FoundTrack's Winter '09 Collection (Track 5/22) - School of Seven Bells - Connjur

School of Seven Bells - Connjur (Track 5/22)
Album - Alpinisms (Sample/Purchase)
Label - Ghostly Intl
http://www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells
http://www.schoolofsevenbells.com/


At a time when band names are so hard to conjure, especially without the aid of a trip to the zoo, School of Seven Bells allowed their name to create a sound all their own. While on tour for their respective bands in '04, Alejandra and Claudia Deheza (On-Air Library!) and Benjamin Curtis (Secret Machines) connected one late night watching a PBS documentary on a mythical South American Pickpocket Academy in the 80's named the School of Seven Bells, sparking a creative reconnaissance of cryptic musicality between the threesome. A few years later their experiments in sound would gain the attention of Blonde Redhead, Robin Guthrie (Cocteau Twins) and Prefuse 73, whose "Class of 73 Bells"- a re-working of SVIIB's "Iamundernodisguise"- introduced me to the band's work.

Now on their marvelous debut, Alpinisms, the bells ring with elements of dream-pop, IDM, and beaty shoe-gazery wrapped around Curtis' gentle guitar and the sisters acapellic chants. They were the talk of this year's CMJ festival in NY, and have become a station favorite on the other coast with a string of consecutive weeks on top of KCRW's weekly charts, a solid live session on Morning Becomes Eclectic with Jason Bentley, and now headliners of the station's official showcase at SXSW in Austin. Here's a video of the Brooklyn trio's "Half-Asleep" by Toby Holbrooks.

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