About

Diadem is the musical and artistic collaboration of Aja Rose Bond and Gabriel Mindel Saloman.

Diadem is currently based out of Vancouver, B.C.

Diadem engages in a variety of intermedia and interdisciplinary artistic practices that include sound, video, sculpture, installation, printed matter, textiles, and socially engaged works. Since 2010 they have run a project space out of their home called the STAG (Strathcona Art Gallery) which is currently a semi-public, semi-private library.

Diadem explores improvisation through melody and noise, using a variety of chance operation and graphic notation devices. Among these are a set of divination cards that they developed for this purpose, and a score based on the lunar calendar. Live they often use abstract scores based on their cards, or other concepts specific to a show, incorporated into an intentional ritual that includes the whole of their performance. They generally perform with visual elements ranging from installation and sculpture to video and live projected drawings.

Aja Rose is a founding member of the Her Jazz Noise Collective, as well as the free-noise band In Flux (featuring members of Shearing Pinx), and performs solo, most often as DJ Tapes. She is a clothing designer, craft-maker, painter, sculpter, and illustrator. She is a social organizer who, in addition to HJNC, has been a part of the Seamrippers Craft Collective and the Underground Network of Artist Run Centers. In Diadem she plays trumpet, mixer feedback, microphone, tapes, guitar, Ugly-harp, and voice.

Gabriel Saloman performs solo under his own name and as Sade Sade, plays in Chambers with MRed (Lighta!, Souns, Low Indigo), and is known for his part in the psych-noise duo Yellow Swans. He is a writer, artist, and curator who is involved in several collaborative projects with Sam Gould and Red 76; No War U.S.O.; as well as The Lower Mainland Painting Co. In Diadem he plays guitar, tapes, voice, and objects.