On Sept. 12, the Swedish alternative electronic duo Aery released “Baltimore,” their first new song of 2025 and the last before they release their debut body of work, “Nowhere Stranger,” Oct. 3.

Mi von Ahn and Joel Gabrielsson are successful musicians in their own rights, with artistic careers that long predate the band’s formation. Most days, Aery is bisected — two halves working together from different sides of the country. But the founding members’ separation provides the very circumstances that give life to this recent collaboration.

“When you work together in a concentrated setting, the energy of being together will lead you to make certain decisions, and they're usually somewhat in sync with a creative vision,” said Gabrielsson. “When you're recording on your own, sending files back and forth, you might get inspiration for a different set of ideas than what your collaborator might be thinking.”

The distance, then, cultivates an experimental approach to their creative process. “Sometimes you might get an idea for a song completely by accident,” said Gabrielsson.

“Baltimore” came about in typical Aery fashion, initially taking shape at von Ahn’s home in northern Sweden. Gabrielsson’s contributions included the song’s lyrics, which are rooted in a Greek airport, where he and his daughter waited 18 hours for a delayed flight.

“After a while, the whole scenario started to feel slightly absurd,” recalled Gabrielsson, “like a lot of things humans do. … Time didn't seem to exist. I was observing the tired faces, bodies standing in lines or contorted on the chairs, trying to find rest. Everyone was probably processing their own holiday, soon heading back to ‘reality.’ I think these kinds of situations are both absurd and beautiful at the same time.”

It’s these surreal memories paired with Aery’s distanced collaborative nature that give the duo its signature sense of fragility and rumbling dystopia, audible in each distinct track on their upcoming debut album, “Nowhere Stranger.”

“We both have upbringings where we have moved back and forth between places and experienced a lot of change,” said von Ahn and Gabrielsson. “This may in some subtle way have affected the way this album turned out. Hopefully everyone will enjoy these songs, but we also hope that those listeners with a similar background will find a deeper connection to the music.”