord album Luminous Rot, finally sees a CD release on the band’s own label, Broken Spine. Labyrinthine explores themes of identity and loss, monstrosity and regret, extreme asceticism, the differences between labyrinths and mazes, taking inspiration from Haruki Murakami’s Killing Commendatore, Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Tombs Of Atuan, and Victor Pelevin’s reinterpretation of the story of the minotaur and Ariadne, The Helmet Of Horror. While this might be Nadja’s heaviest, doomiest album to date, it is unique in the band’s extensive catalogue as each track features a guest vocalist: Alan Dubin, legendary American vocalist from O.L.D., Khanate currently Gnaw; Rachel Davies, vocalist and bassist from the British band, Esben & The Witch; Lane Shi Otayanii, a Chinese multi-media artist and vocalist in Elizabeth Colour Wheel; and Dylan Walker, American vocalist from grindcore / noise band Full Of Hell. Nadja has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few. The duo has toured extensively around the world, including performances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Donaufest, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound, and has shared the stage with such artists as Earth, OM, Khanate, Tim Hecker, Ben Frost, and Godflesh.

Nadja

Sonnborner

Broken Spine

Sonnborner is Nadja's 20th full-length release. The title track showcases their habitual slow-motion, atmospheric, ambient doom, with guest string players Julia Kent (Antony & The Johnsons), Agathe Max (Kuro, Mésange), and Simon Goff (Molecular) lending a certain neo-classical element to the song. The album closes with four faster, more aggressive tracks in the band's so-called 'grindgaze' style, as previously explored on their 2014 ep Tangled (Broken Spine/Tokyo Jupiter). A CD version of Sonnborner is also forthcoming with the Japanese label, Daymare Recordings.  Nadja is a duo of multi-instrumentalist Aidan Baker and bassist Leah Buckareff, active since 2005 and credited as one of the progenitors of the genres ‘drone doom’ or ‘metalgaze’—heavy atmospheric music which combines the darkness and volume of doom metal and industrial with the textures and melodicism of shoegaze and ambient/electronic music.  The band has released numerous albums on many different underground labels—Alien8 Recordings, Daymare Records, Robotic Empire, Hydrahead Records, Gizeh Records, and Important Records, to name a few—and have toured extensively with performances in Europe, Japan, Russia, North and South America, and Australia/New Zealand, including appearances at such festivals as SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn, Le Guess Who, Incubate, and Unsound.  Originally from Toronto, Canada, the duo now resides in Berlin, Germany.

Nadja

Sv

Essence Music

Nadja's third release with Brazil's Essence Music, after Queller and Autopergamene, Sv – an unit measuring ionizing radiation in human tissue – was originally composed to be performed at a pair of festivals in Berlin – one with a theme of apocalypse and armageddon, the other an outdoor rave under an expressway on-ramp. Comprised of a single 42 minute composition, the album combines Nadja’s layered, textural noise with polyrhythmic drum patterns that, in their structure, approach both techno and industrial and might almost be danceable...Pounding, punishing machinelike hypnotic pulses, harsh cymbals and caustic textures grow together and collide in a massive metallic maelstrom of piercing doom-dirge heaviness.

Nadja

Songs For Wong Kar-wai

Broken Spine

Nadja's EP Songs for Wong Kar-wai is part of Wist Records biographical fanzine series, musical releases inspired by influential figures and accompanied by a booklet with artwork by the Liechtenstein artist, Manfred Naescher (currently based in Berlin). For this entry in the series, Nadja was inspired by the work of Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-wai, with Naescher's paintings based on stills from Wong's films Chungking Express, In The Mood For Love, and 2046.

Nadja

Tangled

Broken Spine

Tangled features 6 brief tracks eschewing Nadja's penchant for epic durations and snail-like tempos, variously influenced by grindcore, black-metal, death-metal, and industrial for an EP of what has been called grindgaze. The EP was released on the band's own label on 7inch vinyl and on CD by Tokyo Jupiter Records. Nadja is Aidan Baker (guitar, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals) originally from Toronto, Canada and currently based in Berlin, Germany. Nadja has toured and performed around the world including appearances at such international festivals as Roadburn, SXSW, Unsound, and FIMAV. Active since 2003, the duo creates music which has variously been described as ambient doom, dreamsludge, and metalgaze, combining the atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze and experimental/ambient music with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on such labels as Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead Records, Robotic Empire, and their own label, Broken Spine Productions.

Nadja

Queller

Broken Spine

** 2016 LP reissue of Queller from Broken Spine Productions. Limited to 300 copies, pressed on 180g vinyl, housed in a single sleeve incorporating a black and white version of the original artwork by Error Design.

Nadja

Flipper

Oaken Palace

AVAILABLE AGAIN!!!Unique soundscapes, characterized by epic drones, radiating synths, and hushed vocals. Mesmerizing, bizarre beauty. Guests include PETER BRODERICK on violin and ANGELA CHAN on viola. Edition of 500, 180-gram clear vinyl. Free download code.

Nadja

Dagdrom

Broken Spine

Dagdrøm is Nadja’s first proper full-length since their 2010 release Autopergamene (Essence Music) and, replacing their habitual drum machine, features live drums courtesy of Mac McNeilly from The Jesus Lizard. While Nadja retains their signature overblown sound and heavily distorted guitars, these songs are more concise and structured, tempering their experimentalism and ambience with a more straightforward “rock” sound and compositional style. As such, Dagdrøm looks both forward and back—a departure from Nadja’s usual sound and style, it also harkens back to the noise rock scene of the ’80s and early ’90s and bands like Big Black, Caspar Brötzmann Massaker and, of course, The Jesus Lizard, all of whom were influential on Nadja’s sonic development.  Originally from Toronto and currently based in Berlin, Aidan Baker (guitars, woodwinds, vocals, drum machine) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals, accordion) create music variously dubbed dream sludge, metalgaze and ambient doom—atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze, and experimental / ambient with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on Alien8 Recordings, Hydrahead, Southern Records, Robotic Empire and their own label, Broken Spine Productions (to name a few). The group has toured and performed extensively around the world, appearing at such diverse festivals as Incubate, SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn and Unsound.

Nadja

Thaumogenesis

Broken Spine

This CD release of Thaumogenesis is the second in a series of reissued Nadja albums that have gone out of print or have otherwise limited availability. They are packaged in unique letter-pressed sleeves, custom designed by the band themselves. Thaumogenesis is Nadja’s seventh full-length release, an ambitious one-track, one-song album over an hour in length. It was originally released by Archive Records in 2007 in an initial press of 600 copies, which quickly sold out. Archive released a second edition of 500 in 2008, which also quickly sold out, followed by a Japanese release (paired with the live album Thaumoradiance) on Daymare Recordings. A vinyl edition featuring a remix by James Plotkin (who mastered the album) was released in 2010 by Important Records. Nadja is a Canadian duo made up of Aidan Baker (guitar, vocals, woodwinds, drum machines) and Leah Buckareff (bass, accordion, vocals) alternately based in Toronto, Canada, and Berlin, Germany. Together, the duo creates music which has variously been described as “ambient doom,” “dreamsludge” and “metal-gaze,” combining the atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze and experimental / ambient music with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja toured around the world including appearances at such international festivals as Roadburn, South by Southwest, Unsound and Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville.

Nadja

Bodycage

Broken Spine

This CD edition of Nadja's 2005 Bodycage album marks the first in a quartet of reissued Nadja albums that have gone out of print or have otherwise limited availability. These re-releases feature unique letter-pressed packaging, custom-designed by the band themselves. Bodycage, the band's second proper album after their debut Truth Becomes Death, was initially released on Belgium's Nothingness Records in two small editions (111 copies and 66 copies), both of which rapidly sold out. The album was then picked up by Profound Lore Records for a CD reissue, followed by a deluxe vinyl edition on Equation Records. Both the CD and LP versions are now out of print. Bodycage is a concept album, its lyrical themes revolving around a rare congenital disorder called Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva, a disease in which the body produces an extra skeleton that immobilizes the joints of the body.  "Bodycage drips pure emotion... Nadja's unabashed love of atonal classical music beams (albeit dully) throughout, stressing lack-of-form over function, making something normally scary into something wholly frightening." --Kory Grow, Decibel  "This is epic ultradoom metal, but with the metal replaced by soft billowy clouds of fuzzy distortion, the howling fury twisted into dreamlike tranquility, the blasting beats pulled apart and sprinkled here and there like percussive raindrops. This is as soft and pretty as a dirge-y drone can get while still retaining its inherent doomic mass. Utter and absolute loveliness drenched in a thick patina of crushing heaviness. Impossible but perfect." --Aquarius Records

Nadja

Bungled And The Botched

Blocks

The duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff makes music that encompasses experimental / drone, ambient, shoegaze and doom metal. The Bungled and the Botched is Nadja's most scorching, achingly beautiful set yet, pushing the boundaries into ever greater washes of distortion and crystalline silences. Baker originally formed Nadja in 2003 as a solo endeavor, and added Buckareff in 2005 to bring the project out of the studio and into a live setting. They have since released numerous albums with such labels as Alien8 Recordings, The End Records and Conspiracy Records. The pair has toured extensively in North America and Europe, including appearances at Roadburn, FIMAV and SXSW.  "Nadja can be as heavy as the best industrial or doom band you've ever heard. Then again, sometimes they sound like they've taped a contact mic to some great abyss and let the tape roll with the soft murmurs of souls. That liminal space is perfect and magnetic." --Pitchfork  "Baker and Buckareff take brutal, ponderous mono-riffs and turn them into spectral abstractions.... Nadja's alchemical process seamlessly transforms ponderous metal into abstract grandeur and finally a kind of blissful disintegration." --The Wire

Nadja

Autopergamene

Broken Spine

Nadja

Ruins Of Morning

Broken Spine

Nadja

When I See The Sun Always Shines On Tv

Broken Spine

Nadja

Skin Turns To Glass

Broken Spine

Nadja

Desire In Uneasiness

Crucial Blast

Nadja

Bliss Torn From Emptiness

Profound Lore

***Profound Lore’s second collaboration with NADJA comes in the form of the revamped, augmented, and altered Bliss Torn From Emptiness. Given the ultimate facelift from its original CDR release, and now expanded into a massive three-track plunge (with a mastering job via JAMES PLOTKIN), Bliss Torn From Emptiness is a sprawling and meticulously crafted epic where controlled ambience and static crawls through a murk of claustrophobic cerebral chaos. Yet through the sprawling mass of overbearing feedback and noise, Bliss Torn From Emptiness, just like Bodycage (and what has been a characteristic within Nadja’s music) also employs a character of pure celestial grace through an elegantly deposited sound picture that brings the cinematic vibe of Nadja to new heights. (STREET DATE 2/05/2008) 

Nadja

Radiance Of Shadows

Broken Spine

This CD reissue of Nadja’s Radiance of Shadows is the third in a series of the group’s albums that have gone out of print or are otherwise limited. Radiance of Shadows is Nadja’s eighth full-length release and consists of three lengthy tracks exploring post-apocalyptic and post-nuclear themes. The album was originally released on CD by Alien8 Recordings in 2007 and on vinyl by Conspiracy Records in 2008. The reissue features a newly designed cover with Canadian winter landscape photographs from Guylaine Bedard. Originally from Toronto and currently based in Berlin, Aidan Baker (guitars, woodwinds, vocals, drum machine) and Leah Buckareff (bass, vocals, accordion) create music variously dubbed dream sludge, metalgaze and ambient doom—atmospheric textures and elements of shoegaze, and experimental / ambient with the heaviness and volume of metal and noise. Nadja has released numerous recordings on Hydrahead, Southern Records, Robotic Empire and their own label, Broken Spine Productions (to name a few). The group has toured and performed extensively around the world, appearing at such diverse festivals as Incubate, SXSW, FIMAV, Roadburn and Unsound.

Nadja

Trembled

Robotic Empire

***Trembled has returned, triumphantly (it was originally released by Utech Records in the summer of 2006 as a limited CDR). This principal live recordings from Toronto has been remixed/remastered and includes a rare performance of Swans "No Cure for the Lonely." The core of the release, though, is “Tremble”, a cascading improvisation of drift and atmospherics revealed to audiences on an occasional basis. The track is telling of the fluidity with which NADJA create and why the band has become so highly regarded. “Breakpoint” and “Corrasion” complete the set. Illustration by Justin Bartlett. 

Nadja

Truth Becomes Death

Alien8

***Finally available again! The debut proper full-length from this Toronto-based ambient doom metal monster fronted by musician and writer AIDAN BAKER (ARC). Three massive tracks of epic, droning, doom, thundering riffs, and plodding cacophony. For fans of Sunn O))) and Isis.

Nadja

Bodycage

Robotic Empire

A digital reissue of a 2005 CDR release from Toronto outsider metal duo NADJA—AIDAN BAKER and LEAH BUCKAREFF. Bodycage is a moving, mind altering experience, where magnificent layered sounds run through a massive melodic undercurrent through a celestial sound canvas that runs its course through desperation and transcendence.