Song Premiere: Azure Ray, 'Red Balloon' : All Songs Considered Working on a bed of clicks and ahhhs, Azure Ray unleashes what amounts to a long, slow summer swoon.

Song Premiere: Azure Ray, 'Red Balloon'

Azure Ray's new EP, As Above So Below, comes out Sept. 4. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Courtesy of the artist

Azure Ray's new EP, As Above So Below, comes out Sept. 4.

Courtesy of the artist

Azure Ray documents the collision between two distinct musical sensibilities: the sweetly airy, bittersweet pop of Maria Taylor and the buzzier, busier, frequently electronic sounds of Orenda Fink. The two have worked separately quite a bit in recent years — Taylor as a solo artist and Fink both solo and as half of O+S — but in Azure Ray, they still meet in the creamy, dreamy midpoint between their individual sounds.

Azure Ray's new EP, As Above So Below, comes out Sept. 4. Courtesy of the artist hide caption

toggle caption
Courtesy of the artist

Azure Ray's new EP, As Above So Below, comes out Sept. 4.

Courtesy of the artist

Listen: Azure Ray, 'Red Balloon'

  • from As Above So Below
  • by Azure Ray

The Omaha duo is capable of weaponizing its melancholy to devastating effect, but Azure Ray's forthcoming six-song As Above So Below EP (out Sept. 4) finds the pair mining considerably gentler territory. Working on a bed of clicks and ahhhhhhs, Taylor unleashes what amounts to a long, slow summer swoon: "You know you bring joy to everything," she sings, awash in unguarded optimism. The devastating melancholy will come later.