Categories
GUEST EDITOR

From The Desk Of Orenda Fink: Chris Lawson

Orenda Fink is known for her quiet, introspective songs and her unobtrusive approach to singing. Her music, both on her own solo albums and with Azure Ray (the band she fronts with longtime friend Maria Taylor), tends to be forlorn and unsettling, albeit imbued with an underlying belief in the ultimate goodness of existence. The songs on her new album, Blue Dream were inspired by the death of her dog, as well as general meditations on the limitations of existence on the material plane. On the LP, Fink goes deep into the primal questions of death and the meaning of life. The lyrics are dark, but the music is bright and buoyant, although still played at the laid-back tempos that are her forte. Fink will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on her.

CHRIS_LAWSON_PORTRAIT_2013-11-29-22-05-50

Fink: Mixed-media artist, surrealist, writer, actor, world traveler, best friend: Chris Lawson is one of my favorite visual artists. He has been called an “ethnographic surrealist,” and I feel this best sums up his body of work. He has done cover art for Azure Ray, Art In Manila and my solo record Ask The Night, to which he also contributed lyrics. His mixed-media pieces range from the macabre to the ethereal, but generally you will find a dose of Chris’ quirky sense of humor; an ability to find light in darkness and poke fun at the monsters (real or imagined) of society. His work is really amazing.