Longstanding dream-pop duo Azure Ray will return with their album Remedy on June 11th via Maria Taylor’s Flower Moon Records. It is the band’s first full-length album in 10 years and saw them work individually through the COVID-19 pandemic across three separate recording locations in southern California
With the announcement came the release of new single and title track “Remedy.” It’s the first taste of their goal of exploring new structural arrangements and sonic dynamics, providing Walters with both the creative direction and freedom to expand upon the band’s long-established ambient sound.”
Twenty years have passed since Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink released their self-titled debut record as Azure Ray. Those familiar with their work now know that it was the tragic death of Taylor’s then boyfriend which abruptly transformed the duo’s relationship to music – their alt-rock roots gave way to the now signature, dreamlike soundscapes that became known as “whisper core” with songs like “Sleep” & “Rise.” The influence of Taylor & Fink’s hushed & intimate, ASMR-like delivery combined with hypnotic atmospherics is unmistakably apparent in (and openly acknowledged by) today’s chart-topping songwriters. After 4 full length albums, multiple cities, 2 hiatuses, and one pandemic, their timeless, genre-defining sound returns with a bold new fortitude on June 11th with “Remedy”.
Azure Ray’s first full length album in 10 years. With Remedy, Taylor and Fink sought to explore new structural arrangements and sonic dynamics, providing Walters with both the creative direction and freedom to expand upon the bands long-established ambient sound. Thematically, reoccurring themes of tragedy, chaos and anxiety present from the very first Azure Ray record (as a result of immense personal loss) reveal themselves with new meaning set against a world – not just their own lives – in turmoil. However impartial it sounds, the result is the best version of Azure Ray ever captured to tape (or computer). It’s the same Maria and Orenda who have lulled us through devastating agony and lifted our hearts over the last two decades, unchanged in their ability to find beauty in darkness, hope in desolation.
It’s an expansive and wholesome folk-themed dream pop offering that features lovely vocal work and arrangements that lift the spirit and provide some hope in a particularly dark time. There are traces of their old sound but also plenty of new direction to get excited about here as well.
From the forthcoming album, “Remedy,” out June 18th, 2021 on Flower Moon Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 