Kevin Bronson on May 5th, 2011

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Angela Correa says it’s just evolution. But for the songwriter and compelling voice behind the L.A. quartet Correatown, her new musical direction – which finds her winsome, Americana-oriented folk-pop suddenly elevated to the cumulus of dream-pop – represents education as much as anything.

“This has the sound and textures and soundscape-y elements that I was always pushing for,” Correa says of the music on the “Etch the Line” EP, which will be out May 31 as a prelude to her second full-length “Pleaides” in September. “I never quite knew how to get there until I met Dan Long (the producer who’s worked with Film School and Jealous Girlfriends, among others). I loved the way his ears worked, and the sound he gravitated to.”

||| Download: “Further”

Starting with the shimmering track “Further,” the new EP also represents Correa expanding her collaborative family; the band’s lineup of bassist Jenni Tarma, guitarist Mike Corwin and drummer Rob Poynter contributed to the recordings, which took place in fits and starts over the past year and a half, as finances allowed. (The band is doing a Kickstarter campaign for “Pleaides.”) The honeyed vocals on “Further” are vintage Correa; the melodic bass line and subtle percussive touches came from Tarma and Poynter, respectively.

Thematically, much of Correa’s new material simply reflects a woman “trying to figure things out,” she says, and where to draw line the emotionally. “Everything All at Once” deals with the dichotomy of being happy in the moment vs. cultivating the drive and ambition to push oneself in all facets of life. “This is the musical world I’ve been living in for a while now,” Correa says, “and I’m excited for people to hear it.”

The EP features four new tracks and two alternate mixes, one by Red Rockets Glare (producer Raymond Richards) and one by Wittches (Michael Hughes of the Deadly Syndrome).

||| Stream: “Etch the Line” in its entirety.

||| Live: Correatown plays June 8 at the Satellite.