The Wake

Wade Oden, front man of Minneapolis’ versatile Space Station Alpha, leads his band with an infectious, fluttering energy. The minstrel-like singer was exactly as you would expect him to be at the band’s CD release party on Jan 20 at the Varsity Theater.

“We’re just so blessed to share this music with you and to be here,” Oden beamed, all excited smiles and gracious thanks for the attentive audience that gathered to hear selections off Flora, Space Station Alpha’s latest album. The occasion, shared with performers Martha Berner and Jenny Dalton, is just the beginning to what Oden anticipates as a string of performances boasting the fresher, tighter sound achieved by Flora.

Since their inception, Space Station Alpha dedicated themselves to the blurring of genre boundaries, and as a result, the production of original, otherworldly mood music. Flora takes the idea a step further, however, and emerges even more unique than its debut predecessor, Love Songs for Andromeda. Inspired by the beauty and magic present in growing things (both literal and figurative), Flora is ornamented with the dreamiest elements of folk, electronica and acid jazz.

“Everything is much more organic this time around”, said Oden, who recorded the album in his household. “I feel like something truly great has been accomplished with this band, and these particular songs have become extensions of my personality, like my own children.”

The tales of Flora are cryptic and mysterious, pairing botany and mythology with common human emotion and experience. “Vegetize,” highlighted by both salsa-esque classical guitar and an impressive whistling riff, is a charming ballad about being reincarnated as a tree. “I just do what the song needs,” Oden explains of his lyric writing process. “Each one starts as a poem and then I take it from there.”

Space Station Alpha’s live sound is pleasantly unchanged from the recordings, if not more full and continuous given flexibility of live performance. Oden possesses an elegant, articulate voice, strengthened by the chemistry of girlfriend and band keyboardist Kim Sueoka’s beautifully warbling background vocals. Furthermore, nearly all of Space Station Alpha’s members are classically trained musicians, and together on stage they form a collective of lush, atmospheric orchestrations, each song more carefully instituted than the last. The Varsity Theater is, according to Oden, Space Station Alpha’s biggest venue yet, but the band hardly suffered any intimidation.

“Everything has been wonderful and scary,” said Oden of Flora’s release and its resulting interest. What does he anticipate most? “To just play lots and lots of gigs. Oh, and maybe getting signed to an indie label, one whose music I admire.” he smiles. “It would be great to have someone stumble upon the album, enjoy it, and want to distribute it.”
With all the growing Space Station Alpha’s been doing these days, it is unlikely that Oden’s high hopes will go unsatisfied, or that any of that aforementioned energy will ever stifle.

Check out Space Station Alpha at the Terminal Bar on March 3rd at 8:00 P.M. You can also find more information (and free mp3s) at and .