Pale Blue - The Past We Leave Behind

Mike Simonetti has decided to split from the Italians Do It Better (Chromatics, Glass Candy) label to focus on his new project, Pale Blue, as well as his new venture, the freshly minted label 2MR (Two Mikes Records). A collaboration between Simonetti and Captured Tracks, 2MR is an opportunity for Simonetti to start from a blank slate and release music he believes in. The first release on 2MR will be ‘The Past We Leave Behind’, the debut album from Pale Blue.

During the writing process of his ‘Capricorn Rising’ album, Simonetti was asked to remix tracks from the West Coast twosome Silver Hands. Immediately taken by the incredible range of lead vocalist Elizabeth Wight he reached out to collaborate. The result of the bi- coastal email exchange would eventually become Pale Blue.

Pale Blue, referencing the term ‘Pale Blue Dot’ coined by Carl Sagan to refer to a photograph of planet Earth taken by the Voyager 1 space probe in 1990, was originally conceived around the time that Hurricane Sandy hit New York and came to completion with Simonetti’s severance from Italians Do It Better. Thus, many of the tracks that make up Pale Blue’s debut grapple with themes of loss and new beginnings.

‘The Past We Leave Behind’ encompasses myriad sonic elements, ranging from rhythmic, melodic techno to atmospheric ambient productions while also incorporating Simonetti’s varied background in noise, drone and even experimental dream pop. Above it all though, Wight’s vocals remain the focal point, saturating the record with a lush melodic warmth that’s so often missing in the electronic world.

Musically, Pale Blue is a response to modern dance music and its constant fluctuations. It intentionally bears no obvious singles, nor club hits. While Simonetti, Wight and Jana Hunter (vocals on ‘Dusk In Parts’) remain at its core, Pale Blue’s philosophy is to keep everything open to collaboration. It does not aim to pigeonhole itself into a genre or any new vistas in music but instead to a unifying sound produced collectively and harmoniously.