Pitchfork

Both hail from Canada, both have recorded for the Alien8 imprint, and both excel at crafting immersive soundscapes, so it was only a matter of time, really, before Tim Hecker and Nadja's Aidan Baker decided to get together.

And get together they shall, first for a collaborative live performance at Montreal's Casa del Popolo on June 13 (as part of the month-long Suoni per il Popolo festival), and then for an LP due to arrive this October on Alien8. No details there quite yet, but, um, swoon!

Mr. Hecker will also perform solo at the Montreal gig mentioned above (as will Baker), but that's his only other scheduled appearance as of now. He does, however, hope to unveil the follow-up to Pitchfork's 14th favorite album of 2006, the transcendent Harmony in Ultraviolet, sometime after his thing with Mr. Baker surfaces.

Meanwhile, Baker's Nadja-- who'd have guessed?-- have dozens upon dozens of things going on. Okay, fine, nearly a dozen of those things are tour dates, most with Portland's Grails. The others, of course, are releases, of which Nadja are never in short supply. Belgium's Conspiracy Records, for starters, recently put out Nadja's killer 2007 set Touched on vinyl, and vinyl issues of 2005's Truth Becomes Death and 2007's Radiance of Shadows should soon follow.

Nadja's fourth and latest Alien8 full-length offering should hit in late autumn of this year, but damned if the duo is going to refrain from putting out new music before then. Hell no: the next Nadja album, in fact, is coming out later this month. It's called The Bungled & the Botched, and Belgium's newly-minted ConSouling Sounds has the pleasure of releasing it. Preorders for the disc are available now, and those come with an exclusive bonus CD-R. Hot.

As if all that weren't enough, Baker recently posted an interpretation of Joy Division's "24 Hours" on his MySpace. Three guesses which direction he goes with the tempo on that one.

Nadja:

06-13 Montreal, Quebec - Casa del Popolo (Aidan Baker solo + with Tim Hecker) *
06-20 Columbus, OH - Wexner Center for the Arts #
06-22 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle #^
06-23 Detroit, MI - National Bohemian Home #
06-24 Pittsburgh, PA - Garfield Artworks #
06-25 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's #
06-26 New York, NY - Knitting Factory #
06-27 Boston, MA - Middle East #
06-28 Wallingford, CT - Cherry Street Station #
08-01 Meaford, Ontario - Electric Eclectics Festival

* with Tim Hecker
# with Grails
^ with Motorpsycho