Jackson Free Press

Orenda Fink: Invisible Ones (Saddle Creek; August 23). "One of the reasons that I chose to make a solo record was that I was ready to take a different approach to songwriting than I had previously with Azure Ray. After traveling extensively in India, Cambodia and Haiti, I began to focus more on the external world instead of the internal. I was drawn to issues like spirituality, oppression, and the mystical and interminable spirit that underlies the human condition. The challenge that I faced was representing these issues with songs. This collection of songs is my attempt at that. It is an _expression of my personal experiences, revelations, and observations." - Orenda Fink

When the steamy summer folds into fall, Orenda Fink will release Invisible Ones, her debut solo album. Invisible Ones is an eye-opening mélange of musical styles born out of Orenda's cross-cultural internal and external travels.

Recorded with producer and engineer Andy LeMaster (Now It's Overhead) in Athens, Georgia at Chase Park Transductions and Brooklyn, NY at Headgear Studios, Invisible Ones is haunted by beautiful ghosts from the earth's four corners. It is troubled but ultimately optimistic, it is enigmatic and soulful. It is best heard with eyes closed.

"Leave It All" lures us in with a heartrending open-airiness; "Bloodline" feels like flying; on "Les Invisibles," ("the closest to an anti-war song that I have ever written," says Orenda) a resplendent chorus of Haitian voices reach to the sky — are they cries of pain or transcendence? The album closes with "Animal," a song in which surging, dirge-like percussion drives an escalating frenzy that symbolizes the vodou cycle of life.

Also known as one half of Georgia's Azure Ray, Orenda emerges on her first solo release as a new musical treasure. She's inspired, bold, perceptive and real, and Invisible Ones soars with unassuming brilliance.

Invisible Ones features appearances by…

guitar, bass, keyboards: Todd Fink (nee Baechle) (The Faint)
drums, percussion: Scott Amendola (Scott Amendola Band)
drums: Clay Leverett (Lona, Now It's Overhead)
bass, piano: Jackie Lyons (Little Red Rocket, Azure Ray)
The Haitian Singers: Rozna Zila and Sandy M. Saint-Cyr of Troupe Macandal on "Les Invisibles," "No Evolution," and "Animal"
piano and additional production: Dave Sitek (TV On The Radio) on "Easter Island"
stand up bass: Alexis Cuadrado (Angelique Kidjo)
strings: The Magnolia String Quartet
string arrangements: Nate Walcott (Bright Eyes, The Faint, Rilo Kiley)
flute: Martín Perna
piano: Dan McCarthy (Mayday, McCarthy Trenching)
additional vocals: Patterson Hood (Drive-By Truckers) on "Dirty South"