If you think about it, all the best things are always “Vermont-based.” I mean, come on: Teddy bears? Covered fucking bridges? World-class Ski resorts? The famous Lake Champlain Maritime Museum? BERNIE SANDERS??? (yeah, no, don’t worry: it’s still hip to keep mentioning him)…the list could pretty much go on forever. But unfortunately, MY STUPID EDITOR says I have to cut it short and head straight for “Vermont-based singer-songwriter” Wren Kitz.
Kitz (who, again, is 100% Vermont-based) released his debut record of melancholic, ambient-swaddled collage-folk For Evelyn back in 2015. And now, his latest album-sized platter of strummed acoustics, mewing strings, hissing analog tape, and muttering field recordings, Dancing on Soda Lake, is out June 2 on NNA Tapes.
Identified by its accompanying press release as a “luminous song cycle ” which flows “freely back and forth between beauty and mystery, not unlike our own plasmic origins,” Kitz’ latest effort explores all those delightfully plasma-related themes of “confusion, isolation, and existentialism” throughout the course of its nine composite tracks’ slow and deliberate descent down the ol’ surrealistic (and Vermont-based) rabbit hole.
Speaking of Vermont — pre-order details for Kitz’ new work are leaking out about as slowly as Vermont’s own delicious and distinctive maple syrups do; but don’t worry: in the mean time, you can get your fix of collage-y, ephemeral chamber folk via the album’s otherworldly lead-off track “Haunted Hole” — which Kitz shared recently on SPIN — right down below. You’ll be in good company too: Bernie Sanders is probably streaming it on his Pixel phone while sitting cross-legged under a beautiful, historic covered bridge right now.
Dancing On Soda Lake tracklisting:
01. Haunted Hole
02. Dancing
03. Sleepin’ Dog
04. On Soda
05. Oceanic Rah
06. Hold Him
07. Lake
08. Cheese Whiz Salad
09. Strange Plan
More about: Wren Kitz
