windy and carl, robert fripp, mono (japan), einstürzende neubauten, my bloody valentine, boards of canada, fuxa, burger/ink, spacemen 3, ghost (japan), to rococo rot, mogwai, pink floyd, sigur rós, godspeed you black emperor!, lab report, noises, machines...life in general
We currently have a multimedia show, in which we are screening our debut film (entitled "Rusted Gates, Volume 1 - Leopard's Mouth") and providing a soundtrack of music and sound art, which we perform live in time with the film.
We'll be screening and performing along with our film "Leopard's Mouth" on:
Saturday, November 28th, 2009 @ 8pm
Octoraro Hotel and Tavern
2 South 3rd Street
Oxford, PA. 19363
More screenings and performances to follow...
Watch the trailer for "Leopard's Mouth" below...
Watch an excerpt of "Leopard's Mouth", performed at Eastern State Penitentiary...
LEOPARD'S MOUTH T-SHIRTS
We have a limited quantity of brand new Northern Valentine t-shirts that were designed in honor of our performances at the 2009 Philly Fringe Festival on September 5th and September 12th, 2009.
The shirts are $12 and we'll have a link to purchase them posted very soon.
Don't miss your chance to grab one of these and commemorate the first Northern Valentine film!
BIO
Northern Valentine is husband and wife, Robert and Amy Brown, and friends who join us from time to time. We've been making music since 1997 and have collaborated with a number of different musicians.
We are from Philadephia, Pennsylvania and we love to play live shows, so spread the word and invite us over to your place. Depending on who plays with us during our live shows, performances often feature band members switching instruments several times during the performance and can range from quiet and meditative drones, to loud and fuzzy instrumental post-rock, often within the same set. We have played clubs, bars, living rooms, churches, restaurants, classrooms, etc. If we have to do so, we'll stand on our amps or sit on your lap to fit into the space...no venue is too large or too small.
In June 2008, we played four shows in Iceland, including an historic show on June 8th, 2008, in which Northern Valentine played in Reykjavík, Iceland, with Icelandic band, For a Minor Reflection, at Viðeyjarkirkja, on the island of Viðey. The concert was the first musical performance to be performed at the church since it was consecrated in 1774.
Northern Valentine - Icelandic Tour (June 2008)
We've got the 'travel bug' and love playing shows in other countries outside of the US, so please ask us if we would be willing to travel for a show.
We have also been known to take musical “field trips”, with portable recording equipment bussed out to remote and natural settings; from abandoned buildings and ruins to fields and forests. If you have suggestions of interesting/unusual places to record, let us know and we'll see what we can do.
For booking, cds/downloads, distribution, questions, interviews, etc...email Robert at: northernvalentine(at)hotmail(dot)com
All of our recordings and more information on us can be found by visiting our Northern Valentine website:http://northernvalentine.com
Our Silber Records debut...this recording features five improvised pieces made up of dark drones and gentle noises drifting through a psychedelic journey in collaboration with our friend Ben Fleury-Steiner. It has received some wonderful reviews from around the globe. Scroll down this page and you can read what people have said about this recording.
The Distance Brings Us Closer was mixed and mastered at The Gears in Wilmington, and was released on Silber Records on November 4th, 2008. Download "The Distance Brings Us Closer" from iTunes ---
Loops of electric guitars, found sound objects and voices echo through this recording, which starts and ends with two new dronescapes from Robert (from Northern Valentine) and two new dronescapes from P.D. Wilder (from Hotel, Hotel). In the center of the recording sit two improvised collaborations recorded at two shows in Brooklyn, from when Robert and P.D. were on tour in January 2007.
This was released on Gears of Sand Recordings in October 2008. Download "Northern Valentine & P.D.Wilder" from iTunes ---
This is a Free Digital Download from Silber Records and archive.org.
Stars Whisper documents three improvised dronescapes from two of our live shows in Philadelphia in 2008; one recording from a show at The Fire, and two from our performance at The Rotunda, as part of the experimental music series, "Gate".
It was mixed and mastered at The Gears in Wilmington and was released on Silber Records on December 4th, 2008
This is a Free Digital Download from Silber Records and archive.org.
During an impromptu session in August of 2008, Brian John Mitchell of Remora, Nicholas Slaton of slicnaton and Robert Brown of Northern Valentine collaborated on what has come to be known as the Clear Field recordings. The Clear Field recordings are a unique combination of elements of all three projects. You hear the loops & aggression of Remora’s guitar work, Northern Valentine’s ambient, shimmering glacial guitars, & slicnaton’s orchestrated glitch & deep bass tones. While hearing all three individual musicians, it still is clearly a collaboration of the three rather than one of the projects with two special guests; it is a unique sound of its own.
Recorded in August 2008 and released on Silber Records on December 5th, 2008.
1st in a 5 CD-R series of field recordings and improvisations designed to capture more of the spontaneous and experimental side of our music. Most of the material on this release is from our 2004-2005 sessions in basements, hallways, washing machines and an abandoned sanitarium...yes, that said washing machines!
Leopard's Mouth was originally released in February 2005 and features a little over 60 minutes of music. It was mixed and mastered at Baresound One in Philadelphia.
In April 2008, Leopard's Mouth was re-released on Gears of Sand Recordings as part of the "Suchness" series, in a limited run of 100 copies, with recycled chipboard packaging and beautiful artwork that was created using hand engraved dies and a genuine letter press.
We are down to the last 25 copies of this recording. Email us if you're interested in a copy: northernvalentine (at) hotmail (dot) com
The 2nd of 5...this release continues our series of improvisations and field recordings designed to capture some of our finer, spontaneous moments. This recording spans from 2005-2009; including material from public and private sessions in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina. The album is themed around the beheading of John The Baptist and features collaborations with our friends Ben Fleury-Steiner and Andrew Weathers...to be released in 2009.
This disc is part of the Drone / Drift series from Austin, TX label, Lo Bango Sound.
It features a 20 minute piece of loops, textures and drones that were improvised and recorded live by Robert Brown.
It was mastered at Baresound One in Philadelphia and it is a 3" cd-r with original artwork and packaging by Lo Bango Sound and Northern Valentine.
FDH Records compilation, released in conjunction with one of the 2007 Punk Rock Flea Markets in Philadelphia. It features 11 songs from a variety of artists, and includes a shorter version of "Sleeping Weapons", from our out of print live recording, Arasapha.
This compilation was released in November 2008 and is available for download here.
It features music from 26 different artists and includes a new, acoustic northern valentine song called "Present Past", which features some audio from one of our early family recordings from Christmas 1979.
WE'VE PLAYED AT:
Viðeyjarkirkja (Reykjavík) - Organ (Reykjavík) - Kaffi Hljómalind (Reykjavík) - Glætan Bókakaffi (Reykjavík) - Eastern State Penitentiary (Philadelphia) - The Khyber (Philadelphia) - Star Lake Camp [electro-music 2009] (Bloomingdale) - The M Room (Philadelphia) - First Unitarian Church (Philadelphia) - Garfield Artworks (Pittsburgh) - The Fire (Philadelphia) - Velvet Lounge (DC) - Twisted Branch Tea Bazaar (Charlottesville) - Cake Shop (NYC) - Tritone (Philadelphia) - Eris Temple (Philadelphia) - Lit Lounge (NYC) - University of Virginia (Charlottesville) - Mojo 13 (Wilmington) - 611 Florida (DC) - Strangeland Records (Annandale/DC) - P.A.'s Lounge (Botson) - University of Rhode Island (Kingston) - The Corner Cafe (Lynchburg) - Goodbye Blue Monday (NYC) - The Foundry (NYC) - Chez Dänk / 1714 JPA (Charlottesville) - East Stroudsburg University (E. Stroudsburg) - Belvedere's Bar (Pittsburgh) - The Greenline Cafe (Philadelphia) - The Boot (Norfolk) - The Cubbyhole Cafe (Poughkeepsie) - O'Brien's Pub (Boston) - The New Hawaii (Southington) - Joe Squared (Baltimore) - Spazzatorium Galleria (Greenville) - 25-27 Space (Carlisle) - Der Maennerchor (Harrisburg) - Starlight Cafe (Lynchburg) - Badgerhaus (Raleigh) - The Brillobox (Pittsburgh) - Monkeytown (NYC) - Vanishing Point (NYC) - Gooski's (Pittsburgh) - Octoraro Hotel (Oxford) - Circle of Hope (Philadelphia) - Chester House (Philadelphia)
...AND SHARED A STAGE WITH:
For a Minor Reflection (Iceland) - Yellow6 (UK) - Revenge of Shinobi (UK) - Kira Kira (Iceland) - The LK (Sweden) - Insect Factory - White Hills - The Soundscapes - Lunch With Beardo - Spindrift - Cloudminder - Andrew Drury - Hotel, Hotel - Ben Fleury-Steiner - Fantasy Mirrors - Mammoth Hunter - Florida=Death - Caterpillar - Hot Box - Dermaptera - 28 Degrees Taurus - Drip Drip - Empty Shapes - Ospreys - PD Wilder - The Graboids - Spin 17 - The Late Virginia Summers - Panda Riot - Aydin - The Venus Transmission - Piasa - Wether - Alchemy For Beginners - The Dog Armada - The Astronauts - Fred Gable - The Lookaways - US Funk Team - Muffin - Bed of Knives - Chimes and Gardens - Ophibre - Dirty Lenin - Happy Accident - The Fog - Most Colorful Wind - Pink Desert - The National Debt - Stares To Nowhere - Stockhausen Serves Imperialism - Lasers - Surgeon - The Bollocks Band - Seisure 17 - Howard's Dilemma - The Disconnect - Stay Six - Nostra Nova - The Spanish Prisoners - Baffle The Cat - Goonland - Narse - The Nice Jenkins - The Bosch - grrRoPoLis - Cavepainter - Field Shaman - Autocratic Forcefeed - Panophonic - The Depreciation Guild - K Bar T - Music For Headphones - Farewell Republic - Dean Cercone - Morpholino - The Freeways - The Abolition Band - Millions - Radio Eris - Pacific Before Tiger - FFFFs - MiTA - Von Hayes - Doctor Scientist - Petland - Stephen Bluhm - Cheyenne - Mumpsy - Spirit of Spain - Bigmouth Strikes Again - Dylan Gilbert - Robes - Controlled Storms - Goodnight Stars Goodnight Air - Lilt Marathon - So L'iL - The Afterlife Kids - Subscape Annex - Small Life Form - Lorien - Jez Godin - Appalachian Translator - Moomaw - Miwagemini - The Helper T-Cells - Moral Crayfish - The Blue and Red - CJ Boyd - Gangwish - The Lone Pine Cones - The Collingwood - Dygn - Lansdowne - Finding Fiction - Black Roller Crop Rotation - Cornelius F. Van Stafrin III - Pariah Veil - Alex Luquet - Salesman - Noose of Laurels - Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel - dRachEmUsiK - Earthgirl - Scott Morris - Spinning Plates - Brainstatik
PRESS/COMMENTS/REVIEWS:
Phil McMullen (Terrascope)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "This is lovely. The lengthy opener ‘Born Yesterday’ is glacial in its movement; fans of Windy and Carl and Aarktika will smile knowingly and close their eyelids in satisfaction at the soothing, intense ambience of the sound. ‘Dies Solis’ ticks and burbles along like a slow train crossing a snowfield, while ‘Dimanche’ builds to a crescendo like a fish-gutting factory waiting for the fleet to arrive. The stand-out for me though is ‘Already Gone’, with it’s solitary keyboard “plink” lending inevitable references to Pink Floyd’s ‘Echoes’. This is minimalist ambience at its best. Heartfelt, soulful and affecting, like gazing at a scrapbook of memories."
Ned Raggett (All Music Guide / Billboard)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "Northern Valentine's music comes from a now very familiar space -- open-ended electronic and guitar textures pitched halfway between contemplative ambience and understated melodies, and to say that The Distance Brings Us Closer would appeal to fans of nearly anything on Kranky Records, for instance, would be an understatement. But if Northern Valentine works in known ground at this point, they still do so with an atmospheric power and grace." Read Full Review Here
Jeff Penczak (Foxy Digitalis)
[The Distance Bring Us Closer // rating: 9/10] "...Northern Valentine’s music delivers a sense of floating in space or a communion with nature where the listener is enveloped in clouds of billowing sonics. The listener’s imagination can run wild creating images to accompany this ambient soundtrack...much of (which) could easily serve as a post-modern soundtrack to David Lynch’s underground classic, Eraserhead. In sum, an awesomely hypnotic listening experience." Read Full Review Here
Michael Lutomski (The Silent Ballet)
[The Distance Bring Us Closer // rating: 7/10] "...At the forefront of each track is the droning guitar work - all consuming, demanding the listener's attention - but behind it, at all times, there’s something bubbling and changing and brewing. There are five tracks on the album, but it’s still a nice forty five-minute piece. Often, the real gem of each track is buried deep within it. There’s a real patience involved; waiting out the distance hoping it will bring us closer. Behind certain tracks there are subtle hints of tribalism, as if Grails were recording in the studio next door, and the walls didn’t quite stop the bleed through. It never fully develops, but it’s often there.
If Northern Valentine set out to express the emotions felt in the face of distance, the anxiety, the helplessness, the way it is a giant burden made out of nothing, then I’d say they succeeded. The album is both immediate and elusive at once. It requires both patience and the ability to feel, and it can hold its own amongst the comparisons it’s likely to draw" Read Full Review Here
(Aquarius Records)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "...The Distance Brings Us Closer resonates with long, lush tones and delicate melodies that seem to blend and form chords in mid air. Always moving and turning like fog creeping along the forest floor, Northern Valentine has a distinct sound that kinda reminds us of a more darkened and coastal Windy and Carl playing with Rameses III in some giant cathedral. Very dark and mysterious, the record travels through blissed out walls of trance inducing drones and into more textural noisy Fennesz-like atmospheres...we dig what they’re doing A LOT...completely and utterly recommended!!"
Jon Gordon (Delusions of Adequacy)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "These are soundscapes that notably lack some of the overindulgence that often spoils the intended effects of this type of experimentalism, and the results are some of the most effective pieces of aural sculpture I might've heard since the first Sígur Ros album. Great swathes of white noise and guitar hydraulics, blizzards of reverberating electronics and a refusal to undercut the strength of this music by adding more populist elements make for a challenging and rewarding listen." Read Full Review Here
Zac Keiller (Foxy Digitalis)
[Rusted Gates - Vol. 1 // rating: 8/10] - "An interesting aspect of this recording (Rusted Gates - Volume 1 "Leopard's Mouth") is that the locations themselves very prominently became a sound source, with the odd creaking slammed door and sounds of broken glass in the background. I can almost imagine being there and listening as the sounds of Northern Valentine emanate through the empty walls and corridors. In particular “Leopard’s Blues” is almost like music for Haunted Houses. A lone flute, creating an atmosphere of ghostly isolation as it echoes through an old sanitarium.
Defining the Northern Valentine sound seems difficult in itself, but I suppose it is easiest to say that this sounds like “Them”. (They) have a level of enthusiasm and willingness to experiment and create on the fly that I have not seen before. The music and sounds flow very easily and suggest a trio that is so comfortable with themselves that they can easily create with no regard for inhibitions or restrictions. Just a small group of people letting their instruments, toys and emotions dictate the final outcome." Read Full Review Here
Ray Miri (experimusic.com)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer // rating: 7.5/10] - "Like drifting in a bulbous cloud through an unpopulated, cotton-wool metropolis, Northern Valentine score the soundtrack to an imaginary Arctic dusk...elongated string melodies glide and evaporate in spectral fashion as crisply effervescent tones occasionally glisten within the drone laden expanse. Themes of glacial isolation, depressive darkness and ominous paranoia fuse delicately with a delicate romanticism and the silver lining of optimism in a soundscape that floats between dense and minimalist textures. ‘The Distance Brings Us Closer’ will have you cloud surfing for many enjoyable hours to come." Read Full Review Here
(normanrecords.com)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "Northern Valentine have a 5 track CD of droney feedbacky gear which indeed takes me back to the times of years ago when I was getting into all of that texan space rock...some beautiful atmospheric, droney music which will appeal to fans of Labradford, Windy & Carl and Kranky Records in general. It's completely lovely stuff and if you're into a bit of soothing drone to chill you out after another shit day at work then this is gonna bake your cake." Read Full Review Here
Kenyon Hopkin (Advance Copy - October 29, 2008)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer // rating: ****] - Northern Valentine glides through definitive icy spells that are remarkably created by guitars and no post-production. These are also some of the most haunting ambient sounds put to tape, some of which play like the soundtrack for a crumbling and crashing ice sheet." Read Full Review Here
Doug Wallen (Philadelphia Weekly - October 2008)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "Yawning ambient drone...in the service of a heavily dreamy experience worthy of Flying Saucer Attack. Embracing the innate spontaneity of collaboration and improvisation, the band has evolved with every step over the years. If there's a through line, it's the unhurried approach and utter depth of each sleepy drone." Read Full Feature Here
(side-line.com)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "While some of their compositions can move on the edge of experimental, the tracks definitely cover wide ambient fields filled with icy tones. The guitar play is quite interesting for the cool effects on top of it and comes to reinforce and enlarge the ambient sonority of this composition. Northern Valentine has this little original touch in composing ambient music and that’s for sure what I like here...a fascinating piece and a real good surprise!" Read Full Review Here
Alessandro Bonetti (Kronic)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - " ...a slow lava flow that runs unbroken for forty-five minutes...gently romantic "The Distance Brings Us Closer" is an interesting ambient / post-rock fusion that is divided along many layers of sound while retaining a strong sense of melody." Read Full Review Here (Italian)
(Broken Face ~ Sweden) (Saturday, November 22nd, 2008)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer] - "Northern Valentine’s The Distance Brings Us Closer uses a familiar ultimate atmospheric minimalist drone aesthetic along the lines of Stars of the Lid to achieve its goal but I can’t say that I mind as long as the results go this far into the eerie depths of the Atlantic Sea. The always-reliable Silber Records, that put this disc out, claims that drone, love, honesty and sound are the key words to describe what they do and I'm tempted to use the very same words to describe this disc. This husband and wife duo is apparently from Philadelphia but judging by the sound this was probably recorded with the imaginary view of a never-ending horizon or the sea at dawn in mind." Read Full Review Here
(babysue.com / lmnop.com - November 2008)
[The Distance Brings Us Closer // rating 5+] - "Unlike most husband and wife duos...these folks do not create cutesy pop music. 'The Distance Brings Us Closer' presents five tracks of atmospheric drone, recorded live in the studio with no post-production or overdubs. This is definitely an album that will create a mood. Everything has been heavily treated and/or drenched in effects to the point of becoming hypnotic noise. Intriguing stuff, rather heady and elusive..."
Timothy Gabriele (Origivation Magazine - September 2007)
"Like the pining drones of Windy and Carl, or the trance-like repetition of Seefeel, Northern Valentine inhabit an astral space that moves beyond the eardrum and sets its controls for the heart of the cerebral cortex. Their music goes beyond the temporal to peak at the eternal. Despite the psychedelic tinges of collective nostalgia, the experience of listening to a Northern Valentine record is deeply personal. You can hear the memories carved into each track and relate them to your own as well." Download Full Interview Here (2.1MB PDF)
Brian John Mitchell (Silber Records)
"Northern Valentine...make post-rocking ambient music that is simultaneously glacial and warm, minimalist and dense, soothing and overwhelming. They follow the same aesthetics as bands like Labradford, Dirty Three, Windy & Carl, Aarktica, & Godspeed You Black Emperor...as the band members improvise off of each other on planned themes, creating a very live and blended spacious sound."
delawareonline.com (Wilmington, DE)
"a husband and wife team sure to serve up a heapin' helpin' of atmospheric rock."
comment posted online (Poughkeepsie, NY)
"noisier than expected...it was a great show."
comment after a show (Philadelphia, PA)
"sounded like Mogwai, but with two people."
comment after a show (Pittsburgh, PA)
"your set made me feel like I was back in the Fillmore East in the late 1960s. GREAT STUFF!"
C-Ville Paper (Charlottesville, VA - January 2008)
"distorted aural waves of psychedelia...hazy, lazy rock tunes."
comment after a show (Brooklyn, NY)
[regarding the song "The Desert Mile"]..."reminiscent of "Hex (or Printing in the Infernal Method) by Earth, only less doomy."
found on a blog, during a Google search
"Northern Valentine totally kicked ass! Their set and playing were tight and there was an energy there that I could feel right away and it never left me for the rest of the night. For about 30 minutes I wasn't on earth."
the music you folks create not only are amazingly beautiful,but also inspiring for a young artist.Minimalistic=greatistic!!! :D Keep up the good work. FK!
i read the qrd interview with you guys. it's funny for me to imagine all of you not always being musicians always. i feel like you were born with guitars and violins and effects pedals. i hope everything's well.
You guys inspire me in more ways then you can imagine! I love your music and can't stop listening to it. NV will go down in the books for best Ambient Works of our time.
Hello Northern Valentine. I am enjoying your work here. Thanks for including us. Best wishes on your upcoming shows and warmest regards from down south. -Frank
thanks for the invite, we had a great time and it was awesome to see the "power duo" version of NV. You guys sounded great and again massive congrats on the new record, we'll see you cats soon. cheers cs
