Clarion Regardless

Although two of them were already extremely familiar with each other, the three members of New York-based School Of Seven Bells – often referred to as SVIIB – first met when they were in different bands playing support on an Interpol tour in the mid-noughties. Having hit it off immediately, it wasn’t long before Benjamin Curtis (of Secret Machines) and identical twins Alejandra and Claudia Deheza (of On! Air! Library!) decided to ditch their former outfits, and start making music together instead.

“I think the connection was huge when we first met, but it wasn’t the sort of climactic moment of ‘let’s quit what we’re doing and explore this’,” Curtis explains. “It was more like a seed was planted and we thought, ‘this could be really interesting’. It was in the back of our minds for a while and things sort of wound up individually for each of us. So it came together very organically.”
In early 2007, the three moved into a Brooklyn loft and set up a home recording studio. According to Curtis, the pros of working with identical twins far outweigh the cons.
“It’s actually great because you can work very quickly, which really suits me. When I’m writing, I don’t like to stop and discuss what’s going on. I prefer to let the ideas come out really rapidly. With Ali and Claudia most of their communication is non-verbal, which means we often get to where we need to go really quickly and without analysing everything. They’re on the same wavelength.”
Maybe other wavelengths, too. As their ghostly, ethereal and hypnotic sound hints, Ali is a lucid dreamer. “Actually, I think Ali and Claudia both are. Ali is definitely in touch with it. I don’t know how she does it. I’ve only come close once. She was trying to coach me through it, but I’m not there yet.”
Named after a mythical South American pickpocket training academy, SVIIB released their dreamlike debut Alpinisms in 2008. Widely acclaimed, it made many influential ‘Albums of the Year’ lists, and led to support slots on tours with the likes of Bat For Lashes and White Lies. The Edge even namechecked them as an influence on U2.
Their sophomore album Disconnect From Desire has been released on Full Time Hobby Records. Sounding like a mystical mash-up between Brian Eno (the title is taken from one of his oblique stratagems), Stereolab and Cocteau Twins, it sees them adopting a bigger, more emphatic sound.
“I think it’s a really personal record,” Curtis explains. “The title to me is referencing the fact that it’s not really a disconnection from what you love, it’s more of a disconnect from a future that’s never really gonna be real. Becoming familiar with what you have, and taking a good look at it, and realising that’s all you need. Where Alpinisms was more of a broad stroke of the brush, this one is a little more detailed.”
Disconnect From Desire is very much a complete, interconnected, thematically airtight work. Is Curtis worried that cherry-picking listeners will miss the album’s overall point in today’s download culture?
“Well, freedom is great and any time there’s an option, I think it’s a good thing for anybody buying anything,” he says. “I’ve gone through phases myself where I’m always listening to single tracks by certain bands rather than whole albums – especially with electronic music. But then when we put out Alpinisms, I saw all these people trying to draw connections between songs and I noticed how certain songs reinforced other things in the context of an album. And how much calling a group of songs something like Disconnect From Desire gives a certain weight to the songs. It colours them a certain way and puts them in a certain context. And context in art is huge, especially in music, so I don’t see the album going away anytime soon.”

Disconnect From Desire is out now on Full Time Hobby