Premiere: Geographer & CLARA-NOVA, ‘Blue Obsession’

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Geographer & CLARA-NOVA (Geographer by Dave Barbaree; CLARA-NOVA by Amber L. Canterbury)

The new single “Blue Obsession” is a lightning strike, the result of a chance session between two artists exploring the cumulus regions of pop — and who, coincidentally, have new EPs in the works and are playing a show together this week.

Geographer is the decade-old synth-pop project helmed by Mike Deni, who recently relocated from San Francisco to Los Angeles. CLARA-NOVA is the name for the avant-pop ministrations of Sydney Wayser, whose forthcoming “The Golden Age” follows March’s “The Iron Age” and has seen her collaborate with a host of local visual artists.

“Blue Obsession” emerged when Deni stepped in for a friend who dropped out of a co-writing session with Wayser. “She showed me a guitar riff she had written that would become the verse of the song,” Deni says. “I loved it, and we just started writing. She had this very abstract idea about love kicking around in her head, and we expanded on it. I started laying down the track on her guitar and piano, and the song just came out. As soon as we heard our voices together, we got really excited, especially me, since I haven’t really harmonized with anyone on a regular basis since 2008 pre-Geographer days.”

The song languished in its demo stage while Geographer went on tour and Deni prepared for his move to L.A. Finally, he added a string arrangement, and the duo recorded it with producer Pete Min (Oberhofer, Andrew Bird, Vulfpeck), with Sam KS playing drums, Serena McKinney adding strings and Steve Kaye (Fitz & the Tantrums) doing the mix. (The pair, each of whom released new singles [see below] in recent days, will play the song for the first time live on Friday night.)

Over a swoop of strings, Deni and Wayser bemoan being “lost in the blue / sifting through the pieces / looking for the truth” — a sentiment that probably would have been fine had only one of them sung it. That chorus finds great strength in their duet, a subtle reminder that it takes two to entangle.

||| Stream: Geographer & CLARA-NOVA, “Blue Obsession”

||| Also: Geographer, “Gliss Worm,” and CLARA-NOVA, “Cold Water”

||| Live: Geographer headlines the Lodge Room on Friday night, with CLARA-NOVA supporting. Tickets. Geographer plays the Constellation Room in O.C. on Thursday, with SWIMM opening. Tickets.