Clementine Valentine, the Coromandel-based art-pop duo formerly known as Purple Pilgrims, share a new single ‘The Rope’ off their upcoming album, The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor, out August 25th via Flying Nun Records. To celebrate the album’s release, the duo will perform four intimate shows around the country this September. For more info and tickets, visit Banishedmusic.com.
Following their previous album singles ‘Endless Night’ (which reached #1 on the SRN Top Ten) and ‘‘Time and Tide’, the new single ‘The Rope’ is a captivating siren song, that entices the listener, inviting them into a world of both safety and potential darkness.
Clementine Valentine – ‘The Rope’
Listen/ Stream: https://ffm.to/
Produced by Randall Dunn, known for his work with acclaimed folk artists like Marissa Nadler, the track features expressive percussion by Matt Chamberlain, creating an ancient mood.
About the song, Clementine and Valentine share, “To us, it means different things at different times, so we’d rather not spoil the mystery by over-explaining. We’re proud of this song, it feels like our ancestors are speaking through us – which was an overarching theme and intention for this album.”
The accompanying visuals, directed by the Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland-based duo PICTVRE (Veronica Crockford-Pound and Joseph Griffen), draw inspiration from 1960s films such as Jean-Luc Godard’s sci-fi/noir classic ‘Alphaville’ and Ingmar Bergman’s psychological drama ‘Persona’. Styled by Tom So, the duo wears all local designers including Emma Jing, Wynn Hamlyn, and Shannen Young. Makeup and hair styling by Kiekie Stanners and Vanessa Mitchell.
Pre-order/Save The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor: https://ffm.to/clementine-
+ JUST ANNOUNCED
Clementine Valentine performing at WORD literary festival in Christchurch
with Roy Montgomery in the beautiful St Micheal’s church.
Tickets and information from Word Christchurch
Clementine Valentine – ‘Time and Tide’
Listen/ Stream: https://ffm.to/clementine-
Clementine Valentine – ‘Endless Night’
Steam / Download: https://ffm.to/
About Clementine Valentine:
Sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon draw inspiration from their nomadic family heritage, creating music that evokes contrasting moods: ancient and modern, paradise and isolation, beauty and brokenness, ritual and the present moment.
Having grown up between New Zealand and Hong Kong, the sisters gained experience by performing in unconventional spaces and rogue music venues throughout Hong Kong’s abandoned industrial estates, captivating audiences with their blend of experimental noise and futuristic dream-pop as 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 earlier works were self-produced and released through underground labels, the sisters have honed their skills to create a more fully realised and sophisticated new sound.
The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor is a pivotal album in the creative evolution of sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon, formerly known as Purple Pilgrims. It finds them leaning further than ever before into collaboration, folklore, poetry, and power. Their intertwined vocals reach for loftier, more operatic heights of pop and myth, heartbreak and desire, suffused with the spirit of storytelling heroines long lost to time. The album title alludes to the tipping point extremes of recent years, coloured by dreams crushing, wishes gathering, and an abundance of hope.
The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor sees the duo working alongside NY city producer Randall Dunn (Oneohtrix Point Never, Danny Elfman, Jim Jarmusch) and legendary drummer Matt Chamberlain (David Bowie, Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple). Final audio finessing came courtesy of Brooklyn mastering engineer Heba Kadry (Bjork, Beach House, Slowdive). The results are regal and richly layered, softly orchestral yet lithe and shimmering.
Clementine Valentine
The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor
- Gatekeeper
- All I See
- Time and Tide
- The Understudy
- Selenelion
- The Rope
- Endless Night
- Actors Tears
- All Yesterdays Flowers
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