Red fish, blue pond

“It all started in my bedroom.”

Wes Steed, one half of local electro-pop duo Park Avenue Music, smiles as he discloses the humble origins of his once-solo project, now a musical collaboration. Together with the angelic harmonies of vocalist Jeannette Faith, the two foster a deft marriage of traditional song structures with finely wrought electronic textures, tempering their music-box melancholia with a decidedly modern aesthetic.

Conceived over four years ago as an outlet for Steed’s more experimental tendencies, the band slowly evolved into its current incarnation by a series of lineup changes, variations of instrumentation and abandoned stylistic approaches. Aside from a lone self-released split single with local band Deimos, Park Avenue Music’s forthcoming full-length CD, To Take With You, marks the group’s introduction to the recorded form.

“We began recording for this album last August and forced ourselves to have it completed by November,” Steed explains. As the more soft-spoken of the two, Steed is complemented nicely by Faith’s cheerful earnestness.

“I met him at a party and the first thing he said to me was, ‘Do you sing?’ ” Faith recalls, deepening her voice in playful mimicry to describe their first conversation. The affection between the two is obvious; they share not only musical interests but also a similar charmed worldview. And what was Steed’s follow-up line?

“You should get a hearse!” Faith recalls, gesturing toward a parked vehicle, one of two owned by Steed. Though they share an enthusiasm for the maintenance of these four-wheeled curios, neither bears a trace of morbidity. Rather, they make for cheerful company, gently pestering one another and excitedly discussing the future of their mutual collaboration.

And it is by virtue of the musical union of Faith’s heartfelt vocals and Steed’s resonant production that grants Park Avenue Music its hushed immediacy. While Faith composes the primary vocal and piano melodies, it’s Steed, utilizing an arsenal of synthesizers and electronic effects, who transforms these gentle ballads into intricate symphonic arrangements.

“It’s kind of like the difference between a song played on a solo acoustic guitar and one played with a full band,” he says of his contribution, adding succinctly, “I make the music sound good.”

Gesturing to the living room-cum-home studio of their cozy Sacramento apartment, Faith declares in mock bravado, “This is where the magic happens.” The place bears all the signs of obsessive music lovers: records upon records stacked on the shelves, posters of favorite bands lining the walls, (here Portishead, there Cocteau Twins) and assorted instruments scattered about the rooms. And, in a subtly telling statement, written in purple ink on a refrigerator white-board, “We are the makers of music & we are the dreamers of dreams.”

By enjoying Park Avenue Music’s debut album, the listener taps into this shared musical reverie. While bearing of a range of influence from 1940s blues to modern synth pop, the music is paradoxically cinematic in scope yet its lyrics remain intensely personal.

“I find it’s often easier to communicate through music rather than, even, intimate conversation,” Faith explains. A series of reflections on falling in and out of love, the duo’s lyrics articulate the heartache of breaking up and the cautious ecstasy of beginning anew. While placing Park Avenue Music into a register of such heartfelt electronic pop artists like Her Space Holiday or Goldfrapp, the duo’s sound finds few sonic contemporaries in the current Sacramento music scene.

When asked about their relationship to the scene at large, Faith replies, “We’re kind of like a red fish … in a blue pond.” Though this alienation bespeaks the lack of an immediately receptive local fan base, the insularity of Park Avenue Music’s collaboration, its distinctiveness from current trends, lends the music an intimacy made all the more special because of it.

“There’s not much romance in Sacramento,” Faith later adds. And perhaps she’s right. But, together, Park Avenue Music has fashioned a romantic vision all its own.

To Take With You comes out on Devil In the Woods Records on March 5.