A Love Letter of Faith

Little sweetheart, I wanted to tell you that yesterday the great BBC 3 and Soho Radio broadcaster, Max Reinhardt had us on his show. We spoke for an hour, much about you, of course and he had some very kind and thoughtful words about both the new album and our entire body of work together.

He called us “holy sonic icons”, little sweetheart, and I think that’s going be hard to top, don’t you?!

One of the things he said that really struck me was that the music has always seemed to him like sacred music and that that had so very much to do with you. 

That is so very much what I’ve often hoped others would take from this, little sweetheart, because writing, composing, playing, recording, our music has always been to me a form of prayer - for and to you. A love letter of faith.

Listen, little sweetheart - you’re on the radio! With all my love…

On Max's show

We’re always excited, little sweetheart, when the great Max Reinhardt - BBC Radio 3/Soho Radio - plays us on his show... and he has again this week! 

As Christmas nears, he featured one of my favorites from our album Til Morning Is Nigh - "Milles Anges Divins". It’s a French carol that Sylvia suggested for the album. I learned and re-arranged it and wrote out all the French in phonetics so I could sing it properly! Ha! I also play melodica on it! 

This particular episode of Max’s show is not available on the MixCloud archive but here’s a link to the track on Bandcamp and below is the video we did for it. 

Love you forever!

Still There! Always...

Little sweetheart, we were delightfully surprised this morning! 

On Fridays even before I get up, I try to tune in to London’s Soho Radio to hear the great Max Reinhardt’s show. It's on in the early afternoon in the UK but because of the time difference, starts here at 8AM. He usually plays a set of music during the first hour and then has a guest or two for the second and third hours of the show. 

He was doing his back announce before cueing up the last song prior to his first guest and he started talking about us! He wound up saying the most wonderful things about the new album - Forests, Voices, Coastlines, Dreams - and about our work, little sweetheart. Then, he played the last track - quite a long track - from the album, “Prayers Within A Cathedral of Trees”, before coming back to say a bit more. 

It was all incredibly nice and we’re exceedingly grateful but I think the thing that struck me the most was how well he understood how very much this is, as I often say, of, for and about you. Max has said before of us that we are “liminal” - sort of meaning that the music inhabits this place between worlds, and when he named each of us - you, Sylvia and I - he began, as we always do, with you. 

He said your name and then before he continued he paused and said with some emphasis - “who’s still there” . 

It struck me so, little sweetheart. Because you are. I know it. I felt. I believe it. It really is all for you. With all my love…
 

Live in London

Little sweetheart, remember I told you how we suddenly piqued the interest of Max Reinhardt - the former host of BBC 3’s Late Junction, who’s now over on London’s Soho Radio? He played “Infinity Hall” from the new album on his Best of 2020 show last month and then another track, “Snowfall” on Christmas Day. 

Well, last night he sent me a message on Twitter asking if I could do a live phone interview with him on the air this morning about 8am our time. He wanted to talk both about music and to have someone on from the US to talk about the rather shocking attack on the Capitol two days ago. 

So, I set an alarm - that’s early for you & me, right, little sweetheart?! - and was on my second cup of coffee by the time he called. I think the on air stuff went fine. Sylvia said it was like hearing me on MSNBC - ha! 

But I think my favorite part was all the off air stuff. Between segments, as Max was playing tracks (he asked for two musical suggestions of other artists - I picked Swartz et’s “Nighttide” and a really great Iranian ambient artist named Siavash Amini - we chatted. I got to tell him how much we’ve loved his shows over the years and he said really nice things about our work, too. He’s actually living in Oxford where you went to school. He asked what track he should play of ours but I left it up to him. 

He picked “Flag Day (Summer Dream Version)” from Sometimes in Dreams and I said that was a great idea since you are featured so prominently, little sweetheart! And that’s how the show ended - with your soaring vocals. 

Listen, little sweetheart, you’re on the radio!

Christmas Morning

It’s Christmas Day, little sweetheart. It started early, with a London radio broadcast at 8am our time here in NYC. We were back on Max Reinhardt’s show on Soho Radio. He played “Snowfall” from Deux Anges and had such wonderful things to say about it, addressing all three of us that I have to share it here for you now:

"Well, that's the first sign of snowfall this year, anyway. That was Bipolar Explorer from their album Deux Anges and it's on Slugg Records. And, um, I have to say - hi, there, Summer & Sylvia & Michael, if you're all listening. And you're all in very different places and very different dimensions, I know, but I just have to say, the more you listen to the album, the double-album, the better it gets! And it's all so different! That one ("Snowfall") is, uh, somehow or other, somewhere between Sonic Youth and "The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus" ! But, anyway, very fine!

Isn’t that just terribly nice, little sweetheart? Merry Christmas, my gorgeous girl. Listen, you’re on the radio!

Best Albums of 2020

Remember, little sweetheart, I was just telling you about all the wonderful, lovely airplay Deux Anges has been getting? Well, last weekend something extraordinary happened... 

Max Reinhardt - the legendary longtime host of BBC Radio 3’s great Late Junction - featured us on his show on London’s Soho Radio. And not just any show - his Best of 2020. And not just on the three hour show - he closed the show with us! “Infinity Hall” (which seems to kinda becoming the single) ended the program - his Best Releases of the Year - and he introduced us with these words: 

"And... Bipolar Explorer. Well... there is hauntology at work. Hauntology right in the center of their work."

From your days at Oxford, little sweetheart, to my days working in London as a writer, to our times, finally, together there, I think it would be hard to find two more Anglophile Americans than you & I, don't you? And an not unsubstantial part of that was listening, on both sides of the Atlantic, to Max - and John Peel and Verity Sharp - on BBC. Pretty heady stuff for us, isn't it little sweetheart? 

Listen, you're on the radio!