Azure Ray

Azure Ray is an American dream pop duo, consisting of musicians Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink. The pair met at the age of 15 at the Alabama School of Fine Arts. They fronted a band called Little Red Rocket, often compared to Veruca Salt, in their hometown of Birmingham, Alabama in the mid and late 1990s and released two albums with the band on Tim/Kerr records.^[1]

Azure Ray started in Athens, Georgia, but relocated to Omaha, Nebraska and joined the music scene there. Taylor and Fink are also in another Saddle Creek band called Now It's Overhead, with Andy LeMaster.^[2] The two have collaborated with Moby and co-wrote the song, "Great Escape" on the album 18. ^[3] They have also appeared on numerous Bright Eyes records. Fink also works with Japancakes.

Azure Ray went on hiatus in 2004, leaving Fink and Taylor to work on solo and other collaborative projects, including working in Now It's Overhead and Maria Taylor's solo recordings.^[4]

Fink and Taylor reformed the band for a one-off show in Los Angeles on November 30, 2008. The duo was accompanied by Andy LeMaster of Now It's Overhead and Nick White of Tilly and the Wall.

In 2009, Taylor announced on KCRW's Morning Becomes Eclectic that the band would reform on a semi-permanent basis in July 2009 for "5 or 6" shows before working on a new Azure Ray album. Their fourth album, Drawing Down the Moon, was released in September 2010.^[5]

Azure Ray's six-song EP, As Above So Below, was released on September 5, 2012, on Saddle Creek Records.^[6]

On February 11, 2015, Taylor Swift included Azure Ray's song "Sleep" from their self-titled LP on a 6-song "breakup playlist" made for a fan via her official Tumblr.^[7][8]

Discography

Albums

• Azure Ray (Warm Records, 2001)
• Burn and Shiver (Warm Records, 2002)
• Hold on Love (Saddle Creek Records, 2003)
• Drawing Down the Moon (Saddle Creek Records, 2010)

Singles and EPs

• Sleep EP (Warm Records, 2002)
• November EP (Saddle Creek Records, 2002)
• The Drinks We Drank Last Night (Saddle Creek Records, 2003)
• New Resolution (Saddle Creek Records, 2004)
• Don't Leave My Mind EP (Saddle Creek Records, 2010)
• Silverlake (Saddle Creek Records, 2011)
• As Above So Below (Saddle Creek Records, 2012)

Soundtracks

• Winter Passing soundtrack – "Rise"
• The Devil Wears Prada soundtrack – "Sleep"
• Shortbus soundtrack – "If You Fall"
• Six Feet Under soundtrack – "Rise"
• The 1st Shop of Coffee Prince soundtrack – "Across the Ocean"
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer, episode "Seeing Red" – "Displaced"
• Parenthood, episode "Amazing Andy and His Wonderful World of Bugs" – "Love and Permanence"
• The Good Wife, episode "Live From Damascus" – "Seven Days"
• Revenge, Episode "Intuition" (02X04) - Music The Heart Has Its Reasons

See also

• Art in Manila

References

External links

• Official website
• Azure Ray at AllMusic
• The Steady Melancholy of Azure Ray – An Interview with Synconation
• Love and Permanence, Stomp & Stammer, 11/10, by Susan Moll