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VPRO Zeldzaam​​​.​​​Dwars radio session, Amsterdam, NL - February 26, 2002

by The Iditarod

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Julia Dream 02:59
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Dig this! Recorded live at VPRO studios, Dutch national public radio, in the cold winter of 2002. I lost my copy of this ages ago - it somehow disappeared when we we're moving out of Providence in 2007. HUGE thanks to Wim Lecluyse in Belgium for sending me a copy of this last month - unearthed from the depths !

Lovely that this coincides with the 20th anniversary release of The Ghost, The Cat, The Elf and The Angel - which is AVAILABLE RIGHT NOW from Feeding Tube Records. It has been masterfully cleaned up and newly mastered by Caleb of Big Blood and it sounds fan-flipin-tatsic. Super enchanting matte LP packaging too. Get it: feedingtuberecords.com/releases/the-ghost-the-elf-the-cat-and-the-angel/

Some press from twenty years ago:

Byron Coley writes in Signal To Noise --
Although their live shows seem to be heading in some sort of sprawling prog-rock direction, the second album by this Rhode Island combo retains the rustic folk cloud-draping seasoned listeners expect. The band's main shakers are Jeffrey Alexander and Carin Wagner, who also run the Magic Eye record label. Carin's voice haunts the same corridors as those visited by many Brits of the classic UK acid-folk era, while the band wraps things in sheets of pure acoustic trembling, shot through with quivering veins of electric-psych mist. The pieces here (a couple of which are instrumentals) manage to combine the mournfulness of the English folk tradition with the gentle confoundment of early psychedelic explorers in a fine and original way. Like the work of Kendra Smith's Guild of Temporal Adventurers, this music has some similarities to that of previous travelers (stoned, world-wise and earthy), but it collects itself inside a genteel cloud of incense that is unique. There are some songs (like "Cycle Circle") combining the classicist elements with more contemporary-sounding techniques, but the vast majority of this could easily be a lost Harvest label master from the early '70s. And as such, it's a treat and a bargain to boot.


David Keenan writes in The Wire --
From Rhode Island, the Iditarod play a minimal kind of bleak psychedelic folk that owes as much to the somnambulism of Bristol's Movietone as it does to early 70s private press semi-legends like Stone Angel or Caedmon. The time-frozen feel of their slow processionals are further heightened by the subtle use of chimes, tamboura, singing bowl, viola and banjo, which cast little shadows beneath Jeffrey Alexander's guitar picking. Vocalist Carin Wagner sings in a half-monotone as if lost in reverie. The Iditarod's reading of "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" closely monitors Pentangle's recorded version, while their take on a droning lament "Unfortunate Lass" - the set's highlight - echoes Steeleye Span's masterful "When I Was On Horseback".


Gino Dal Soler writes in Blow Up (Italy) --
J. Alexander playing string instruments (all of them) and electronics and Carin Wagner singing: Iditarod are a "duo" - apart from occasional featurings - they come from Rhode Island and this is their 3rd release. They play an unusual experimental folk that can make you think about the English bands of the '70s (bands like Fairport Convention) but they add to the ballads with a slightly medieval touch, traditionals, raga, deconstructed folk (they add) some 90s vibes: camera (camera classical music) and melancholic tunes that can resemble Rachel's ("The Roots Of The Butterfly Bush"), psychedelic meditations ("Afternoon Like These..."), blackened electronic whispers ("Raga in D#"), reversed (sounds) and experimentalisms ala Movietone (literally extraordinary "Cycle Circle" and "The Falling of the Pine"), variations and mutations that reach minimalistic music "environment" ("Unfortunate Lass"). An incredible attention to the tinyest sound and their instrumental touch "lightness" (truly unusual in these music era), which is spread throughout their record, build a puzzled (amazingly surprised) atmosphere but not "fiabesque" (is an adjective that is linked to "fairytale" which is "Fiaba" in Italian), stro
ng as it was an ancient Moral Duties Book made up of acoustic pureness that could only come out from New England - home country of the duo. If you love avant-folk absolutely do not to miss this shy and full of light jewel. marks: 8\10.


Mats Gutafsson writes in Broken Face (Sweden) --
There's no way I can count them all, the stories and legends I made up as a kid while I was walking in the forest right next to my family's house. It wasn't necessarily one of those mysterious forests with ancient trees, rather a green area that some clever city planner thought it'd be a nice idea to save from exploitation. No matter that, I always felt at home there. That was where I found solace at dark times and those gigantic silhouettes seemed like the perfect setting for my imaginary stories. I have a feeling Providence ensemble the Iditarod shares my affection for trees, as their folky soundworld in a strange way brings me back to those innocent days. In "The Roots Of The Butterfly Bush" an acoustic guitar slowly finds its way through the trees and in its footprints Carin Wagner's vocals envelope fogbanks of spectral mystery. As the cello comes and goes the roots of the tree I'm staring at seem to be moving right before my eyes. The album is overflowing with intensely beautiful folk songs that have probably existed all throughout musical history, but it takes musical geniuses like these people to know where to find them and make their own unique interpretation of the style. In addition to this, we get the instrumental masterpiece "Raga (In D#)" which would have fit perfectly on Pelt's milestone double album Ayahuasca. Given my praise of that recording you should know that you are in for some serious inner mind exploration if you turn this one up loud, which I fully endorse you to do. Other tracks find them getting lost (in a good way) and found somewhere in-between the structured and the droning. This is one of the finest recorded musical moments of 2002. Dark and majestic yet fragile, just like nature itself. 4/5 stars


Thomas Guttadauro writes in Dusted --
The best folk album of the last 15 years. Being the nicest people on Earth doesn't hurt either.


Richie Unterberger wrties in All Music Guide --
Though they're from Rhode Island, the duo comprising Iditarod (Carin Wagner and Jeffrey Alexander) sound quite a bit like a British psychedelic-tinged folk or folk-rock act. Those enamored of the sound of vintage artists in that tributary, like Donovan, the Incredible String Band, and Pentangle — and of more recent artists that obviously owe something to that style, like Robyn Hitchcock and (far more obscurely) Damien Youth — might well be inclined to enjoy this record, though it's not explicitly imitative of any of those artists. While the music's often acoustic guitar-based, the pair play a pretty impressive range of instruments on this CD, from moog and wine glasses to tamboura, singing bowl, and chimes, with some other musicians adding touches on cello, recorder, bouzouki, and more. As the title indicates, there's a mythological-stroll-in-the-forest tinge to their approach, with some electronic effects and backwards-distorted guitar lines adding a bit of psychedelia, without ever submerging the essentially folky ambience. They may be mood-setters more than they are songwriters, but the mood's a good one: melancholy, subdued, and slightly eerie folk-rock, with quite a bit of varied texture, and an avoidance of the drone and monotony that afflict many other bands working similar territory. The vocals, as befits such material, are suitably fragile and wistful, if not exceptional, broken up by haunting instrumentals that have a touch of exotic (sometimes Indian) mystery.

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released September 15, 2021

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Jeffrey Alexander Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Founding member of The Iditarod in 1996, Black Forest/Black Sea in 2003 and Dire Wolves in 2008. Joined JOMF in 2013. Started The Heavy Lidders in 2019. Former label owner of Magic Eye Singles and Secret Eye Records. Also toured with and featured on recordings by Kemialliset Ystävät, Avarus, Es, Fursaxa, Christina Carter, Gravenhurst, Jeffrey Alexander-Andrea Belfi-Stefano Pilia Trio. ... more

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