Blue Hawaii

Blue Hawaii pairs Raphaelle "Ra" Standell-Preston with Alex "Agor" Cowan in a partnership that converts romantic loss and physical distance into luminous, rhythm-driven electronic pop. The pair’s own split shaped the stark elegance of Untogether in 2013, while online connection and geographic separation guided the making of Tenderness in 2017; both albums earned Juno Award nominations for Electronic Album of the Year. On Open Reduction Internal Fixation, released in 2019, the duo explored the textures of ’90s club music without loosening the emotional thread that runs through their work.

Standell-Preston, who also fronts the dream pop group Braids, and Cowan first crossed paths in Montreal’s clubs and studios. They began dating and collaborating in early 2010; after a trip through Central America they issued the Blooming Summer EP on Arbutus Records that same year. Braids’ rising profile with Native Speaker and Cowan’s extended stay in Europe soon limited their ability to record together in the same room, so each wrote separately and tracked material in various Canadian facilities. The resulting Untogether surfaced on Arbutus in February 2013 as a set of polished, wintry electro-pop pieces that mapped the dissolution of their romance. The following year Cowan gathered several of his own remixes under the title Agor Edits. While Standell-Preston focused on Braids, Cowan worked as a DJ in Berlin and Los Angeles. The two reconvened in 2016 to shape songs drawn from an online relationship Standell-Preston had begun; those sessions produced Tenderness, which folded disco and ’90s house elements into the group’s atmospheric approach. Blue Hawaii stayed on that floor-oriented path for Open Reduction Internal Fixation, titled after the operation Cowan underwent for a severe foot injury and colored by another breakup experienced by Standell-Preston. The album appeared on Arbutus in October 2019.