New Zealand sister duo Purple Pilgrims have announced their third album, ‘Given to the Night’, arriving November 27 via Flying Nun Records in New Zealand and AD 93 elsewhere.
Made by sisters Valentine and Clementine Nixon during a period of personal change, the record grew out of a deliberate retreat from the outside world. The pair deleted their social media, withdrew to the trees of their native New Zealand and kept the circle around the recording sessions deliberately small. Rather than beginning with a fixed concept, they allowed songs to develop as they appeared, gradually discovering that those individual pieces had become an album.
That instinctive process feeds into the nocturnal world of ‘Given to the Night’. Purple Pilgrims explore the uncertain territory between sleep and wakefulness, isolation and connection, grief and recovery. Floating guitar lines, entwined synths, tape hiss and layered vocals give the record its hazy architecture, with emotions allowed to arrive and disappear without being forced into a neat narrative.
It is a natural continuation of a musical partnership that began far from the conventional New Zealand indie circuit. Raised between New Zealand and Hong Kong, Valentine and Clementine initially performed experimental noise and dream-pop in gallery spaces and venues scattered through Hong Kong’s abandoned industrial estates.
Their subsequent work has gradually brought those experimental beginnings into more defined songwriting without losing the strange atmosphere around them. Their connection to New Zealand’s independent music history runs particularly deep through Flying Nun, including collaborations with members of The Chills and guitarist Roy Montgomery, while comparisons with the dreamier worlds of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance provide a useful reference point without entirely explaining what the sisters do.
Purple Pilgrims have also taken their music well beyond New Zealand, touring internationally and appearing alongside artists including Aldous Harding, Weyes Blood, John Maus, Gary War and Ariel Pink. ‘Given to the Night’ now finds them turning inward again, using distance from the noise outside as the starting point for their next record.
‘Given to the Night’ is released November 27 via Flying Nun Records in New Zealand and AD 93 internationally.
