Clementine Valentine share new single "Endless Night"out now via Flying Nun Records.
Clementine Valentine, formerly Purple Pilgrims, share their new single "Endless Night". The duo’s first work released under their new moniker - the sister’s have re-branded as themselves, which is out now via Flying Nun Records.
"Endless Night" is a courageous romance skewed with realism, wide-eyed fantasy served with a tongue-in-cheek. Featuring producer Randall Dunn (Oneohtrix Point Never, Danny Elfman, Jim Jarmusch) and legendary drummer Matt Chamberlain (David Bowie, Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple), mastered by Heba Kadry (Bjork, Beach House, Slowdive) - a taste of what’s to come.
Accompanying the song is a visualiser featuring a painting entitled ‘Clementine & Valentine’ [2018 oil on board] by New Zealand artist Liz Maw. Maw's work melds religious iconography and contemporary issues, referencing European old masters while taking celebrities and modern characters as her subjects. Her fantasy figures often depict women and explore the idea of the femme fatale. The painting was brought to live by Motion Graphics Artist Silas McClintock / FUTURA Studio.
On the track, the band said
"All songs are moments in time trapped in amber, this one feels particularly so. A relic of a past joy, crystallised behind dusty glass. Part self-fulfilling prophecy, part heartfelt sarcasm”.
Sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon make music drawn from nomadic family heritage that conjures unique moods of contrasts: ancient and modern, paradise and isolation, beauty and brokenness, ritual and the right now.
Raised itinerantly between New Zealand and Hong Kong, the sisters cut their teeth performing in renegade gallery spaces and rogue music venues across Hong Kong’s abandoned industrial estates, performing experimental noise and futuristic dream-pop under the moniker Purple Pilgrims.
The duo have since toured the world extensively alongside the likes of Ariel Pink, Aldous Harding, John Maus, and Weyes Blood. It’s a lifestyle embedded in their lineage; travelling musicians and performers go back hundreds of years on their maternal side (as documented on recordings such as The Travelling Stewarts, from 1968). As children, the sisters were taught to sing traditional balladry by their grandmother, daughter of revered Traveller musician Davie Stewart (later recorded by Alan Lomax). While their prior works were self-produced and released via cult underground labels, the sisters have steadily refined their craft into a more fully realised and sophisticated new sound.
Photo credit: Katya Brook
Clementine Valentine live:
29th May - Auckland, Powerstation, NZ w/ Weyes Blood
30th May - Wellington, Opera House, NZ w/ Weyes Blood
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