New Zealand dream-pop duo Purple Pilgrims announce third album, Given to the Night

Given to the Night follows previous albums Eternal Delight released in 2016, and 2019's Perfumed Earth from sisters Clementine and Valentine Nixon. The album was written during a time of personal transition in which they focused on enjoying the lighter moments, with "Innocence Lost" landing as the first preview of the collection of songs.

"It often feels like our songs are little messages from our future selves, communications from the other side of things," the duo explain. "The meaning tends to reveal itself with time. This song was very much that."

They add: "Heartbreak is an ultimate inevitability of love – the discomfort in trying to accept that duality, and the idea that even at one's lowest ebb, it's still possible to maintain a spark of hope. 'Innocence Lost' is a smouldering spark of hope in the darkness, the feeling that although it's pitch-black there might be something glowing just beyond, out of view."

While making the album, Valentine and Clementine created distance from the world, deleting social media and only inviting a couple of people to be involved the recording process. "We recorded songs as they appeared, which sometimes felt like catching light," the pair explain of how Given to the Night came together. "Before we realised it we had a record."

Given to the Night artwork

Given to the Night tracklist

"Innocence Lost"
"Outside"
"Look to the Moon"
"Angel (Passing through this Scene)"
"Love Arrived"
"Echo"
"Wherever You Go, There You Are"
"Receive"
"Windows"
"Universal Love"
"Unseen"