Biography All Music GuideWikipedia
All Music Guide:
A trio of underground synth pop reinventors akin to Cold Cave and Silk Flowers, Former Ghosts was formed by vocalist/keyboardist/programmer Freddy Ruppert, formerly of This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, and features Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart (vocals, synths) and Zola Jesus' Niko Roza (vocals). The group played their first tour in spring 2009, and that summer announced that their debut album was on the way. Fleurs was released that fall by Upset the Rhythm.
Wikipedia:
Former Ghosts is the project of former This Song Is a Mess But So Am I member Freddy Ruppert with loose collaborations from multiple people including Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart, Zola Jesus originator Nika Roza Danilova, Yasmine Kittles of TEARIST, Annie Lewandowski of Powerdove, and Carla Bozulich. Past live incarnations have included Jherek Bischoff and Sam Mickens. Ruppert is the lead songwriter on this project. The title of the debut, Fleurs, is a reference to the white-flowered iris (Iris germanica).Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
Formation[edit]
From an interview, Freddy explained the formation of the band: "A lot of the songs were written before Former Ghosts even really came together as a full on band. They were written as a way to communicate with someone in my life at the time. Once I had decided that this was going to be a new music project for me, having Jamie on board just came naturally. We had always talked about doing a project in this kind of style but both of our schedules were just too busy to actually do it, but then it ended up working out this time around. Nika got involved because I am a big fan of her band Zola Jesus and I asked her to sing on a song and when she sent it back to me I was so blown away that I knew that I needed her to be a part of this band!"Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
Critical reception[edit]
Pitchfork said the debut single, "Hold On," "sounds like what might've happened to Joy Division if Ian Curtis had bought a Casio and a four-track and fired the rest of the band."
Allmusic.com gave Fleurs 3.5/5 stars and said that "Former Ghosts evoke isolation with a fearlessness that few of their peers can match."
The blog, Fingers Become Thumbs, listed "Fleurs" as their album of the year (2009), stating: "In all seriousness, this is a dark and intense record in which Ruppert really puts himself out there, so much so that even listening to it can be emotionally draining. In saying that, by the standards of its members its by no means a ‘difficult’ listen, and in fact was intended to be the synth-pop side-project of Freddy and Jamie."
Prefixmag.com found Fleurs to be "intermittently brilliant," but felt it could "benefit greatly from more collaboration and judicious editing of the track list."Cite error: There are <ref> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist}} template (see the help page).
