STREAM: Orenda Fink - Live on KCRW
DOWNLOAD: Orenda Fink - "High Ground" (w/ Isaac Brock)

Orenda Fink has had a busy year thus far between Azure Ray's reunion and the release of the debut CD from her electronica/dub project O+S earlier this year. Orenda hasn't slowed down and has a solo CD, Ask the Night, coming out October 6th on Saddle Creek.

Ask the Night is close in style to Azure Ray's music but the songs on this new disc have none of Azure Ray's lush arrangements. The musical arrangements on Ask the Night are fairly minimalist but the disc has a raw warmth to its sound. Most of the tracks were recorded live to 8-track in Fink's Omaha basement.

To dive into the disc, the 10 tracks on Ask the Night span a number of different styles but the core of the disc is southern gothic folk and the songs are stories of love and loss. Four songs are collaborations with Birmingham, AL artist/poet Chris Lawson who described the CD as "a narrative journey that is rooted in memories (both personal and collective) and charts georgraphies (literal and metaphorical)...Fink's new songs are unique in their ability to distill moments of heartfelt loss and pain transcended through observation, knowing, even joy."

While all of the songs are structured around Orenda's plaintive vocals, she uses a wide range of "americana" instruments (pump organ, saw, mandolin, banjo, accordion, etc.) to support her stories and melodies. She is able to twists these instruments and her vocals around different aspects of the folk genre and her songs touch upon country, bluegrass and even an old-time waltz. The disc features a wide array of players which include producers Stephen Bartolomei and Andy LeMaster, Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse), Dan McCarthy (McCarthy Trenching), and Adrianne Verhoeven (Dri, The Anniversary, Art In Manila).

Orenda Fink is playing the Knitting Factory on October 22 as part of Saddle Creek's CMJ Showcase. Other bands on the bill include Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson, Old Canes, UUVVWWZ, Beep Beep and guest Suzannah Johannes. Tickets are $10 in advance and $12 DOS.

Links:
Orenda Fink's MySpace Profile