August 16, 2023

Clementine Valentine – Selenelion: New Song Of The Day

Clementine Valentine, the Coromandel-based art-pop duo formerly known as Purple Pilgrims, share the fourth and final single ‘Selenelion’ off their upcoming album, The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor, out August 25th via Flying Nun Records.

Here’s the blurb:

Clementine Valentine The duo will also be performing four intimate shows around the country this September. Tickets are available at Banishedmusic.com.

‘Selenelion’ embraces the duo’s folk roots, through ethereal vocals, and elevated, gentle orchestration. Clementine and Valentine, explain, “Selenelion is a type of lunar eclipse where both the sun and moon appear in the sky at the same time. As a story the song is based on aspects of countless old folk songs and fables. A star-crossed dynamic. The meeting of a myological creature and a mortal, always ending in tragedy”

The accompanying video, directed by Britt Walton (Ladyhawke, Marlon Williams, Teeks), presents a similar doomed scenario, set in a place of significance to Clementine Valentine – Hong Kong, where the sisters grew up.

Pre-order / Pre-Save The Coin that Broke the Fountain Floor: https://ffm.to/clementine-valentine-tctbtff

Clementine Valentine

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