eaj014 : the iditarod and sharron kraus : yuletide : reviews

The Iditarod regularly released limited edition turn-of-the-year discs - this particular effort, from Yuletide 2002-2003, is a full collaboration with like-minded spirit Sharron Kraus.

Unsurprisingly the emphasis is on dark folk inspirations blended with inspirations ranging from psychedelic production to lo-fi bedroom touches, a combination of invention and intimacy.

It's not so much a holiday album as a soundtrack for, as the liner notes say, 'the darkest evenings of the year' - one reason why opening cut "The Trees Are All Bare" is so untraditional a Yule song but still perfectly atmospheric, snippets of gongs, bells, sitars and more swirling in a mysterious introductory collage.

As might be guessed, a multiplicity of instruments also appear throughout - Jeffrey Alexander is credited with everything from woodface banjo to strumstick and electronics - while Kraus's work on clarinet, tinwhistle and piano fits in smoothly with the haunted blends the collective creates.

The texturing and combination of instruments results in many breathtaking moments - the bubbling, murky electronic undercurrent to "Gift" suddenly contrasted by the warmth of vocals and banjo, the country-blues twang on the extended conclusion of "Winter's Spell" offset by the coolest and moodiest of keyboards ever.

Kraus and Carin Wagner's harmonies for many will be the reason to listen in - they work beautifully together, while adding just enough individual flair to make the experience all the richer. "Lyke Wake Dirge" lives up to its title musically but Kraus and Wagner's chanting is somehow still strangely sprightly, or at least as sprightly as a dirge can be.

This CD is the result of a collaboration between The Rhode Island psych-folk group The Iditarod and British folksinger Sharon Kraus.

I have heard (and quite dug) previous releases from both, so I came into it with some high expectations, and I am happy to report that I have pretty much been blown away by this release.

This may be the best contemporary acid folk record I have heard, and is equal to any of the Kissing Spell releases of the original 70’s music such as Midwinter and Stone Angel. The music is stunning, melancholy and dark, with droning layers of guitar, banjo, accordion and tamboura filled out with various percussion and noisemakers, from finger cymbals, tinwhistles and much more.

Sharon Kraus and Iditarod vocalist Carin Wagner share the vocals, and while both have wonderful voices when they sing together, as they do on the haunting opener “The Trees Are All Bare”, MAN, the hair on the back of my neck stands up, it’s so lovely and dark that it’s downright creepy. The songs are a mix of traditionals and originals, intercut with ambient passages put together by Jeffery Alexander from The Iditarod, and there is not a single duff moment.

This is a stellar release on every level.

This third entry in the Iditarod's annual series of Christmas presents for their fans benefits from the addition of Oxford folkie, Kraus. Her duets with Carin Wagner add a contrapuntal harmonic element that for the most part masks any of their individual vocal shortcomings, particularly on the vocal half of "Lyke Wake Dirge." As on the Providence duo's current studio effort on BlueSanct (the Ghost, the Cat, the Elf, and the Angel), Jeffrey Alexander adds lengthy, drony, avant garde interludes between tracks, initially serving as a pleasant sorbet to cleanse the aural palette, but ultimately taking on an annoying, overlong life of their own (particularly across five minutes at the start of "Wintermute.")

Sharron's crystalline solo on "Gift" has an angelic Sandy Denny-filtered-through-Judy-Collins charm about it, and coupled with Jeffrey's gently plucked acoustic backing is the album's highlight. The between-track drone presents a clean slate for Carin to paint her solo on "Winter's Spell." Sharron's clarinet accompaniment adds a medieval, wyrdfolk vibe similar to the musical interludes performed by the traveling actors in Ingmar Bergman's "Seventh Seal." Swirling, winter winds and trudging footsteps form the segue into "Wintermute," but it soon turns into experimental, fuzz guitar noodlings and becomes an exercise in "Waiting for Godot" as the listener wonders if they'll ever get to hear the song itself. It's either a classic definition of "filler" or simply an attempt to pad the EP to full-album length, but by the time "Wintermute" eventually arrives, it's practically anti-climactic. However, it's almost worth suffering through the "intro" to hear another lovely Kraus vocal.

In all, a frustrating release. The addition of Sharron Kraus would normally cause me to recommend this as one of the best in the series; however, that suggestion is sullied by some of the overlong and ultimately pointless inbetweenies. So, armed with your remote, I suggest you skip the bits between the bits and enjoy the songs themselves for about 25 minutes of cool Yule tunes that can be enjoyed at any time of the year.

Iditarod are a quiet, New England based ensemble who have been crafting mysterious psychedelic folk since 1996.

Sharron Kraus is a talented singer, musician, composer & songwriter. This release presents fine British influenced folk songs (incl. a version of "Lyke Wake Dirge").

Imagine Alisha Sufit riding a magic carpet with In Gowan Ring.

I looked forward very much to this release because I know what both the Iditarod and Sharron Kraus have made before and a combination of both talents should be promising.

The CD is as beautiful as expected, also very nicely produced.

With a beautiful semi-acoustic intro, "The Trees are all bare", a beautiful mixture of triple vocals, the sitar like droning of the tampura, echoed variedly coloured sounds of percussion, flutes, and something that sounds like a mixture of a harmonium with a harmonica?. It's a song that instrumentally sounds like a nightly Sufi-inspired lucid dream travel, but with a 70's UK Folk edge in song.

The version of The Iditarod with Sharron Kraus of the traditional "Lyke Wake Dirge" with harmonic voices, tribal drum, electric finger picking guitar and effects, and accordion with clarinet ? is magical.

The next track "Gift" starts with beautifully describing experimental acoustic and collage sounds, then continues with a ballad sung by a fragile angelic voice (Sharron) accompanied by finger picking and textured ambient sounds, and further on some clarinet and watery and airy sounds.

Also "Winter's Spell" is of a similar beauty. The instrumental part with fingerpickinging banjo with flute, bass and sparse cymbal percussion gives again a magical mood, reminiscent of the Timothy Renner project 'The Spectral Light and Moonshine Firefly Snakeoil Jamboree'.

The instrumental textures in between are beautiful too, as experimental mini-overtures.

"Wintermute", with piano, and background instruments, reminds me a lot at groups like Midwinter and of the Mellow Candle demo on the Kissing Spell label. Made with an ear for musicality in sound.

The magical era of UK underground folkrock has been revived. Iditarod with Sharron Kraus have succeeded in becoming a new landmark.

Highly recommended. 4/5 stars

The Iditarod are a small ensemble from New England with a very idiosyncratic take on nineteenth century folk. Jeffrey Alexander crafts eerie ambient atmospheres around the pellucid voice of Carin Wagner, ably backed up by various percussive devices and accordion. For this release, they are joined by Sharron Kraus, a singer from the UK who specializes in her own take on the traditional laments of those islands.

'Yuletide' is a triumph of lo-fi mood-making. As the title indicates, an album most suited to evenings snuggly ensconced indoors when "the air's so cold outside and the snow's so deep", as Bob Dylan once sang. We seem transported to the furthest regions of some windblown isle in the Outer Hebrides where, as the storm rages without, the band has gathered before the heath to tell each other some haunting tales.

Fortunately, the cottage is wired with electricity, because Alexander colours the storytelling not only with acoustic instruments such as guitar and banjo but also sampler, Moog synthesizer and phonograph. The twinning of Wagner's and Kraus' softly keening vocals on the two first traditional tracks, "The Trees Are All Bare" and "Lyke Wake Dirge", utterly transfix the listener, and the magic continues after Wagner is left to fend for herself, as Kraus instead picks up a tinwhistle and Alexander persists in conjuring up new and discreet magic.

A folk album of an altogether other kind. A brilliantly conceived hybrid. Stark as the dark branches of leafless winter trees against the white snowdrifts.

Released in an edition of a mere five hundred, so hie thee hence to the the label's website.

You know those times when you put a record on and close your eyes, and then open them again and you can't tell whether you've listened to the record or not? I'm having them more often recently. Partly it's because the day job is getting too intense and I can barely do anything except slump in my chair when I get in. But mostly it's because I'm listening to the Iditarod a lot.

Imagine that a band snuck into Heaven and clipped a few blades of grass, took a glassful of water from a river and a handful of earth from a shady corner of God's garden. Once they'd floated back down to earth, they strung their instruments with the grass, passed the water around and took a few sips each and scattered the earth on the floor of the rehearsal room.

And then they started to play music, music from the past, music from stone cottages, from fishing villages, from field workers, from the working folk. Folk music.

And the music was good. Exceptionally good.

It somehow fused the devotion of the true believer with the authenticity of a scholar and the sound of an accordion slowly exhaling.

You can't imagine that? No problem, it's out on Elsie and Jack shortly.