Northern Valentine

Northern Valentine is a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania based collective – anchored by Robert Brown, Amy Brown, Matt Primak and Jeffrey Bumiller. Their music builds on thematic improvisations that are often set to original films and visuals that the collective has created for live performances.

Coaxing sounds from electric and acoustic sources, they weave meditative drones and ambient soundscapes with post-rock instrumentation to create a tapestry that Phil McMullen [Terrascope Online] describes as “soulful and affecting, like gazing into a scrapbook of memories”. 

---[THE STORY SO FAR]---

Started by Robert in 1997, Northern Valentine evolved from a solo project into a collective with a core group of members by 2004.

After a string of self-released albums that are now largely out of print, their ambitious field recording project – “Leopard’s Mouth” (2005) – was rereleased in 2008, by their long time friend and musical collaborator, Ben Fleury-Steiner, on his Gears of Sand label. It was followed by an album that Robert recorded with guitarist, P.D. Wilder – “Northern Valentine & P.D. Wilder” (2008). 

Around the same time, they partnered with Silber Records and released two albums – “The Distance Brings Us Closer” (2008) and “Fin de siècle” (2012) – and two Eps – “Stars Whisper” (2008), and “Juno” (2012) - along with a self-released Ep - “Ribbons” (2012) - and a handful of songs featured on compilations.

From 2006 - 2015, the collective performed live and toured frequently along the East Coast, as well as in Iceland, occasionally featuring guest musicians joining them during performances. It was during this time that they also released their feature length film "Leopard's Mouth", which is a companion to their album of the same name. They performed a live score of the film at a historic performance at Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia in 2009.

After nine years of performing live, Northern Valentine took a break in 2015. Matt began releasing music as Scary Font and started a label, Fitness Cassettes - which released music by one of Jeffrey's other musical projects, Scream Time, in 2021.

Northern Valentine reemerged in 2023 with two new albums – “The Infinite Bleed” (2023) and “Dance of The Ragged Spirits” (2023) – as well as an expanded reissue of one of their earlier self-released albums – “The Unblinking Eye” (2006). 

In 2024, they reissued their first self-released album – “Pictures from the Lake” (2004), as an expanded edition that celebrates the album’s 20th anniversary and features previously unreleased music. That was followed by the release of "Another Time" (2024), an album of alternate and live versions of some of their favorite songs that they performed live between 2007-2012, and "Howl" (2024), a seasonal Ep celebrating a darker side of their music. They also debuted new music in Philadelphia, at their first live performance since 2015.

2025 saw the release of the first volume of a new audio occasional series of recordings, called "The Stylus - Volume 1" (2025) - featuring songs created by converting text from some of their favorite authors into music. That was followed shortly by two albums - "Violet Hymns" (2025) and "Displacer" (2025) - both of which saw the band digging deeper into musical spaces that they know quite well. The year closed out with the release of "Live at Eastern State Penitentiary" (2025), documenting their multimedia performance from the 2009 Philadelphia Fringe Festival - and "Andrew Weathers & Northern Valentine" (2025), an improvised tour recording that was captured underneath the streets of North Carolina.

Continuing their creative streak, "A Slight Purpose" (2026) features new studio recordings from Robert and Matt, crafting songs with more prominent synth and electronics.

Contact: northernvalentine (at) gmail (dot) com