Ida 'Lovers Prayers' album

Ida, a New York City band known for their quiet, even pastoral, take on urban life, has moved to the woods. Now, it seems, the woods have moved into their music. Strange buzzing sounds, incandescent acoustic drones, dissonant tone clusters of unknown origin, the distant communications of birds, and unobstructed views of the night sky suffuse the gently strummed guitars, sparse piano notes, and poignant personal narratives of Daniel Littleton, Elizabeth Mitchell, and Karla Schickele.

Ida found an acoustically sublime haven in Levon Helm's home studio, a perfectly aged, completely wooden (even the nails!) structure located in the Catskill Mountains near Woodstock, NY. They came to affectionately refer to it as “The Barn”. There the band played shows as part of the "Midnight Ramble" concert series, an opportunity that inspired them to go all the way into their new “super woods, super organic, slightly mystical” style - a soulful looseness, a connection with the simple, joyful experience of playing songs for a small crowd in a sympathetic, intimate, rural setting.

Ida began working at The Barn with their new drummer and multi-instrumentalist Ruth Keating and violinist Jean Cook (Mekons) after completing the Heart Like A River Tour in 2005. The relaxed "clubhouse environment" and the ambiance of the space lent itself to the loose, "audio verite" feel of the sessions. Most songs were tracked "live" with few overdubs and a specific attention to natural room sounds rather than a reliance on digital effects or processing. By abandoning studio “perfectionism” in favor of a more spontaneous and experimental approach, Ida, ironically, wound up with the clearest, most dynamic recordings they have ever made.

During this time Ida worked, both live and in the studio, with two of their all time heroes: Levon Helm (The Band), and legendary “outsider” folk singer-songwriter Michael Hurley, with whom Ida is currently collaborating on a project. Jane Scarpantoni (Lou Reed, Rufus Wainwright) played cello on a number of songs and long time collaborator Tara Jane ONeil (Rodan, Papa M) contributed guitar, drums and the cover art. Innovative NYC guitarist Matt Sutton (Jennifer O’Connor) played pedal steel. The album was produced and mixed by Warn Defevr (His Name Is Alive) and Ida, with some additional recording at the band's home studio, ON-ME SOUND. The result is Lovers Prayers, Ida's strongest album to date.

Ida's interest in sparseness, minimalism, and sound worlds is in abundance on Lovers Prayers, but these concerns are never at odds with their pop instincts. Ida's music has evolved into something generous and beautiful, a synthesis of folk, rock, blues, and world music that feels singularly their own. They have made a record that is uncompromising, complex, and emotionally resonant, with enough sonic detail and depth to reward repeated listening.

If throughout their career Ida has offered up earnest meditations on love, death, art, and the complexities of representation, they have always approached these lofty cosmic and personal realms via the transfiguring of “ordinary" life, a receptivity to anomalies of experience, and the pursuit of the extraordinary in the everyday. Now, with help from some old and new friends, they have managed to make their most powerful statement: A collection of songs that invoke the proximity of the invisible and the reality of love with an earned grace that comes from experience, persistence and an undiminished enthusiasm for making sounds together. We hope you enjoy it. Lovers Prayers is Ida's seventh full length album, out February 19th, 2008.

press quotes
Amazing harmonies that never get old (set) against lush arrangements that leave you aching in the best possible way. -All Music Guide

...the wait between notes flushes 10 shades of red, as if from the sheer possibility of all that open space. Fuzz fades into hushed electric blue. Words stretch out with such languor and tranquility that the singer’s breath itself sounds lit from within—flecked with golden bells and mossy cello and plain white piano. -Boston Globe

Ida is a perfect example of pop music in its finest form. -Brainwashed

For more than a decade, this New York indie quartet has pushed the boundaries of minimally orchestrated song structures, placing each not where it needs to be, refraining from embellishment. Evolving from similar narcopleptic roots as Low, Codeine and even Death Cab, Ida's slow waltzing processions rank high in the canon of lethargy-rock. –CMJ

...exquisitely crafted and utterly haunting. -Entertainment Weekly

“A band that reaffirms your faith in the power of music.” -Minneapolis City Pages

“The careful harmonies and emotionally incisive lyrics of this Brooklyn based quartet are powerful enough to send a chill down the spine of the most jaded listener.” -The New Yorker

This New York band is all about intimacy, and the coziness of its music is beautiful...beyond mere aural radiance, as sung and instrumental harmonies encircle each other like shared desires that still can’t transcend the essential loneliness each lover must feel. –New York Times

“Tender harmonic dissonance…sweet and slow acoustic melodic tension...simple, lovely, necessary.” -No Depression

...autumnally pretty tunes that are also full of quiet gravity, as if Neil Young and a lover popped Valium and decided to hash things out on record. -Rolling Stone

The true joy comes in soaking up the instrumental depth, the overwhelmingly beautiful details that come from a piano chord solemnly pressed and held like the player's fingers froze or the swells of
violin so thin and seamlessly threaded in that they exert all the pressure of an exhale. This is chamber
folk in the truest sense of being songs built with an aural elegance and structural complexity suited for
play by the rag tag remnants of some heartbroken orchestra. –Sentimentalist

Dan Littleton and Liz Mitchell sing together like they're one person, the harmonies ripe and lifting. -Skyscraper

Daniel Littleton and Elizabeth Mitchell might choose spare, white-room production, but their intimacy colors in sonic blanks gorgeously. –SPIN

There are musicians with longevity that are constantly evolving, making better music, and contributing to the community of artists with benefits for everyone. Ida is such a band. -Venus

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Tracklisting

Ida - Lovers Prayers