Somewhere between heartbreak and happiness lies a mist-shrouded land of limbo, where it's always raining softly and people stare pensively out windows, contemplating love and life over steaming cups of Earl Grey. Wherever this place is, it seems Azure Ray are permanent residents. On their new CD, "Burn and Shiver," the duo craft quiet, fragile, dream-pop duets that are appropriate for the make-up or break-up of your relationship.

With a full plate of other projects (garage band Little Red Rocket, post-rock unit Japancakes and indie outfit Now It's Overhead), Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor never thought this music would make it out of their living rooms. But Warm Records had only to hear a few numbers during an acoustic set in order to offer a recording session, with Eric Bachman (Crooked Fingers, Archers of Loaf) producing.

Azure Ray uses whispered, melancholic harmonies set against a soft, sparse, near-minimalist backdrop. Although the opener, "Favorite Cities," uses an electronic sample that could have been swiped from Bjork's laptop, most of the album consists of spacious three-bar guitar refrains orbiting around Fink and Taylor's ghostly twin vocals. Think "Twin Peaks' " Julee Cruise without the murder mystery. Strings, keyboards and horns accentuate tracks by letting out the occasional warm sigh, but then tip-toe out before stirring anyone out of their sugarplum dreams.