The Church: Seance

Waiting for those Kings to come

„Priest = Aura“ (1992):

To listen to much of this album is to eavesdrop on a man wrapped up in a fantastic dialogue with the outermost reaches of his imagination. If the rumours are true, Arista initially refused to release „Priest = Aura“, not really understanding what the f*** Church songwriter Steve Kilbey was on about and rightly concerned for his physical and psychological welfare.

One minute attempting to deal with some grand allusion to the space-time-continuum, expertly turning some equally outrageous grand illusion into fact the next. „You’re so deluxe, you’re so divine, you’re so 50 light years ahead of your time“, he sings, a victim of the love wars as well as the star wars. When Kilbey calls his lover a mutant, the smooth-talking f***er does so with a dozen red roses hidden behind his back.

(Mat Smith, Melody Maker)

Tunis and Sardinia
The ocean growing hungrier
Beneath these walls we’ll sleep tonight
Beneath this sky we’ll glide so bright

And kings will come and years will pass
Stars burn cold beneath the glass
And days will glow in distant times
In distorted haze the zebras graze

In deserts where the dust storm blows
And lush black swamps where mandrake grows
We’re marching laughing to the drum
Waiting for those kings to come

An infant with the voice of a crone
In Nebuchadnezzar’s parking zone
Calls out My Lord your end is nigh
I didn’t mean to make you cry

„My favorite thing in the world is that state between asleep and awake,“ says Kilbey (…) „That’s where I want our music to put people. It all happens in a dreamy, hazy place.“
„In that tunnel to the nonlogical part of your brain,“ adds new drummer Jay Dee Daugherty. [SPIN Magazine, May 1992]

„I definitely think that The Church is aimed at the female aspect. Our music is definitely aimed at that source, a female state of mind, not necessarily a feminine state of mind. […] It’s more of a contemplative, gentle, emotional, sad kind of thing.“ – [Steve Kilbey, B-Side Magazine 1992].

Ein ongoing project, ein ewiges Unternehmen in meinem Leben ist die Gestaltung eines Kalenders, in der ursprünglichen Form auf 36 Bristolkartons (für jeden Monat 3), mit Bildern von all den Menschen aus Musik, Film, Literatur, Kunst, Ballett, Mode, Geschichte, Philosophie, Kirchengeschichte, Fotografie, …, die in meinem / unserem Universum von besonderer Bedeutung sind. Um Geburtstage zu erfahren, schrieb ich in prä-Internet-Zeiten manchmal Briefe an P.O. Box-Adressen, die auf Schallplatten abgedruckt waren. Einer dieser Briefe machte sich auf den weiten Weg nach Australien.

Für Leser von „Aljoscha der Idiot“: „Am Tag, der ihr Geburtstag war, weilte Leda noch bei Sonja, während Aljoscha den Blick auf Dantes Begegnung mit Beatrice an der Westwand seines Zimmers ruhen ließ.“ – In dieser Szene lag mit ziemlicher Sicherheit „Heyday“ von The Church auf dem Plattenspieler in Aljoschas Zimmer. Zusammen mit der LP hatte ich die „Tantalized“ 7″ erworben, die B-Seite darauf war „The View“, gesungen nicht von Steve Kilbey, sondern von Marty Willson-Piper: einer der Songs, die Aljoscha im Walkman ständig hört, Songs, die Wagemut verliehen für das Beschwören des Unausweichlichen.

Take this daring leap
Wake, you’ve been asleep
Go attack your life
The paint is peeling, scrape to save what’s yours

Polish your window, don’t block out your view

Einige Zeit später kam tatsächlich Post von The Church. Alle 4 hatten unterschrieben, und einer der 4, offensichtlich Richard Ploog, verriet mir die Geburtstage. It’s already yesterday, we’re off the calendar – but now they were also on it.

Uninvited, Like The Clouds

SPIEGEL ONLINE Forum „CDs der Woche – und Ihre Favoriten?“

23.08.2007

Mein derzeitiger Favorit ist „Uninvited, Like The Clouds“ von The Church. Die ist zwar schon von 2005, aber die Bandgeschichte findet eh in einem anderen Raum-Zeit-Kontinuum statt. Wie ja alle eben nicht wissen, ist dies die meistskandalös ignorierteste beste Band der Welt. Die beiden Gitarristen, Marty Willson-Piper und Peter Koppes, sind Bewahrer diverser Geheimnisse, zum Beispiel: wie würde ein fliegender Teppich klingen, wenn er klänge? Beide weben, Song für Song, seit 25 Jahren, einzigartige Texturen in einer ebenfalls einzigartigen Weise des Zusammenspiels. Ein Church-Song erklärt dir, wofür Gitarren erfunden wurden. Der größte Faux-pas im Zusammenhang mit dieser Band ist der Satz: Waren das nicht die mit „Under The Milky Way“? Ja. Waren sie. Und sie sind siriusweit davon entfernt.

„Uninvited, Like The Clouds“ kommt 20 Jahre nach „Heyday“ und 13 Jahre nach „Priest = Aura“, den beiden bislang besten Alben von The Church, und als Bonus gibt es Pausen zwischen den Songs, die als akustisches Menetekel plötzlich die blasse Einfallslosigkeit von Heerscharen anderer „The“-Bands erscheinen lassen. Steve Kilbey hat eine Stimme, der man glaubt, daß er tatsächlich im Zeitalter Nebukadnezars der Entdecker der Melancholie war, besser, der toska, der unbestimmten Sehnsucht nach etwas Unerreichbarem, das dann doch immer wieder in Wahrnehmungen aufblitzt, für die Kilbey seit jeher magisch-mystische Bilder findet, in denen Dinge zusammenkommen, die sonst nicht zusammenkommen. Die Band befindet sich, nach endlosen Turbulenzen, in ihrer x-ten kreativen Hochphase, längst jenseits von Gut und Böse des kommerziellen Erfolgs, trotzdem: spenden Sie Ihr Geld dieser Kirche.

Eventually
We came to a chasm dark and wide
And drifted in silence through endless anenomes
In shallow dreams
Life was beginning to take a shape
Water was warm as it hastened our enemies

This kind of world will start a little colony
This kind of earth will eat a little energy
This kind of thing needs a little secrecy

After thousands of years
Our priests have predicted you would come
You with your death that appears in no photograph
We watched the night sky
We bickered like fools amongst ourselves
We sought protection in artificial youth

This kind of world will start a little colony
This kind of earth will eat a little energy
This kind of thing needs a little secrecy

In a sickening jump
I fell through the surface of my life
And I was caught back by the hollow camaraderie
The planet was still
Nothing moved as it slept in space
I pulled on my suit and exited quietly 

Just like the stories they tell ya
Just like the tripe that they sell ya
Just like the dead you say hell yeah  

Watch out
You can never be certain if anyone is really a friend
This could have been such a sweet thing

Ein ruhiges und ein aufgewühltes Meer zugleich

SPIEGEL ONLINE Forum

15.11.2008

Eine meiner absoluten Lieblingsbands, wiewohl es natürlich viele Weisen des Lieblingsbandseins gibt. Kilbey ist einer der besten Songwriter on God’s Green Earth und die Band eine der schmählich Unterschätztesten. „Under The Milky Way“ wurde kürzlich zum Best Australian Song der letzten 20 bzw. 20 000 Jahre gewählt.

„I just stumbled upon it and for some reason it has struck this wonderful sense of universality with people that most of my songs don’t.“ – Steve Kilbey

And it’s something quite peculiar
Something shimmering and white
It leads you here despite your destination
Under the milky way tonight

Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

SPIEGEL ONLINE Forum

05.03.2009

Zweimal live gesehen, Hamburg war immer ein heißes Pflaster für die Band (die haben sich hier gar mal kurzzeitig getrennt), aber die Konzerte waren phantastisch, mysteriös und intensiv.

SPIEGEL ONLINE Forum

23.04.2009

„Priest = Aura“ dürfte ihr ewiges Meisterwerk bleiben. Die Magie von The Church ist schwer zu beschreiben, man müßte dafür das englische Wort „imagery“ heranziehen, vielleicht auch das Wort „otherworldly“. Ich kenne keine andere Band, die durch das Zusammenspiel von Text und Musik eine Art von IMAGERY herstellt, die derart enigmatisch Zeit und Raum durchquert. „Otherworldly“ bedeutet dann: Augen, die sich umsehen in der Welt hinter der Welt.

Steve Kilbey: „I write songs that I may not understand for years.“

SPIEGEL ONLINE Forum

12.02.2011

The Church: ich habe gerade dieses Interview mit Steve Kilbey gelesen, in dem er meint, daß wirklich keiner voraussah, in welche Höhen „Under The Milky Way“ abheben würde, es war der Song auf „Starfish“, von dem die Band eigentlich am wenigsten hielt: „It was kind of the black sheep of the album that nobody wanted to know about.“

Wenn es Tage gibt, an denen ich weiß, daß die Seele ein ruhiges und ein aufgewühltes Meer zugleich ist, dann ist, time and again, The Church im Spiel.

Adventskalender 2014:

„Further / Deeper“ gibt es hier noch gar nicht (oder nur als Import), habe sie im Churchshop bestellt, die zweite Post, die ich jemals aus Australien bekam. Die erste war auch von The Church. :)  

Müssen die erste Platte ohne Marty Willson-Piper machen (lebt in Schweden und antwortete einfach nicht mehr), und produzieren, Ian Haug neu in der Band, so ein Zauberkünstlerstück.

Wie immer schicken sie dich in ein Labyrinth, für das nur du den Faden hast, und das Mysterium endet mit „Miami“. „I’m moving back to Miami“. Die ödeste Zeile, mit der man einen Song beginnen kann, aber da Steve Kilbey hier die Texte schreibt, gelangen wir schnell ins aurale Äquivalent eines rätselhaften Films. Der Erzähler scheint eine Verflossene überreden zu wollen, ihm nachzukommen, zu „my place by the sea… I think Humphrey Bogart stayed there in 1943. He was joined by Janet Leigh, Babe.“ Beunruhigende Andeutungen in den Zeilen: „It’s easier for you / Asleep in the darkness / After what you went through“. Als es dann plötzlich weitergeht mit „I don’t think I mentioned I met someone else“, „She was better than both of us“, wird das Narrativ unscharf, Zeitebenen verschieben sich, „Whatever I say, it has escaped me“, die Frau, für die er das Geld für ein „first class on BOAC“-Flugticket auftreiben will, ist wahrscheinlich lange tot: „I think of you cold / I think of you still / I think of you living / Your ziggurat on a hill / The gardens were moving / Like waves on a shore / My head always aching / My eyes always sore“. Und dieser Moment, als der Bewußtseinsstrom in a confused mind, in dem die Erinnerungsfragmente, die Geister der Vergangenheit durcheinanderwirbeln, vielleicht selbst a dead man’s dream, „Swimming pool heat / Some weather door slammed / A car started up / Frequencies jammed“, einfach nur noch sinnlos insistiert „Miami, Miami“, wie ein Ruf ins Jenseits, oder aus dem Jenseits, keine Zeile könnte an dieser Stelle wirkungsvoller sein, it totally thrills me, it’s fucking genius.

Steve Kilbey, 11.01.2012, auf The Time Being:

of course peter koppes of whom it is hard to imagine
a time when he was not accomplished on a load of instruments
his understanding of music is that of an absolute master
his playing is filled with restrained power and melodic grace
his sound is vast and distant
sometimes its hard to understand what he is actually doing
to his apollo is marty’s dionysus
more abrasive more metallic more inflaming
thus they interweave both being yin and yang at anyone time

„Of Skins And Heart“, das Debut von 1981, wird 2010 wiederveröffentlicht mit Liner Notes von Marty Willson-Piper:

„The lyrical juxtaposition of down to earth realism and sci-fi fantasy (…) became a constant element and a defining ingredient of The Church.

It all started here with this ragged yet accomplished debut, not only spawning a hit but also capturing a following of devotees that would never go away.“

„Is This Where You Live“: „On this track the band really gelled. (…) Dynamic build-ups, atmospheric soundscapes and arpeggio 12 string guitars became trademarks of the band’s sound. Steve’s surrealistic lyrics and Peter’s amazing reverse guitar solo were the icing on the cake. Intertwining phosphorescent guitars created such a deep sonic landscape that you’d swear there was a guitar motif in there that nobody played. That was ‚Gusto‘ our imaginary friend and he never left us.“

„The Blurred Crusade“, 1982, Liner Notes von Marty Willson-Piper 2010:

„But we didn’t care that much about what people thought. We were blazing our own trail, engrossed in our own magic, only looking up occasionally to see if the trick was working and if it wasn’t, we would just carry on, looking down, holding on till the end of the show like drowning sailors.

Steve had a handful of new tracks for this record but, as the band was entering into its second year with a vibrant new drummer, we started to jam together more and more. The musical chemistry was enhanced by Richard’s fluid drumming. He was effortless on the hi hat and the songs took on a new smooth feeling of flying through the clouds. The band was suddenly breezy and natural; the tension within the group and in the music had dissipated somewhat with Nick Ward’s departure and the songs were now gliding across the tops of the trees, softly brushing the leaves. This velvety backbone, combined with the impossible chords we were creating, enhanced Steve’s songs and opened us up to the possibilities of the music we could make.“

„An Interlude“: „Steve sings of a dream world of capture and escape, willing prisoners and doubtful guests in netherworlds of imagined mythical figures. The female voice behind Steve’s is Mary, Bob [Clearmountain]’s wife.“

„They’re going to send you away“ she said
Psychic angels spread on the top of her head

„You Took“: „It continues to be a crowd favourite with its dynamic peaks and troughs, intense climbing, jamming and extended instrumental middle section which grows and grows and grows till you just can’t take anymore and when the final release comes it feels like an express train ejected out of a tunnel into the relief of daylight.“

It’s a shame it’s not a game
We’re playing in it’s just the blurred crusade
The blurred crusade

„When You Were Mine“: „This was one of Steve’s songs that the band transformed into a snarling beast. (…) Strange half invented characters inhabit an unfinished world; a stark landscape of cold dreams. Shapes form and disappear before your eyes as you try to focus on who they are or why they are there.“

On a day like this, a hundred lifetimes ago
You on a shore, across the point
I looked through my hands and you drew me a line
When you were mine

In a storm like this, a hundred kisses of snow
You with another so easily sleep
What’s real and what’s dreamt become close and entwine
When you were mine

It’s a long way home from the Field of Mars
Distant, alone, beneath the platinum stars
And I turn to look, but I’m never any closer
Only just the rain makes the skin feel colder
All my life seems so far away
Air is soft in the Field of Mars
Tears and loss feed the overgrown grass
And I have to leave, but I never seem to go
Only more sad clouds where autumn winds will blow
All my dreams seem so long ago
Oh, Field of Mars
Time is past in the Field of Mars
Grief won’t last in the departing cars
And I call her name, but she never ever hears
And I call again to the cruelty of the years
Oh my love she’s so far away
Oh, Field of Mars

„Seance“ war meine erste LP von The Church, ich suchte nach ihr, nachdem irgendein Magazin sie als Platte „von geradezu überirdischer Schönheit“ beschrieb, und ich trug sie am selben Tag nach Hause wie den Zauberberg. An „Seance“ mag beim ersten Hören der Sound des Schlagzeugs irritieren, der ohne Wissen oder Einverständnis der Band beim Mix der Songs durch Nick Launay zustandekam; Marty Willson-Piper schreibt 2010 in den Liner Notes zu „Seance“:

„We all felt the same way about what we heard; Richard was frankly stunned. The tracks sounded so far removed from where they were when Nick was handed the multi-tracks. Only later did I realize that this is what he was hired to do – produce the mix as he saw it! Nick’s credit on the album was ‚Mix Engineered And Produced By Nick Launay‘. But can you imagine how the machine gun snare on ‚Electric Lash‘ sounded to Richard when he heard it for the first time? We wondered how Nick Launay could make changes as substantial as this without considering the opinion of the band. (…) Listening back to Seance now I must say that I’m finally used to it. But on first listening we were somewhere between shocked and horrified!“

Used to it war ich nach nur einer Umdrehung von Seite 1 und Seite 2, ich liebte die Platte von Anfang an und seitdem immer mehr. So sehr manche Lyrics meine Gegenwart beschrieben – was ich damals nicht wußte, war, wie genau manche Lyrics von „Seance“ meine Zukunft vorwegnahmen. Memories in Future Tense heißt ein Song auf „Of Skins And Heart“.

One day, doubtless, cloudless, bright
We’ll shake away the shadows of eternal night
It’s just the storm before the calm
Like the life held in your palm – it’s clay, one day

And you stand there, with ashes blowing past
Dipping into gilt-edged love that will be made at last
And the gold you spend and the hastening end
That you throw into the sea
Coming back a hundredfold, there’s no guarantee

We’ll walk and be like giants, we’ll all be honest men
I go back to my blindness so that I may see again
A woman standing on a hill is gazing out to sea
Dreaming of a new age waiting there for me
I call her from a distance and she smiles into the sun
And men and gods begin their dance, for their time has begun
And holy wars extended and battlefields of pain
Are washed away, forgotten in the perfect rain
Princes, kings and humble things are well-worn and content
Messengers come everywhere, envoys have been sent

Marty Willson-Piper: „Ultimately we were able to live with the strange series of events that took Seance from being our baby, to someone else’s demon child and to our astonishment the real fans of the band loved it.“

Steve Kilbey:

„The one the real aficionados claim to love the most. It bombed at the time. It’s tres romantic (my love). Doomed poets and mediums contacting the beloved. The constant dialogue between the living and the dead. Unloved at the time by the philistines passing for journalists. (…) And btw we invented goth on this very record. Right in front of your eyes.“

Marty Willson-Piper: „What EMI couldn’t have imagined was that Nick’s dark production and crashing samples made us sound even more mournful and distant, almost gothic, industrial at times. The band sounded much more left of centre than The Blurred Crusade and this was largely due to Nick’s mixes. (…)

It was as if the label, in attempting to steer us towards greater commercial success, managed to spectacularly achieve the opposite (…) the label had made us into a cool underground band instead of a commercial pop group … by mistake. And it left them unable to do anything commercially with the monster they had helped create. (…) The coffin lid (!) was sealed with a brilliant album cover (…) It was a picture Kim [Sandeman] had taken of one of her friends (Meg) for an art project. The shrouded pale figure with sunken eyes, holding a metal flower, a petal between her lips, was such a strong and evocative image that the band won fans and sold copies of the album by the power of the cover alone. Treated with a pink wash the artwork was complete. It was profoundly thought provoking and visually striking at the same time. In Europe, Carrere released the album in exactly the same form except the cover was a vibrant turquoise blue, changing the effect but maintaining a striking image.“

Und Aljoscha würde sagen:
„Du hast noch nie etwas verloren.“
Und sie würde sagen:
„Doch. Dich.“

That’s „Disappear?“.

Marty Willson-Piper: „I played the strumming acoustic guitar on ‚Disappear?‘, one of Steve’s moody masterpieces. Tons of chords going backwards and forwards in unnatural patterns provided a landscape for the strong images in the opening line, ‚Like a womb, the night was all around‘. And there was a line that typifies the intangible journeys of The Church, ‚It’s like the fog you walk towards but never seem to reach‘. There was another dreamy solo from Peter on the outro, played on one of his two Strats.“

So many things I still don’t understand
The dream I was having took on an ugly face
I don’t know if I was walking through heaven
It could have been any place
Skipping cross the water, wading through the sand
Awake to find you gone, emptiness is where you lay
Well I just had to smile for all the things you’ll never hear me say
Now what do you expect me to do, disappear?
You and me, we’re as free as we can be
Can’t you see, like the trees so obviously
The message disturbs me so I throw it to the wind
And after all these hellos good-byes etc. etc.
We can’t start this thing again
It’s like the fog you walk towards, but never seem to reach
Every morning now I hear that same old song
And though the singer is long dead, his voice goes on and on
Ugliness you have to learn, beauty you can’t teach

Alone, at the end of the day
As I stand before the relics of what used to be you and me
You turn with the tears in your eyes
Not understanding that you are free, free of me

SIE hatte sich in seine Träume geschlichen in einer der Nächte
SEVEN LONG NIGHTS TO THINK
zwischen Dienstag und Dienstag […]

„Was schenkte dieser Blick? Hundert Rätsel und eine Gewißheit: er hatte existiert darin.“

Our eyes meet and I love her
I suspect she already knows
How those eyes see me so very, very clear
Even when they’re closed

Sinking silk and burning gold
Touch you as the air is turning cold
Another place I look for you
The heights above an almost perfect view

Seeing things just rest a while
As the tide sweeps out another mile
Inside the man the pleasure dome
This is the world that I once called home

Strangers in their naked skin
Waiting for their sweet oblivion
Close to you, hear all you say
Even though you’re continents away

The perfumed air, the taste of fear
Shrug your shoulders and they disappear
Take this gift and let it grow
Let it be all the hope you know
It doesn’t change

„Aljoscha trug die ersten Dinge in die Zimmer, die ihn erwartet hatten – ein paar Schallplatten, Geschirr und einen Band Gedichte von Majakowski.“

Zu den Schallplatten gehörte „Unearthed“, Solo-LP von Steve Kilbey, erschienen 1986.

Like a lizard the road crawls on
Into regions unexplored

I’ll wait for you forever
In my house all white with dust
Falling into lonely hours
Let the engines rust

Heliopolis