Abe Luedtke's Debut 'Wild Iris Ridge' Plants its Compositions in Fertile Soil

Photography by Simon Luedtke

by Mateo Rispoli

Wild Iris Ridge plants its compositions in fertile soil. Named after a 250-acre back trail in Eugene, Oregon, the album follows Abe Luedtke and his band as they trek through a gravel path of wholly original compositions, fallen trees, and dewed greenery painted yellow by the evening sun’s orange glow. “The park has basically just embodied my sense of curiosity and creativity. It's a hidden gem in my community, even now that it's officially incorporated,” said Luedtke in an interview with WECB.

Luedtke found the park roughly four years ago after routinely passing its power-lined maintenance trail entrance on his way to school. One winter morning, he finally broke through the trailhead’s ugly overgrown exterior to discover a vast expanse of long untouched land, old logging trails, gear, and a lone cabin adorning its grounds.

Replete with diverse fusion and acoustic instrumentation, Luedtke’s musical manifestation Wild Iris Ridge walks the path with expert traditionalism, announcing the arrival of a talented pianist with an environmental slant.

The introductory track, “Over the Garden Wall,” an homage to the Cartoon Network mini-series of the same name, immediately showcases his lyrical style. “We discovered that show right around the time that we discovered the park,” observed Luedtke. “There’s this clear parallel of entering a new world and I thought that was a really good metaphor for the first track.” Over that wall awaits Garrett Baxter and his bended bassline’s uneasy alliance with Luedtke’s trembling piano that quickly takes on a confidence of its own on the track “Clear.” Baxter and Luedtke sync up sometimes and drift at others. Their chemistry is mercurial, discontent without the comforting vacillation of musicians still in active discovery of their aesthetic and musical perspectives.

Written about the aforementioned logger’s cabin discovered at the crest of the trail on one of Luedtke’s first excursions through Wild Iris Ridge, “The Cabin” brims with the most volatile emotional pallet on the album. Having withstood weather’s passing by the acrid brush of time and vandalism by faceless passersby with inky munitions, the cabin, in the eyes of Luedtke and Co. simply vanished one day. Sharp high-hat work and eighth note piano chords, the band launches an aggravated inquisition as to the whereabouts of a trail staple. “So that was kind of me frustrated. A little bit of that anger in that song is the frustration that it’s no longer in the park anymore.” Drummer and University of Oregon graduate Ken Mastrogiovani’s sticks bounce raindrops of linear snare and hi-hat hits that open up the third act of the song before the band finishes in unison, punctuated by a final staccato release from Ryan Helms on alto saxophone.

“Tundra,” one of the three tracks composed by saxophonist Ryan Helms (“Lost and Found” and “Baggery” being the other two), builds from a cool jam as the band navigates in and out of grooves. It’s one of the key showcases of each instrumentalist’s capability on the album, and it serves as a nice primer to the title track. 

“I think Wild Iris Ridge the place, and ‘Wild Iris Ridge’ the song itself, all kind of come hand in hand with my headspace in high school, my journey to represent that curiosity, that creativity and that struggle.” The composition itself is multifaceted and sounds carefully crafted far beyond Luedtke’s years. He has a penchant for generous compositions and tunes that can live past his own band, in a way reunites a genre that has splintered so heavily in the few decades since its spotlight as America’s most popular music. “That drive to forward it kind of comes down to the fact that I’m 17 right now, so I’ve got hopefully more than one project in me,” remarked Luedtke.

Having successfully captured this moment in his fledgling career, Wild Iris Ridge should be his greatest assurance that he has much, much more to give.