Los Angeles-via-Toronto musicians Sari and Romy Lightman — who, after initially rising to prominence as members of Austra, played in Tasseomancy with Evan Cartwright (Cola) and have respectively appeared on recordings by TOPS and Yves Jarvis (Romy being one half of the Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band) — have announced their debut EP as Lightman & Lightman, previewing the project today with lead single "Bethlehem XL," which features contributions from Hand Habits' Meg Duffy.
The eight-track collection Sister Smile is set for release on December 6. Invested in spirituality, the EP includes an imagined conversation between 20th century mystics Etty Hillesum and Jeanine Deckers interspersed throughout.
"We wanted to resurrect these two women as a means to examine a creative life founded in devotion, while exploring our own relationship towards ideas of faith, sensuality, and defiance," Romy and Sari explained in a statement. "Interwoven throughout the record is our own religious upbringing within an insular Jewish community and the rejection of these formative ideologies, including the unyielding support of Israel amidst a genocide in Gaza. These are conversations we've been having with each other since adolescence, so finding meaningful ways to explore these topics through this record was important to us."
Of the harmonically dense, interstellar "Bethlehem XL," they added, "An introduction to the record, intended as an overture. The narrator of the song slinks around like a Jean Rhys character, walking alone through empty streets late at night, filled with a material and spiritual longing. Feelings of interconnectedness & disassociation ebb and flow until the ending takes us to a higher, celestial place of joy and belonging."
The single arrives alongside a Zak Tatham-directed video, written by Romy. Check out "Bethlehem XL" below, where you'll also find the EP tracklist.
Sister Smile:
1. Bethlehem XL
2. Etty Part 1
3. Weave your name in mine
4. Sister Smile
5. back & forth machine
6. Give it all up
7. My sister, Saint Cecilia
8. So long, Etty Part 2