“There are a lot of really creative people in Portland,” he says. “It feels like home.”

Minden moved to Portland from Kansas City, Mo., last June, with little in its custody beyond a near-complete and outstanding LP in Exotic Cakes. Keyboard-centric on the verge of smooth-jazz territory, Minden’s sound is a polished glass stiletto, clean and towering. Burge’s near-whispered vocals wind in and around crystalline keys and round melodies. And while Minden occasionally strays down more experimental paths, it always boomerangs back to its sugarcoated pop core.