Dreaming With Alice (Verse 1)/The Witch/Dreaming With Alice (Verse 2)/Song For Wild/Dreaming With Alice (Verse 3)/Roses For Columus/A Norman Soldier/Dreaming With Alice (Verses 4-5)/Dreaming With Alice (Verse 6)/Lute & Flute/Dreaming With Alice (Verse 7)/Down Narrow Streets/Dreaming With Alice (Verse 8)/Mandolin Man/Dreaming With Alice (Verses 9-10)/Retorb Ym No Hcram
Mark Fry was a British psychedelic folk artist who was living in Italy when Dreaming With Alice was recorded. It was never released in the UK but gradually gained cult status. Unusually, single verses of the title track are interspersed throughout the album.
“It's interesting how the title track is broken up throughout the album, lending it a sort of atmosphere, but melodically and lyrically, the majority of songs are fairly stale, and compared to some other albums of the period, the arrangements aren't all that impressive. It's a warm, fuzzy album, but there's not much beyond that.”
“An inconsistent effort, but very good overall. It's soft, acoustic guitar driven folk/prog with a strong psychedelic flavour and effects, featuring some sitar. The versions of Dreaming With Alice are a soft folk song broken up into snippets and inserted between all of the featured tracks.”
“Here light acoustic sounds blend with Mark's voice and make for a nice dreamy landscape. The Witch is a favourite, with hand drums, use of eastern scales, and lyrics about an entrancing witch. One song keeps recurring throughout the album like a strange hallucination about religious and mythical visions.”
“A very good obscure acid folk album, but which I found this to be slightly overrated, although there are some great numbers. The interspersion of single verses of the song Dreaming With Alice between other songs doesn't work for me. It breaks the flow and makes the record choppy. Also, the tune, while good, gets old fast.”
“While maybe above average, I'd be hard pressed to find anything directly mind-blowing or soul-stirring about this. Mostly some ballads, few actually, spiced up with exotic touches, flutes, hand drums and citra. Its a bit like 60s Donovan, topped with the dizziness of Tyrannosaurs Rex. It has a hazy, Sunday afternoon feeling. The idea to use snippets of one song throughout the record is an intriguing one, and so is the songs itself, but its overused here.”
“Incredibly rich instrumented and composed song cycle from Englishman Fry in Italy. He utilises sitar, mandolin, flute, acoustic and electric guitar to good effects for an unique aural trip.”
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