WILD NIGHTS (EP)
§ Portland, OR-based songwriters, composers, and poets Dao Strom and Alicia Jo Rabins present WILD NIGHTS, a six-song collaboration that traverses an ambient-tinged landscape of piano-and-strings-based instrumentals interwoven with acoustic country/folk traditionals—plus one very emo Emily Dickinson poem set to music.
A unique meeting of artistic disciplines and genres, this EP finds harmony and resonance at unlikely intersections—between acoustic and atmospheric instrumentation, between the rootedness of country/folk standards and the textural drift of ambient composition, and between the two artists’ differently diasporic ancestral roots.
Alicia and Dao first met in person at the 2021 Portland Book Festival, which featured the two artists in a live conversation at the Newmark Theatre, discussing poems and song-cycles arising from their experiences of diaspora, culture, and inheritance. In front of a live audience they discovered deep parallels in their work as hybrid writer-musicians; as an artistic friendship developed, they discovered more common ground, having both begun their music careers playing folk-based music, and more recently creating ambient compositions of a more ethereal nature. Wild Nights reflects their shared love of folk traditions and abstract soundscapes, weaving both into a luminous sonic journey. Recorded and mixed in home studios over the span of three summers, the EP represents a nurturing of time and process—a creative friendship founded on listening and learning through one another’s stories and songs, a slowing down and seeking of quiet and undefined spaces amid the noise of the present world.
The EP opens with a haunting rendition of the traditional gospel ballad “Wayfaring Stranger.” Both Strom and Rabins were drawn to this song early on in their separate discoveries of folk music, each resonating with the song’s themes of displacement and exilic longing–Dao as a person of Vietnamese background, and Alicia in relation to her Jewish heritage. Following this track, the EP alternates between lyrics-driven acoustic tracks and piano-based instrumentals, creating an interplay of wordless songscapes that add depth and unexpected juxtapositions to the folk-rooted compositions. The collection contemplates love, longing, and loss, with a haunting setting of Emily Dickinson’s words as a centerpoint—an evocation of the album’s overarching themes of mystery, devotion, and the unseen forces that connect us.
“Hold steady through the first song on Wild Nights, a new, six-song EP from local music-lit figures Dao Strom and Alicia Jo Rabins. The haunting cover of gospel ballad “Wayfaring Stranger” is cinematic in its yearning, but nowhere near as sweet and ghostly as what’s to come in the following tracks. Said a little less artfully: If you think that was good, hold onto your butt. Admittedly, I’m partial to moaning over soft strings and piano—as you’ll find on “Two of Cups,” but I really lost my mind over the very simple, pensive “Hold Still, Play Little.” The title track slaps, if a folk song duet can slap—it will at the very least get stuck in your head, before “Beneath Still Waters” slides in and ever-so-pragmatically breaks your heart...”
TRACKs LIST:
1. Wayfaring Stranger
2. Hold Still, Play Little
3. Wild Nights
4. Two of Cups
5. Beneath Still Waters
6. Penelope
All songs arranged, recorded and mixed by Dao Strom & Alicia Jo Rabins
Mastered by Jason Powers
Album Artwork by Christine Nguyen, cover design by Dao Strom
Dao Strom - guitar, lead vocals on Tracks 1 and 5; piano on Track 2; piano and vocals on Track 4; additional keys on Track 6; additional vocals on Track 3; piano solo on Track 5
Alicia Jo Rabins - guitar, lead vocals on Track 3, violin and viola on Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 6; keys, electric guitar on Track 6; piano solo on Track 5; synth on Track 3
Songs Credits:
“Wayfaring Stranger” (music and lyrics trad, arr. Dao Strom & Alicia Jo Rabins)
“Hold Still, Play Little” (Dao Strom)
“Wild Nights” (music by Alicia Jo Rabins, words by Emily Dickinson)
“Two of Cups” (Dao Strom)
“Beneath Still Waters” (by Dallas Frazier, arr. Dao Strom & Alicia Jo Rabins)
“Penelope” (Alicia Jo Rabins)
Release Date: April 2, 2025
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Available for streaming on all platforms and as digital downloads directly from the artists at:
daostrom.bandcamp.com/music
aliciajorabins.bandcamp.com/music
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Artist Websites:
www.daostrom.com
www.aliciajo.com
IG:
@herandthesea (Dao Strom)
@ohaliciajo (Alicia Jo Rabins)
