Stream: Azure Ray, ‘Remedy’

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Azure Ray (Photo by Liz Bretz)

In January, Azure Ray celebrated 20 years by re-releasing their self-titled debut, an album that spawned a term for its ethereal folk (“whisper core”) and one that has stood the test of time.

Today, the duo of Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink announced that June 11 will bring the release of “Remedy,” the fifth Azure Ray album and the first in more than a decade.

Much has changed beyond the duo’s mailing addresses in two years; Taylor and Fink have been prolific solo artists and collaborators, and, notably, Taylor in 2016 launched her own label, Flower Moon Records, now home to their catalogs. As others have pointed out, Azure Ray’s musical DNA may be found in the work of Phoebe Bridgers and “Folklore”-era Taylor Swift: a haunting ambience that renders all things bittersweet in cloud-borne innocence.

The album’s title track is exemplary. “We chose ‘Remedy’ as the title track for our new record because we felt like it spoke to our collective experience of the last year (when this record was written and recorded),” the duo says. “Many of us experienced grief, anger, isolation and fear, and in those times when you can’t find solace in your usual places, you have to look for it on the inside. In the end, you are your own source of power, your own source of hope. ‘You’re a remedy, or there’s none.’”

||| Stream: “Remedy”

||| Previously: Quarantunes (April 2020), “Last Summer in Omaha,” live at the Lodge Room, “Scattered Like Leaves”