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CD
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SR 571CD
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On Beautiful Days is Winter Family's fourth album. It tells a lot of stories; that of the musicians themselves and their loved ones, those of their territories, of their life in Jerusalem, Paris, or Lorraine; that of women, "witches," conspiracy myths; that of capitalist and colonialist Europe; that of the blindness and violence of Israeli society and the indoctrination of its population; that of the occupation of Palestine; that of eternal lockdown and a laboratory rat; and maybe yours, too. The duo from Jerusalem and Lotharingia formed by Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine has been developing for around fifteen years a unique universe, to say the least, alternating synthetic punk sounds and dronic prayers of a society on the edge of the precipice. Nourished by metal and baroque music, multidisciplinary theater and African-American culture, they continue to trace a unique path by defending a radical discourse that is aware of its contradictions. They play across the world in clubs, galleries and churches, music that is minimal, dark, political and abrasive, between magic, chaos and melancholy. Winter Family also create documentary theatre performances produced by major European theaters. Sometimes their daughter Saralei plays with them. Listeners hear layers of pump organs and harmoniums, an old piano, distortions and celestial white noise, sirens -- the sound of marching boots -- breathing during sleep -- stun grenades at checkpoint 56 in Hebron recorded by Xavier, the flows of Saralei's flutes, beats played on an iPhone and Ruth's voice. Listeners dive into all these contemporary stories haunted by history, feeling of a leap into the void, a state of dissociation or a feeling of liberation.
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LP
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SR 571LP
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LP version. On Beautiful Days is Winter Family's fourth album. It tells a lot of stories; that of the musicians themselves and their loved ones, those of their territories, of their life in Jerusalem, Paris, or Lorraine; that of women, "witches," conspiracy myths; that of capitalist and colonialist Europe; that of the blindness and violence of Israeli society and the indoctrination of its population; that of the occupation of Palestine; that of eternal lockdown and a laboratory rat; and maybe yours, too. The duo from Jerusalem and Lotharingia formed by Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine has been developing for around fifteen years a unique universe, to say the least, alternating synthetic punk sounds and dronic prayers of a society on the edge of the precipice. Nourished by metal and baroque music, multidisciplinary theater and African-American culture, they continue to trace a unique path by defending a radical discourse that is aware of its contradictions. They play across the world in clubs, galleries and churches, music that is minimal, dark, political and abrasive, between magic, chaos and melancholy. Winter Family also create documentary theatre performances produced by major European theaters. Sometimes their daughter Saralei plays with them. Listeners hear layers of pump organs and harmoniums, an old piano, distortions and celestial white noise, sirens -- the sound of marching boots -- breathing during sleep -- stun grenades at checkpoint 56 in Hebron recorded by Xavier, the flows of Saralei's flutes, beats played on an iPhone and Ruth's voice. Listeners dive into all these contemporary stories haunted by history, feeling of a leap into the void, a state of dissociation or a feeling of liberation.
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SR 505LP
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Winter Family is a duo made up of Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine. They met in Jaffa in 2004. Their dark, saturated and dense music is described as "death swing", "weird wave", or "funeral pop". They recorded new parts of this new album in St Martin church of Maxéville, France. Includes insert.
Xavier: "I recorded the pipe organ there, inspired by the Alsatian philanthropist organist Albert Schweitzer whose slow, bombastic performances, limited by faulty technique have always touched me deeply. In 2006, my aunt Loulou agrees to lend me the keys to the church. Ten years later, Loulou passes away, I play on this same pipe organ during her funeral. During the fall of 2018, in her room with old floral wallpapers, so cold, that I empty, surrounded by her missals and huge crucifixes I remix this pipe organs and the voice of Ruth. Through this late remixing, we wanted to deliver this woman from her agony, her eyes turned to the milkish Lotharingia sky and beyond, trying to illustrate this Catholic France of yesterday, as vain and terrifying as a month of November in this cold and humid garden, within reach of the incessant song of the A31 highway."
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CD
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IDA 121CD
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Winter Family is a duo of Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine who met in Jaffa in 2004. Their dark, saturated and dense music is described as "death swing", "weird wave" or "funeral pop". Their self-titled debut (2007) offered minimal music played by Xavier on pipe organ, harmoniums and piano backing strict spoken-word texts chanted by Ruth. Their second album, Red Sugar (SR 315CD/AV 032LP, 2011) was highly praised by critics. After they toured the world with their theatrical documentary Jerusalem Cast Lead (2011), they moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn. Attracted by New York/West Indian/Caribbean culture of their neighborhood, they started writing a new album. The block parties, community parades, and helicopters are frequent and Winter Family systematically capture all these sounds for their theatrical documentary work, some of them are also found on South From Here. At the end of 2012, Hurricane Sandy drowned all their equipment. They bought an old drum machine and an old synth and discovered sounds that were to make up the final color of South From Here. They began to mix South From Here in a cellar in Jaurès inspired by the sound of the Pierre Carré Orchestra and the reverb sounds at the Foire du Trône city fair. They recorded new parts of the album on tour - in the Guggenheim house in Kobe, Japan and during organ, voice and absinthe night sessions in the German Temple in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. For uncertain reasons, they then settled opposite Banana Beach in Tel Aviv. Ruth's lyrics attempt to translate the blindness into which Israeli society is definitively sinking. They published No World in collaboration with Yochai Matos (2015), released a cassette on the micro label Psychic Mule (2014), and completed South From Here, recording saccharine arrangements inspired by local weddings. The result of this long and painful calypso process is a mixture of pessimism and acceptance they summarize with these words: "Life is Beautiful". On South From Here, Ruth plays machines, drums, beatbox, and sings. Xavier plays old organs, synth, celesta, and piano. Some friends and their daughter join them here and there on the record: Ben McConnell (drums), Fabien Lehalle (bass), Victor Gachet (snare drum), Saralei Klaine (gaming and voice) and the voices of actors from Chekhov's The Seagull by Arthur Nauzyciel (Adèle Haenel, Dominique Reymond, Laurent Poitrenaud, Marie-Sophie Ferdane, etc.)
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LP
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IDA 121LP
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LP version. Winter Family is a duo of Ruth Rosenthal and Xavier Klaine who met in Jaffa in 2004. Their dark, saturated and dense music is described as "death swing", "weird wave" or "funeral pop". Their self-titled debut (2007) offered minimal music played by Xavier on pipe organ, harmoniums and piano backing strict spoken-word texts chanted by Ruth. Their second album, Red Sugar (SR 315CD/AV 032LP, 2011) was highly praised by critics. After they toured the world with their theatrical documentary Jerusalem Cast Lead (2011), they moved to Flatbush, Brooklyn. Attracted by New York/West Indian/Caribbean culture of their neighborhood, they started writing a new album. The block parties, community parades, and helicopters are frequent and Winter Family systematically capture all these sounds for their theatrical documentary work, some of them are also found on South From Here. At the end of 2012, Hurricane Sandy drowned all their equipment. They bought an old drum machine and an old synth and discovered sounds that were to make up the final color of South From Here. They began to mix South From Here in a cellar in Jaurès inspired by the sound of the Pierre Carré Orchestra and the reverb sounds at the Foire du Trône city fair. They recorded new parts of the album on tour - in the Guggenheim house in Kobe, Japan and during organ, voice and absinthe night sessions in the German Temple in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. For uncertain reasons, they then settled opposite Banana Beach in Tel Aviv. Ruth's lyrics attempt to translate the blindness into which Israeli society is definitively sinking. They published No World in collaboration with Yochai Matos (2015), released a cassette on the micro label Psychic Mule (2014), and completed South From Here, recording saccharine arrangements inspired by local weddings. The result of this long and painful calypso process is a mixture of pessimism and acceptance they summarize with these words: "Life is Beautiful". On South From Here, Ruth plays machines, drums, beatbox, and sings. Xavier plays old organs, synth, celesta, and piano. Some friends and their daughter join them here and there on the record: Ben McConnell (drums), Fabien Lehalle (bass), Victor Gachet (snare drum), Saralei Klaine (gaming and voice) and the voices of actors from Chekhov's The Seagull by Arthur Nauzyciel (Adèle Haenel, Dominique Reymond, Laurent Poitrenaud, Marie-Sophie Ferdane, etc.)
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2LP
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AV 032LP
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High quality 180 gram vinyl deluxe gatefold version, limited to 300 copies. This is the long-awaited second album by Winter Family -- a rare and unique audio worldview expressed by the singular approach of Ruth Rosenthal (voice) and Xavier Klaine (harmonium, organ, etc.). This new album creates glowering and intense atmospherics, part nightmare, part uplifting dreamscape, permeating and building into a compelling whole. A reference point might be some of the output of Constellation records -- and indeed, Godspeed! You Black Emperor's Norsola Johnson plays on this record. However it is doubtful whether any of those artists ever produced anything to match the taut tension of the title track "Red Sugar," a hymn to absence. The ambition of Winter Family is evident on this expansive, orchestral epic dancing in the sun. Crank your speakers, sit back and open your mind. It WILL blow you away.
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CD
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SR 315CD
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This is the long-awaited second album by Winter Family -- a rare and unique audio worldview expressed by the singular approach of Ruth Rosenthal (voice) and Xavier Klaine (harmonium, organ, etc.). This new album creates glowering and intense atmospherics, part nightmare, part uplifting dreamscape, permeating and building into a compelling whole. A reference point might be some of the output of Constellation records -- and indeed, Godspeed! You Black Emperor's Norsola Johnson plays on this record. However it is doubtful whether any of those artists ever produced anything to match the taut tension of the title track "Red Sugar," a hymn to absence. The ambition of Winter Family is evident on this expansive, orchestral epic dancing in the sun. Crank your speakers, sit back and open your mind. It WILL blow you away.
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