Romy and Sari Lightman, twin sisters, grew up in Toronto and now based in LA. Long time members of Austra. Separately and together the sisters have also appeared on recordings from Yves Jarvis and Jerry Paper, released a pair of albums in a project called Tasseomancy, which featured both Lightman sisters and Evan Cartwright of the band Cola, and Romy is one half of the Lightman Jarvis Ecstatic Band, a collaborative project with Jarvis that put out a record on ANTI- in 2021.

Today, Romy and Sari are back with a new project called Lightman & Lightman, their debut EP under the name, and a release entitled Sister Smile. To mark the announcement Lightman & Lightman are sharing the single “Bethlehem XL” which features contributions from Hand Habit’s Meg Duffy, and is accompanied by a video written by Romy and directed by Zak Tatham.

Sister Smile draws upon themes of devotion, finding universal strands of beauty in the study of spiritual work. There is a timeless quality to their astral folk songs, weaving shimmering electronics into acoustic arrangements, while the twin sisters’ close harmonies recall The Roches or Kate and Anna McGariggle. Interspersed throughout the record is an imagined conversation between a pair of 20th Century female mystics: Etty Hillesum and Jeanine Deckers.

“We wanted to resurrect these two women as a means to examine a creative life founded in devotion,” explain siblings Romy and Sari Lightman, “while exploring our own relationship towards ideas of faith, sensuality, and defiance.”

Etty Hillesum was a Dutch Jew far ahead of her time, writing in great detail about queerness and sexuality, experimental psychology and her own spiritual awakening in the late 1930s. Imprisoned in a work camp, she wrote about the mechanisms of evil and the importance of finding humanity, even love while existing within governing systems of incalculable violence. Jeanine Deckers was a Belgian nun who became an international pop sensation with her hit “Dominique” in 1963, hitting number one on the American charts. Despite her international success, the terms of the recording contract left her reduced to poverty with her profits being absorbed by the Catholic church. After discovering her long term romantic relationship with another nun, she was exiled from the Catholic order. Depressed and facing financial ruin, Jeanine and her lover decided to take their own lives.

Though they never met in real life, Hillesum and Deckers exist together within these songs. The two women overlap in posthumous interviews, conversations, and surrealistic scenes — where an alternate reality ensued: Hillesum sees Deckers radiant in a magazine. The Lightman sisters began writing these songs by gazing backwards into history, yet are deeply rooted in our present moment.

Lightman & Lightman
Sister Smile
Tracklist

Bethlehem XL
Etty Part 1
Weave your name in mine
Sister Smile
back & forth machine
Give it all up
My sister, Saint Cecilia
So long, Etty Part 2

Pre-order Sister Smile HERE