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Thursday, November iB, aoio | The Red & Biack
MUSIC NOTES
The Red & Black’s event guide to music in and around Athens from Nov. 18 - Nov. 24.
It takes a real connection to work
creatively with someone steadily for
more than a decade. But to take a
break for several years and then
come back takes even more than that.
Azure Ray, the elegantly gothic
and hushed pop duo of Orenda Fink
and Maria Taylor, has done just that.
“We had been working together for
a long time, and it just felt like we
needed to go find our separate ways
for a while," said Fink of her musical
partnership with Taylor, which ended
for four years starting in 2004.
The story leading up to that point
will be abbreviated here. The two met
at an arts high school in their home
town, Birmingham, Ala., and from the
beginning, music formed their bond.
By 2001, they had played together
for roughly 10 years and had relocat
ed to Athens, where they began per
forming as Azure Ray. Over the next
three years, they toured heavily and
released three full-length records, all
with critical welcome and decent
mainstream exposure - their first •
album produced a song featured on
the soundtrack to “The Devi! Wears
Prada."
During their break both Rays con
tinued producing prolifically, each put
ting out multiple solo records and col
laborating with various musicians,
including Andy LeMaster of Now Its
Overhead and Cedric Lemoyne of
Remy Zero.
But over the last two years, the
two found themselves in each other’s
company more and more often. It o.'V
made sense that if they were togeth
er, then music would naturally follow.
“Azure Ray is about our friendship,
basically, and our closeness," Fink
said. “Si> if we had that then we
should also be making music togeth
er, 'cause that was the basis of our
friendship to begin with*
After a few tester shows in 2008 to
2009, the duo recorded its newest
album, ‘Drawing Down the Moon,’
released in September.
“The approach coming back after
seven years was to really try to revisit
a kind of classic Azure Ray sound and
re-connect to what it was that was our
special collaboration for all those
years," Fink said.
Rather than a dramatic sweep to a
new style, Azure Ray’s newest record
looked to re-establish the band's style
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after seven years without anew
album.
“We really tried to hearken back to
even our first record and take clues
from that or inspiration from that," Fink
said.
The album is full of their trademark
whispered, gothic harmonies and vari
able arrangements, ranging from
picked acoustic guitars to industnal
steam noises. The so-faint-it’s-almost
not-there element is ever-present, but
rather than allowing the listeners to
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wander off it only pulls them in closer,
with subtle variances in melodic
rhythms and constant add/loss of
musical layers.
The single from the album, “Don't
Leave My Mind,’ is a classic example
of the band’s delicately spaced melo
dies that sweep over the music, with
the trail of soprano harmony behind.
And though the songs don’t often
draw physical tension, they often
cause a sort of emotional tension
between the dark melodies and elec
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tronic landscapes, as with track three,
‘ln the Fog," with its pulsing, heart
beat bass and hissing steam sounds.
Though the quiet and beautiful
sound doesnl necessarily align with
generic ideals of Southern music
(Skynyrd y'alll), there is something
distinctly Southern about ‘Drawing...",
a vast spaciousness like open prairies
filled with a thousand stories and
sounds.
‘I think [the Southern feeling] kind
of manifests itself in unusual ways
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Compiled by Chris Miller
Designed by Ana Kabakova
Contact: muslc@randb.com
that you don’t really think about it, but
when you kind of reflect on it you can
of see it," Fink said.
Friday's performance at the 40
Watt will mark the duo’s return to the
stage in Athens, the town of the
band’s birth.
40 Watt Club
8 p.m. Friday, sll in advance
Azure Ray
James Husband
Dead Fingers
GRADUATION INVITATIONS
Bekj&JJealh.
Downtown • WHMW • M-jm-em