When they were setting out to write their new six-song recording, As Above So Below, Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor of Azure Ray were intent to depart from their original sound; that lushly haunted, dreamy folk pop that was born twelve years ago with their self-titled debut. “For As Above So Below, we wanted it to be more like Azure Ray in an alternate universe.” explains Taylor. Certainly the themes of alternative universes, Mother Nature, beginnings, endings, and re-birth surface in the songs. Sonically As Above is a sparser, more minimal and more electronic experience than past albums.
Longtime fans will be comforted to know that while in some ways As Above So Below is a departure, what isn't left behind is that unmatched, dreamy essence that arises when Fink and Taylor harmonize. You know an Azure Ray song when you feel it- it’s chilling and familiar, like a draft of wind on the heart. Azure Ray are guides through the dark corridors and unknown passages of the heart. Says Taylor; “It reflects the uncertainties in the future that we all feel- along with the wonder and beauty." As above, so below. As in nature, Fink and Taylor heed, so in our lives.
