Marie and The Atom


Marie and The Atom made music that dealt with moods and rhythms which exist outside the usual space and gait of life.

“Precise harmonious tone poems,” Rip It Up writer Jewel Sanyo called it, delivered over a constant (percussive) refrain that took the listener through a landscape of voice, strings and chilled harmony.

Marie and the Atom, 'Isol' (audio)
Gill Civil, during Marie and the Atom's tour with The Verlaines, 1983
Photo credit: Gill Civil Collection
Yellow Read Aloud, Marie and The Atom (side one label, Flying Nun 45rpm 12", 1983)
Marie and the Atom in Wellington, 1982. From left: David Daniels, Alison Wallace, Gill Civil
Photo credit: Gill Civil Collection

Gill Civil performing in Vulcan Lane, Auckland, 1983, before Marie and the Atom

Yellow Read Aloud, Marie and The Atom (Flying Nun 12" 45rpm EP, 1983)
Marie and the Atom, 1983: Sarah Westwood and Gill Civil 
Photo credit: Gill Civil Collection
Gill Civil performing in The Holy Trinity Cathedral, Dunedin, 1983
Photo credit: Gill Civil Collection
Graeme Downes and Gill Civil, during The Verlaines' tour with Marie and the Atom, 1983
Photo credit: Gill Civil Collection
She Said, Marie and The Atom (cassette-only EP, Industrial Tapes, 1984). This was recorded in December 1983 at a concert at the Synagogue with the Kiwi Animal and Papakura Post Office.
Marie and the Atom, 1982: Virginia Were and Gill Civil 1982
Photo credit: Virginia Were
Spit It Out, Marie and The Atom (12" EP, Flying Nun, 1985)
Marie and the Atom, 1982: Gill Civil and "Ginny" (Virginia Were), 1982
Photo credit: Virginia Were
Trivia:

Gill Civil is now a highly successful Canadian based pianist and composer (read more at her AudioCulture profile).

Sara Westwood also plays viola on The Great Unwashed's 'Can't Find Water' (from their 1984 double 7-inch package) and Tall Dwarfs' 'Nothing's Going To Stop It' from 1985.

Labels:

Flying Nun


Industrial Tapes

Members:

Gill Civil - keyboards, synthesiser, vocals, banjo, percussion

Sara Westwood - viola, percussion, occasional vocals

Virginia Were - guitar, vocals, percussion

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