Celebration

Hailing from Baltimore, Maryland, the group Celebration unites the distinctive talents of vocalist and percussionist Katrina Ford, multi-instrumentalist Sean Antanaitis, and drummer David Bergander. Ford and Antanaitis, who are married, launched their partnership in the turbulent early-’90s noise-punk outfit Jaks based in Ann Arbor, where Ford first developed the commanding vocal approach that would define the couple’s later endeavors. Following periods spent in Chicago and New Orleans, the pair relocated to Baltimore and assembled Love Life, shifting away from Jaks’ aggression toward a more shadowy, dramatic aesthetic that spotlighted Antanaitis’ keyboard work. Love Life issued two full-lengths, The Rose He Lied By on Troubleman in 2001 and Here Is Night, Brothers, Here the Birds Burn on Jagjaguwar the next year, before calling it quits in 2003.

In the latter part of that year Ford and Antanaitis debuted the project Birdland as a stripped-down duo. Bergander’s arrival completed the lineup that became Celebration. The trio cut its self-titled debut with assistance from TV on the Radio’s David Sitek; Ford had already lent her voice to several selections on that band’s Young Liars and Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes. Sitek also connected them with 4AD, which welcomed Celebration aboard in 2005. That autumn the band hit the road for shows that included a CMJ showcase timed with the album’s arrival. After crisscrossing Europe and the United States throughout 2006, the musicians returned to the studio with Sitek early the following year; the richer yet still provocative sessions yielded The Modern Tribe, issued later in 2007.

Celebration next delivered Hello Paradise: Electric Tarot in 2010 on its own Friends Records imprint. The effort grew from six months of concentrated writing during which the members noticed many of the accumulated songs aligned with Major Arcana cards from a Tarot deck. While Celebration kept composing and tracking material, Ford launched the side project Mount Royal alongside fellow Baltimore musicians. In 2013 the limited-edition 7-inch Tomorrow’s Here Today/Don’t Stop Dreaming surfaced, its title track drawing inspiration from the birth of Bergander’s son. That same year Mount Royal joined the Bella Union roster, and Celebration soon followed; Albumen, the first release to feature keyboardist and percussionist Tony Drummond together with bassist and guitarist Walker Teret as permanent additions, appeared in August 2014. Drummond and Teret participated in the recording of the band’s fifth album before Drummond departed to focus on solo work and Teret began touring with Lower Dens. The original trio of Ford, Antanaitis, and Bergander expanded once more for 2017’s Wounded Healer, enlisting Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring and Wildhoney’s Lauren Shusterich to shape a cathartic collection that juxtaposed midlife themes with otherworldly textures.