Supporting WFMU

Little sweetheart, non-commercial, community and public radio have all been particular advocates of our music over the last decade from London’s Resonance to California’s KFJC to The Netherlands Radio Hoogeveen to France’s CAMP. They’re all quite different stations in their own right but all have in common that they are listener-supported and do not take corporate or even governmental funding. Individual listener contributions, often quite modest ones, are what keep them on the air. 

One of our greatest champions, little sweetheart, has been WFMU, who are currently in the midst of their annual fundraising “Marathon”. Most public radio stations give away prizes or “premiums” as gifts during the fundraising and, fervent listener-supporters ourselves, we’ve been honored this year to be included in all that. 

Two shows on WFMU have made our upcoming 11th album, In The Hours Left Until Dawn, a pledge prize (one of them a Grand Prize) as part of their efforts. It’s honor to help support WFMU and very kind of them, too, in letting more people know about our work - which is of, for and about YOU! 

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

Kind Words

Little sweetheart, like I was saying, the new album doesn’t release until April 7, but we’ve already gotten some lovely airplay and very kind words from WFMU’s legendary Irene Trudel to KFJC’s great Carson Street, from NSPR’s wonderful ambient music show Tapeta Lucida, to Italy’s White Light/White Heat music zine, who named it to their “Picks of the Week”. We’re very honored and grateful and, little sweetheart, it is, as ever, all for you. With all my love…
 

On Irene's Show

Another of our champions, little sweetheart, the legendary Irene Trudel included a track of ours on her Christmas show on WFMU this week. Another of my favorites from Til Morning, mostly because it features your soaring vocals. It’s "Noel". 

The full show is amazing. It’s up on WFMU’s archive here. And the the track itself on Bandcamp here. 

Happy Christmas, little sweetheart!

Honored and Grateful

Little sweetheart, we were terribly excited to discover that we were on WFMU’s great, long-running experimental radio program, Strength Through Failure, today. Indeed, we opened the show!!! 

The host (who goes by the semi-ironic pseudonym of “Fabio”) chose the track “The Dark Outside, The Light Within” from our new album, our 10th - Forests, Voices, Coastlines, Dreams: Recordings for The Dark Outside. 

We’ve been listening to this program, literally for decades, so it’s an incredible honor. The link to the show in its entirety follows here. 

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

"Forests" charting!

Little sweetheart, there’s continued to be a groundswell of support for the new album - Forests, Voices, Coastlines, Dreams - as it has made the Heavily Played Albums charts of both WFMU and California’s KFJC, where it has charted just this week at 31. 

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

 

Meet Up

Little sweetheart, we finally met Irene Trudel last night! Irene was one of our earliest champions, you may remember, playing tracks from Of Love and Loss and then especially BPXmas and Angels contemporaneous with their releases and has continued to be a great advocate and friend right up to the present day. 

Sylvia arrived from France (finally, after 20 months!) just about a week ago and she saw that a musician we really like - Maria Nadler - was playing a show downtown at LPR. Irene spoke about it on her show, too, so we got tickets and made plans to meet up with Irene and her husband Peter before the show, since they were going, too. 

I hadn’t been to a show since the pandemic began, so it all was a a bit surreal - I think for many of us, it was - but it was an amazing night, and so good to finally meet Irene and Peter. She’s already been on the air this morning and a played a track from the upcoming album as well as some of the things we heard last night, both from Marissa Nadler and the two support acts that proceeded here. 

It feels like things are maybe starting to get a bit closer to normal. And it feels like you yourself are very close, too. With all my love…

Heavily Played - DEUX ANGES (and Of Love)!

Little sweetheart, it’s May, and some of the non-commerical radio charts have been published. Incredibly, we’ve not one but two different albums charting the Heavily Played Records lists of two of the most beloved and important free-form stations in the country. 

Deux Anges has charted on the great WFMU at the #23 spot (out of 150) just behind Juliana Barwick and Sir Paul Freaking McCartney! 

And out in California, KFJC - which already had had Deux Anges all the way up to #21 in February - began adding some our earlier albums to its Current library, starting with Of Love and Loss, which is now itself at #28. 

Hey, little sweetheart - you’re in the radio! 

With all my love forever.  

More Radio Days

I almost forgot to mention, little sweetheart, that you've been on the radio twice in the last couple of days! 

As we're ramping up to the release of the new album, our 9th, Deux Anges, on your birthday, it's nice to report! 

Yesterday, WFMU, reached back to 2012's double-album Of Love and Loss, to play "Out", with your soaring vocals weaving in and out and floating above my own. 

And on Saturday morning 'FMU's Jefferey Davison played our most recent single "eleven:eleven" - the track I composed and we recorded for the UK's Dark Outside last April. Again, your vocals soaring above the bed of experimental dreampop sounds, Jeffrey had the kindest words, saying: 

"A long piece, "eleven:eleven", on Slugg Records, from Bipolar Explorer. I’ve played them before. Their stuff is really beautiful and I have to say this might be definitely maybe one of the more beautiful things I’ve heard from them – which is saying something. Really gorgeous piece.” 

As ever, little sweetheart - it's all for you! With all my love forever. 

Two Visions

Pausing work on the album, briefly, little sweetheart, to compose and record and special new work we’ve asked to contribute for WFMU’s annual fundraising “Marathon”.

Carol Crow, who’s featured us several times on her Sunday morning show, is putting together a special compilation album as a “premium” for pledging and asked us to contribute a new work. It’s meant to have a spoken word component (as does her show) with ambient or post-rock underscoring, so it’s very much up our alley.

I composed two poems for Sylvia to read in both English and French, then wrote and recorded the music, flying in your vocals over the top. It’s called Two Visions and very much, as ever, of, for and about you.

It’s always so wonderful literally bringing your voice to new works. Feeling very close to and grateful for you, today, my little sweetheart. With all my love forever.

Remember!

Little sweetheart, in listening to and thinking of Christmas music, including our own, I sometimes forget that we've made not one but two Christmas albums!

There's been so much attention to the more recent and rather more epic one from last year, Til Morning Is Nigh, that sometimes the earlier one BPXmas (2014) gets less attention. That's okay, mostly, but I certainly wouldn't want the song I wrote especially of and for you - the lead track, "It's Christmas, Sweetheart" - to be overlooked.

It's one of the first of our songs that the great Irene Trudel played on her show on WFMU it could be seen as beginning their wonderful advocacy of us. We even did a video for it, which calls so many things to mind and memory, not least because Jason was still in the band at the time.

I know you are closer than I can imagine, little sweetheart - I have faith! - and that we will together again soon and always. With all my love...

On The Radio (again)!

We were back on the radio this morning, little sweetheart! Back on WFMU. Carol Crow featured us on her Sunday morning show and it was a really interesting program because she used interview clips of each artist to precede a track from one of their albums. The three hour show included Aphex Twin, Nick Cave, Philip Glass, Max Richter, Brian Eno and... us.

The clip Carol used from from Part 2 of the new documentary about Til Morning Is Nigh and she followed that up with “Angel Frequency”, so your vocals were way up front.

Hey, little sweetheart, you’re on the radio (again)!

Full show here: http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/89167

Serious Moonlight Sonatas

For the last several months, little sweetheart, one of our newest champions has been WFMU’s Carol Crow, who has featured us some her Sunday morning show “Serious Moonlight Sonatas” several times, including just a week or two ago when she premiered our song “Angel Frequency” from the new album Til Morning Is Nigh on the air. Today, she wrote a really lovely review of the album. It’s below.

And, as ever, all for you, little sweetheart - the guiding light and great blessing of my life. With all my love forever.

TIL MORNING IS NIGH - BIPOLAR EXPLORER: "Ethereal music that sends the listener up towards the heavens to sit aloft on the clouds above.  A melodic conversation of sound is taking place with gleaming angels shining in the bright blue sky, dulcet voices taking form and weaving their golden threads in and out of the musical expanse, as if taking their cue from the sun's warmth as it beams forth.  A cloud coolly passes overhead for a moment and upon its passage, we feel the heat once again and the sun's rays shine even brighter than before.  A truly ascendant album to be listened to any time of year." -Carol Crow, WFMU

How Many Songs Are There?

Little sweetheart, our dear dear Sylvia is here from France working on the two new albums with me, keeping me company and helping with everything so very much. She was very moved from the very beginning to hear your story and our own and of my boundless devotion to you. And she is very kind, little sweetheart, and caring.

The other morning as I was making us some breakfast I had WFMU on in the background and Jeffery Davison played “Where Does The Time Go”, which brought me to a complete stop, as I stood there weeping, remembering how you loved that song and how you first played it for me in your room in Boston. I told Sylvia all about it between sobs and she hugged me.

Then this afternoon as I was doing my home physical therapy exercises for my shoulder post-surgery, again with the radio in the background and Sylvia in the next room, I began to cry and cry. She heard me and rushed into the room. “Is it the music”, she asked, ever so kindly. With tears streaming down my face, I nodded. And then, cautiously but with the gentlest kind of concern, she asked, so sweetly “how many songs are there?”

It was at once lovely, thoughtful and not a little hilarious. It’s something you would do, little sweetheart. And were you to hear it asked in that very moment (as I suspect you did) would probably make you smile, even giggle, cheering right up and give her a hug yourself for being so thoughtful, worried and probably not a little overwhelmed.

Honestly, there are a lot of songs. And countless moments, as I move through what remains of my life, when I am seized with thoughts of you, little sweetheart, and overwhelmed myself with so many emotions - of longing, of love, of affection, of gratitude.

Please help and guide me in these times and all times, won’t you, little sweetheart? And know I love you with all my heart and soul forever.

Woken

Little sweetheart, I've been listening to a new show on WFMU. It's on late at night, the overnight 3-6 Wednesday into Thursday, so I'm usually not awake when it's on and only listen back later on the station's archive. It's Olivia's show and very interesting not only for tracks she selects - a mixture of drone and experimental and pop and spoken word - but for the live sound collages she's mixes live on air. I started listening a few weeks ago.

Anyway, today I was really tired and sad and lay down for a nap. I had an earlier show of hers on and a song woke me. It was Fairport Convention's version of "Who Knows Where the Time Goes".

Little sweetheart, I remember you singing a bit of it when you & I were together in your room in Boston and it always makes me think of you. But honestly I'd never really heard it in its entirety - like heard the words. It made me cry and long for you. And also made me feel that you were near.

Please help and guide me, little sweetheart. And take me to you as soon as heaven will allow. There are so many things only you know and can help me with. I know you try as best you can to reach me. And I feel that hearing this today was another one of them.

Quietly napping, you woke me so that with no else to distract me I might know what you wanted to say and keep it safely in my heart.

I love you, my gorgeous angel. Forever.

Across the morning sky,
All the birds are leaving,
Ah, how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire,
We'll still be dreaming.
I do not count the time
Who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?
Sad deserted shore,
Your fickle friends are leaving,
Ah, but then you know it's time for them to go,
But I will still be here,
I have no thought of leaving.
I do not count the time
Who knows where the time goes?
Who knows where the time goes?
And I'm not alone,
While my love is near me,
And I know, it will be so, till it's time to go,
So come the storms of winter,
And then the birds in spring again.
I do not fear the time
Who knows how my love grows?
Who knows where the time goes?

The First Snow

We had our first snow today, little sweetheart.

I took a picture or two from the window and then ventured outside to take a few more. I was heading to the post office to mail a few Christmas cards - with the black and white photo of you and I together on the roof here during the first snow just before our first Christmas - it’s a card that I send out to a handful of friends (there seem to be fewer and fewer of them each year, sadly) annually.

Also in the outgoing mail today -  a copy of our Christmas album to that new DJ, WFMU’s Samantha Simmons, who seems to have taken a liking to us.

Afterwards, I walked to the market to get a few things I needed to bake Christmas cookies and I took a picture of the playground there at W52nd and 10th covered in snow. When I got home, I went up to the roof and took a couple more.

I’d been thinking about it because I’d remembered, just a few days ago, that I had some film of last year’s blizzard, also from the roof. So, I edited that footage and dropped it over a bed of music - our version of “Emmanuel” from BPXmas - and made a music video. It’s here. 

It’s getting close to Christmas, little sweetheart. And as you said in your beautiful letter to me on our very first one, “I am missing you.”

May our separation be a brief one, my darling girl. May it be only a preface to the Forever, where I long to be reunited with you in eternity. With all all all my love.

Lanterns On The Lake - Beings [Full album stream]

Little sweetheart, I heard a really beautiful song on Irene Trudel's show on Tuesday. It's from a band called Lanterns On The Lake. It sorta sounds like Beach House or maybe Goldfrapp fronting The National. I know you would love it. And if that's not enough, I discovered that the latest record, the album from which Irene played the title track, was released last year on your birthday. Of course. Of course... Love you forever.

Two For Tuesday

Little sweetheart, we were on the radio twice yesterday on two different shows. First on Liz Berg's great noon-3pm slot on WFMU. She opened her show with our soundscape shoegaze version of In the Bleak Midwinter. Then WFMU's legendary Irene Trudel opened her penultimate set of the evening with our dreamcore version of Silent Night - the one that has all that neat spoken word stuff of yours - in her 9pm-midnight program. It marked our 11th and 12th times on the station this year and 2nd and 7th times on Liz and Irene's shows, respectively, little sweetheart. Both tunes are from our holiday album, BPXmas which is turning out to be the best selling album in our catalog on iTunes. Sweetheart, you're on the radio! At Christmas! Love you forever.

http://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/64186

On the air...

We were on the radio again last night, little sweetheart. Irene Trudel played "You Are" from Angels to open her last set. It's our sixth time on her show this year, my darling girl. And she talked about the adaptation of Of Love and Loss and the concert performance for you on Oct 29. It's all for you, little sweetheart. It always is. When I let that guide me, I know I'm doing as I should. It just feels right. It's the only thing that does. Exactly as the song says: "And you're everywhere. In everything. You're all I know." Always be with me, Summer. Don't go too far away. And take me to you soon, won't you, my love? With love & faith... xM

"Ocean" - Bipolar Explorer

New video for "Ocean", the third track of our double-record, Of Love and Loss, little sweetheart. I wrote the song for you after seeing this painting - "Mediterraneo" by Alex Alemany - dreaming of you meeting me under the waves and walking with you all the way to heaven...

Thankfulness...

I was on the train this morning, little sweetheart. I've been narrating an audiobook this week and the sessions are at recording studios out in Newark, so everyday I've been up early and out to Penn Station to catch NJ Transit. It's been different getting up at that hour and it makes me go to bed earlier too, which isn't at all an entirely bad thing.

I remember how you loved sleeping and especially sleeping late. 10am was your preferred "early" wake time and I came to love that too. I'd been used to getting up a bit earlier to run in the mornings but found it impossible, indeed foolhardy, to leave bed if you were wrapped around me, your little ankles locked around mine, your head on my shoulder, your hand in mine. Waking with you was one of the best feelings in my life. As waking now without you is among the most continuously traumatic- it's like waking to tragic news each day.

Mornings are hard, my love. But today as I found a seat on the mostly empty early train (mostly empty because it's a reverse commute - most people at that hour are coming into the city not leaving) I thought of you, thought of the dream I had of you my last night in your bed at the family house this last Christmas holiday, that dream of you and I together and you telling me that we should "make a list of all the people we need to forgive".

I thought of that as I sat there watching the industrial landscape go by and I imagined you telling me to think of the things that I had this week to be thankful for. I thought of the book, that I was going to a job I liked, narrating an audiobook and how much you'd like to hear it when it's done, how you'd like to be sitting right there (and probably are) as I read aloud. I thought about how the band has been getting air play on both Irene Trudel's show and, this week, also on Liz Berg's program - both on WFMU. How that was such a dream of ours and that now it's happening - and with increasing regularity.

Those are both things to very thankful for, my sweetheart. You're absolutely right, as always. And also, maybe foremost, my love, I'm thankful for the lovely little Wednesday night candlelight Taize service at the beautiful little church on West End and 77th. The people there are so nice and thoughtful and kind. And I love that hour of mindfulness where I can be quiet and think and sing and pray for you. And last night afterwards, that nice young woman minister I told you about, Jes, came up and hugged me. And so did the nice choral director, Cynthia. And as I left, one more woman said to me that it was so nice to hear your name, my love - because I say it at that point in the service when we're invited to name either silently or aloud the people we wish to send prayers for.  I thanked the nice woman (I wanted to ask her name!) and said that you are always with me and she replied "I know that she is".

You are, my little sweetheart. My heart is so full of love for you. You reside there. Always, sweetheart. Please always be with me.