Clementine and Valentine Nixon are a sister duo recording under the name Clementine Valentine, formerly known as Purple Pilgrims. Raised between their hometown of Christchurch and Hong Kong, with time also spent in Borneo, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia, the sisters grew up immersed in ancient history, mythology, folk music, and literature — shaped as much by their itinerant upbringing as by their parents, who were an artist and a writer-poet who taught classics. Their grandmother, who came from a traveller heritage, introduced them to a rich body of folk songs, and Valentine in particular learned a large repertoire of ancient songs through her tuition.
While living abroad, the sisters were home-schooled by their parents, giving them the freedom to pursue the subjects that naturally fascinated them. By the time the family had returned to Christchurch and the sisters had finished high school, they began recording music using a couple of amps, guitars, a tape recorder, and borrowed microphones. Clementine was studying at art school and working at The High Street Project, an experimental art gallery central to Christchurch’s sonic arts and experimental music community. When Valentine turned 18, they played their first show as Purple Pilgrims — a name paying homage to Prince — and were welcomed into the local counterculture.
Two pivotal events followed shortly after their first performance. In the wake of the February 2011 Canterbury earthquake, the sisters watched liquefied volcano silt swamp their family home — an apartment inside one of the oldest buildings in the city. Around the same time, they recorded their self-titled EP for the PseudoArcana label, then left Christchurch for Hong Kong, where they quickly found their place within the underground music scene. The EP was notable not only for its sound but for Clementine’s art school sensibility: it featured exquisitely realised collage cover art and a hand-sewn zine included with the lathe cut and CD-R versions.
I first experienced Purple Pilgrims live in a small Lyttelton club, sweet keening ethereal folk songs that made me want to cry, run through a line of op-shop guitar effects and into a single tiny guitar amp that put up a brave warbling fight and never gave up its ghost. I was struck by their complete lack of artifice, and served a welcome reminder that the simplest and most heartfelt of music can move one to the depth of one’s soul. It was a goosebump performance.
Antony Milton (PseudoArcana), via AudioCulture
From their noisy, lo-fi roots in early 2010s Christchurch, the sisters toured extensively through New Zealand, Hong Kong, Europe, the United States, and Australia, gradually refining their sound. Along the way they shared stages with Ensemble Economique, Weyes Blood, and Aldous Harding, building a devoted cult following. Their third album, The Coin That Broke The Fountain Floor, released in 2023, marked the full flowering of their artistic vision — a move into high-gloss art-pop while retaining the mythological and folk foundations that have always underpinned their work.
Now recording under the name Clementine Valentine, the duo continue to draw on ancient mythology, folk tradition, and the psychic siblinghood forged through their unusual upbringing. Their work has been critically lauded across an increasingly ornate cycle of albums that spans more than a decade of restless creative evolution.
The Coin That Broke The Fountain Floor by Clementine ValentineMembers
- Clementine Nixon (vocals/guitar, Clementine Valentine, Purple Pilgrims)
- Valentine Nixon (vocals/guitar, Clementine Valentine, Purple Pilgrims)
Discography
- The Coin That Broke The Fountain Floor LP (2023)