Album Notes

“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...”
~ Timothy Gabriele, Origivation Magazine

Philadelphia’s Northern Valentine make post rocking ambient music that is simultaneously glacial & warm, minimalist & dense, soothing & overwhelming. Northern Valentine follows the same aesthetics as bands like Labradford, Dirty Three, Windy & Carl, Aarktica, & Godspeed You Black Emperor. We’re pleased to have them joining the Silber family & feel they fit right in between Aarktica’s No Solace in Sleep & Mike
VanPortfleet’s Beyond The Horizon Line.

Northern Valentine is built around husband & wife team Robert (guitar) & Amy Brown (violin & keyboards). They have been recording since 1997 & have six limited release albums to their credit in numerous incarnations with various additional musicians. On The Distance Brings Us Closer Robert & Amy are joined by Jeffrey Bumiller (of Doctor Scientist & Lunch with Beardo) on guitar, Marc Carazo on bass guitar, & Ben Fleury-Steiner (of Light of Shipwreck & owner of Gears of Sand Records) on guitar. The recordings on the Distance Brings Us Closer were live in their studio using a stereo field recorder without post-production or overdubbing, just the band members improvising off of each other on planned themes. The result is a very live & blended spacious sound rather than the sterility & separation that can often be found on a multi-tracked album version of a live improvisational drone band.

The artwork of the album is a collection of photographs from Northern Valentine’s tour in Iceland in June 2008. Watch out for them on tour in your area in 2009.