Folk/Alt - Orenda Fink, one half of dream pop duo Azure Ray and, more recently, the excellent O+S, returns October 6 with her second solo album Ask the Night (Saddle Creek), ten songs inspired by traditional American folk music and Southern Gothic literature along with reflecting the singer-songwriter's roots in Alabama. Artful but never overly "arty", Night is a project assembled with meticulous care even as it lays itself out with a casual, unstudied air as on lead track "High Ground."

In an about-face to O+S's heavily "effected" studio electronics, there's a simpler, more direct neo-folk production style at work with Ask The Night, setting an uncluttered stage for Fink's profound lyrical depth. With a voice that alternates between intimacy and a matter-of-fact distance, Fink tells stories, personal recollections and first person parables that give off a shadowy chill even amidst the occasional confessional bloodletting. “ After the last solo record (2005’s Invisible Ones), I was not exactly sure who I was as a solo artist,” Fink recently told Paste. “So I really turned inward for this one.”

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Orenda Fink - "High Ground" (from the album Ask the Night)