18 years.

Take a look into the archive of your life over that amount of time and you’ll have quite a collection of memories — cherished or derided. For some, the first two decades of early adulthood is a capsule of all of those dealbreakers, the all-or-nothings, the great loves and the crushing losses.

For childhood friends Maria Taylor and Orenda Fink, 18 years have meant navigating these moments musically as indie-folk duo, Azure Ray.

Formed after the unexpected, tragic loss of Taylor’s boyfriend in 2001, Azure Ray quickly grew into a dominant force of the Saddle Creek Records era alongside Conor Oberst, Rilo Kiley, and the Faint. There, the band tailored their hushed, dreamy folk that often counterbalanced the label’s more barbed, pointed acts.

The two decades of Azure Ray’s career saw Taylor and Fink putting the group on hiatus to navigate their own solo pursuits, but after six years of inactivity, the duo released Waves, their latest EP, in late 2018. Tinkering further into more electronic territory, the collection of songs dusts the band off, revealing a new layer of maturity that adulthood has yielded them.

Azure Ray will perform at Cafe Du Nord this Thursday, January 17. Los Angeles-based supporting acts Whispertown and Nik Freitas will join.

Azure Ray, Whispertown, Nik Freitas
Cafe Du Nord
January 17, 2019
7:30 pm, $15 (21+)