Kategorie: Musik

„Heyday“ war ein ironisch gemeinter Albumtitel, Reaktion auf das Verdikt, das die Band nach „Remote Luxury“ traf: „Aw, they’re past their heyday.“ „Remote Luxury“ hatte zwei EPs aus dem Jahr 1984 zu einem für Church-Maßstäbe lediglich guten Album kompiliert, eine US-Tour endete finanziell im Minus, „The band was just drifting along in a sea of apathy“ (Kilbey). „Heyday“ war dann – genau das. Absolute Sternstunde, damals und für immer; Gold wert für Aljoscha in Rembrandtsommer und Poussinwinter.

„We’re still here, we’ve got the same ideals as when we started out, and we’re still aware there’s a special chemistry at work.“  (Marty Willson-Piper, 1986)

Marty Willson-Piper, „Heyday“ Liner Notes 2010:

„But, there was always some kind of built-in anti-success gene playing down our commercial side. We were notoriously difficult in interviews and Steve was cagey when it came to defining what The Church was actually about. (…) A magician is never asked how he does his trick.

I fell out with Steve one afternoon on tour in Hamburg and took the train back to Stockholm without playing the gig. [Am 10. Juli 1986. Willson-Piper war nach einer Woche wieder zurück in der Band].

‚Tantalized‘ was the second single. This song came out of a jam Peter and I had at the rehearsal studio when Richard and Steve were out of the room. Peter was behind the drum kit and I was slashing at chords like a mad person on my Rickenbacker 12 string then cruising into a frantic rhythm in the B-section before returning to the pattern that would be the verse. When the others came back we had this monster in there with us.“

God I’ve been asleep so long, I’ve been away
Back from software limbo the natives call today
I let their promises bind me
I let seductive logic blind me
I embraced a machine, went through the routine
I hid from the people who were trying to find me
Till the day comes when you realize
Otherwise you never care
Pandora’s box reveals a new surprise
Can’t wait to see your eyes, now you’ve been tantalized
For a hundred and one voluptuous days I broke the law
The labyrinth was closing so we panicked up a door
I let their wanton flesh obsess me
I felt their dreams and drugs assess me
I was hired and fired yet never inspired
Flattering, chattering words to impress me
All that glittered had me mesmerized
Otherwise I would have dared
Guess the nature of our enterprise
Can’t stop to sympathize, now you’ve been tantalized
I turned up in some harsh doomed city on another plane
I couldn’t believe the room I got or the guests I entertained
I felt the dirty streets surround me
I let the buzzing swarm confound me
I gave money to ghosts, I insulted my hosts
I could never get off the stuff that spellbound me

„The drums are so thick and natural on Heyday that they almost sound like they were recorded in a fairy tale forest. (…) For my part, the songs were wonderful opportunities for lots of electric 12 string guitar parts. Moreover, the interaction between the other stringed instruments, Peter’s guitar parts and Steve’s bass were nothing short of magical. Peter Walsh obviously understood the dynamic of the guitars, and the rich tones on Heyday showcased the intricate webs we weaved.“ (MWP, 2010)

Seaside town in winter, I’m trying to write my book
She’s broken down, it’s raining, I said I’d have a look
Uncurling human tragedy
Appropriately a mystery
She tells my story back to me
She said I’ll live this chapter till eternity

I let her go into the night
Night of light, satellite
Quite a sight to see

Oh oh what an ending baby, promise you’ll remember me
I’m not pretending baby, your sweet and wicked treachery
Water all my orchids, save my dynasty
I said I’m never, never coming back again
Never coming back again

“ … Heyday glows constant with startling colour and confidence“, schreibt Steven Cadbury [RAM, Australia, 02/1986]. Und Michael Morris [Juke, Australia, 01/1986]: „True, the inspired guitarwork and interplay with bass/drums provides a genuine excitement. But what draws the listener back time and time again is the yearning and vulnerable quality in the vocals, in such haunting tracks as ‚Myrrh‘ or ‚Tantalized‘. By definition, it’s spiritual music in the very best sense: it doesn’t always make sense except in the heart, which won’t ignore it. There might be a touch of confusion and venom in some of the lines, but it’s wit and charm strike beyond.“

„We’re interrupted by the telephone / You didn’t think they were invented then.“ Das Telefon klingelt in einer Zeit, in der es noch nicht erfunden ist: exemplarisch dafür, wie sich in Kilbeys Texten immer wieder Welten überlagern und durchdringen.

Aljoscha-Zeit: Spätsommer, zurück aus Florenz, „How can you be so invisible / Give me the nerves to see“.

Trotz begeisterter Reviews verkaufen sich die „Heyday“-Singles in Australien nur mäßig. EMI läßt The Church fallen. In den USA sind die Verkaufszahlen besser, und die Band beschließt, ihr nächstes Album dort aufzunehmen. Das US-Label Arista nimmt The Church für vier Alben unter Vertrag. Die Aufnahmesessions mit den Produzenten Waddy Wachtel und Greg Ladanyi geraten allerdings zur echten Herausforderung. Kilbey im neuen Jahrtausend über „Starfish“: „The biggie. The behemoth. The one to beat. Done with the geezers in LA. That’s called juxtaposition you guys. What a set of songs they had to work with though. We toughen up and lose some of the prettiness around the edges.“

Marty Willson-Piper, „Starfish“ Liner Notes, 2010:

„It was two worlds colliding – the West Coast scene’s obsession with perfection and smoothness and The Church’s predilection for jamming and psychedelia. We soon felt like the project was chained to a post, there was no chaos, nothing psychedelic and certainly no jamming. Richard in particular struggled to adhere to their strictness and when I listen to this record he sounds cautious.

We rehearsed the songs until they were perfect, like a gang of bank robbers going through the plan over and over again till there was no room for error.“

Steve Kilbey, 1988:

„Inspiration by its very definition means that you are unable to trace the source, I would have thought.  It’s a bit like saying ‚what does something invisible look like?‘ Do you know what I mean?  If it’s inspiration, you don’t know where it comes from.“

„I’ve just got this feeling that there is more going on than meets the eye. I think that song lyrics or ‚pop‘ songs should address these things more than they do.“

Marty Willson-Piper:

„The first track on the album was the cryptic, twisting ‚Destination‘, a good example of how far we had come in terms of writing as a band and the development of our sound. (…) The song takes you on a journey without moving, heading for a place you may not even be sure exists. (…) Arista released this song as a single. The light and shade of the arrangement, the builds from the verse into strident instrumental sections, the volume swells in the quiet choruses – great mood, great words, great guitars, great melody, great songwriting, bad single.“

Jemand auf YT: „Marty Willson-Piper’s guitar so transports this song into wondrous otherworldly places.“ Alle Gitarren, actually.

Our instruments have no way of measuring this feeling
Can never cut below the floor or penetrate the ceiling
In the space between our houses some bones have been discovered
But our procession lurches on as if we have recovered

Draconian winter, unforetold
One solar day, suddenly you’re old
Your little envelope just makes me feel cold
Makes destination start to unfold

Live im italienischen TV 1988. Kommentare:

My God this is one of the most intense performances.  The guitar work by both Koppes and Wilson-Piper is just mind-bending!  Emotive, powerful, timeless.  I feel so grateful to have had The Church with me throughout my life.  I would be a lesser man without their music.

Of all the Church stuff on YouTube, this probably comes the closest to capturing the magic of the guitar interplay of Peter and Marty.

Always such a mysterious band with mysterious songs – like this great one.

So raw and yet so dialed in. MWP and Peter are just so in sync here… Such a special band.

The Church = best damn guitars in the business. No one else even comes close.

Marty Willson-Piper 2010 über „Under The Milky Way“:

„My parts on the song were the 12 string acoustics. There are actually two rhythms played on different parts of the neck, one using a capo on the 5th fret, the other without a capo. The blend of the two make it hard to pick out the individual parts but the easy strum and evocative chord sequence introduce Steve’s naked yearning vocal perfectly.

Notice the second note on the bass – this is a powerful musical moment and helps contribute an unusual musical richness (…) Peter’s beautiful ethereal Wah-Wah electric guitar sends sparkling waves through the fragile shell of the song. A journey into something deeply philosophical ensues. There’s something about ‚Under The Milky Way‘ that takes you to another place, some timeless deep humanity that connects you to the stars, something that perfectly encapsulates you in the universe at peace in the great unknown, something that makes you close your eyes. We have lost count of how many times it has been covered. It’s a song that has its own life. It’s bigger than the band, a song that people who don’t even know the band, know.

We had no idea at the time of how this song would single-handedly write us into the history books and send us into the American singles charts.“

„Meanwhile, we were still struggling conceptually with the stiffness of the other songs. […] Interestingly we hadn’t really been willing or able to confront the issue of tempo within the band. Waddy came down on us like a ton of bricks about this and Richard was under constant attack. All this would lead to serious problems on the next album Gold Afternoon Fix that would change the shape of the band forever.

‚Reptile‘ was the highlight of Side Two and one of the most memorable tracks on the album. I wrote the riff in a rehearsal room somewhere in Sydney; it just fell out of my guitar like a diamond. Sometimes it just happens like that, but a riff is only as great as the song that follows it. It wasn’t just the lyrics and melody that made ‚Reptile‘ one of the great Church songs; everyone contributed their own crucial part. Sometimes a song can be mainly one person’s idea augmented by everyone else. Other times a song really is the sum of the parts working magically together. This was the case with ‚Reptile‘. Peter’s soaring guitar line, Richard’s intense hi-hat rhythm and Steve’s melodic bass line, acerbic lyrics and perfect melody brought this song to life.“

„Starfish“ erscheint im Februar 1988, und noch immer höre ich die Platte am liebsten aus kalter Winterluft kommend. Das Album katapultiert die Band auf eine neunmonatige Welttournee, Arista erhöht den Druck, man erwartet einen ähnlich erfolgreichen Nachfolger. Die Band hofft, mit John Paul Jones arbeiten zu können, die Idee wird jedoch abgelehnt, und so findet sich The Church Ende 1989 erneut in Los Angeles ein, um sich ein weiteres Mal in die kompetenten, aber kalten Hände von Waddy Wachtel zu begeben. Die Sessions dieser erzwungenen Liaison sind noch angespannter als die Aufnahmen für „Starfish“, und für Schlagzeuger Richard Ploog bedeutet dies das Ende der Reise.

Marty Willson-Piper, Liner Notes für „Gold Afternoon Fix“ 2011:

„By the end of the sessions Richard Ploog had only played on four songs and the absurd idea that a drum machine would compensate for Richard’s absence had been accepted. Consequently it was the most disappointing record the band ever made in terms of sound. (…) When I talk to people now I realise that a lot of the fans really did like it but unbeknown to them the problems were manifold. Richard had seemed to lose interest in the band, but it wasn’t just the music that was the issue. His relationship with Steve was fraught and he was on another life path […] Richard seemed to have forgotten he was the band’s drummer and with little encouragement from the production team he seemed resigned to the fact that he was not needed. […] Richard just did not have the discipline to carry on after the first few days‘ sessions. Waddy had eroded his confidence with his ferocity towards tempo, steady backing tracks and simplicity, showing less concern for excitement and spontaneous improvisation.

So Richard was sidelined. What happened next was perhaps the most stupid musical decision ever made on behalf of The Church. To overcome the problem of Richard playing the songs too fast, we were persuaded to use a drum machine.

But after we lost Richard we were sucked into the big machine, where we lost ourselves in glamorous photo sessions and expensive videos with faceless directors and a cast of thousands. Hollywood infiltrated our ranks. Our road crew was so large that we didn’t know all their names. Everything started to go wrong for us and culminated in two members leaving, waning sales, heavy drug addiction and no record deal.“

„Gold Afternoon Fix“ beginnt ominös mit „Pharaoh“, bleibt auf großartige Weise mysteriös und auf mysteriöse Weise großartig. Die Attraktion liegt gerade darin, wie die Band auch in einer Diktatur (Wachtel) ihrem eigenen Stern folgt. So klingt es, wenn The Church „Pop“ produzieren – futuristisch und doch zeitenschwer („a world passes by / with the sound of a young girl’s sigh“, „Transient“), metallisch kalt und doch romantisch, düster und doch zärtlich, melancholisch und doch strahlend schön wie Cinderellas Ankunft beim Ball. Vor allem aber viel zu weird, um jemals im Mainstream anzukommen. Kilbeys Zeitmaschine chromglänzend in der Asche stehend, grüne Schatten, ein ausgetrocknetes Meer, Traum von der Trapezkünstlerin in Metropolis. Mat Smith beschreibt im Melody Maker die Atmosphäre so:

„Gold Afternoon Fix is panoramic in its preoccupations – dreams and thunder, female universes – a sodium-toned Blade Runner landscape patented for their own backyard where the guitars no longer ring but brood, sounding an imaginary death knell for a worn out, silent planet.“

Und er spricht von „Steve Kilbey’s magnesium-eroded, despair-charred voice“. Magnesium-eroded. „And here, there’s lots of method in their madness, dear“, singt Kilbey in „City“, aber die Band infiltriert die Methodik der Produktionsbedingungen mit reichlich madness.

Willson-Piper 2011 über Kilbey: „Tethered, unable to break free to live out his stoner, sci-fi fantasy where elaborate and impossible worlds were inhabited by strange men and women and fantastic beasts that somehow spoke a language that we could all understand; a fantasy world that we could believe in. […] Which world should he be writing about – the world of reality or that of the imagination? The words seemed to jump back and forth between dimensions.

We had the songs, the imagination and the musical ability but no one seemed to quite know how to tap it, bottle it and sell it to the masses. Consequently we were doomed to be a cult band forever. A band you either loved or didn’t know. We were on the periphery of commercialism but equally too oblique to seduce the casual listener.“

Kilbey und Willson-Piper stehen später eher quer zu „Gold Afternoon Fix“, andere Bands würden an unheiligen Altären opfern, um nur einmal eine solche Platte zustandezubekommen.

„Terra Nova Cain, „with its lyrics that could be about alien seduction or just a kinky lover“ (The Morning Call, 1990).

She had unearthly eyes
She had a way of sifting through your mind
Like she’d done it to a million guys
She said, will you help with our research
I said, take me to your leader
She put her foot down on the oscillation pedal
She was a transdimensional speeder

Androidin / kinky lover in „her weightless bedroom“:

What is Russian Autumn Heart about?

„When I look at it, it’s probably a slightly anti materialism/pro aesthetic pursuit theme.When I was working in LA with Brix Smith, she was living in Sue Hoffs‘ brother’s guest house. His wife is Russian. She was reading one day in the back garden. She seemed incongruous in this warm sun-soaked Californian paradise setting. I made a comment to her about the book she was reading as I think it was something Russian that I’d read too.

She was so happy to discuss literature with somebody as she felt that people she had met never read ‚Great‘ novels where in Russia everybody with an education would gorge themselves on these works of art.“ – Marty Willson-Piper

„‚Fading Away‘ should have been great. It had a potentially captivating feel, the mood and the melody, a great chorus, some soaring guitar from Peter and me playing those three descending chords. Sonically unrealized again, there is magic in there somewhere but its hands are tied and it’s gagged and covered in polythene, kidnapped by the studio itself. The studio is a space ship and it’s the producer’s responsibility to navigate the stars and arrive at the right planet.“

Richtig aber falsch. Der Song ist alles, wovon Marty Willson-Piper glaubt, daß er es hätte sein können. „Fading Away“ ist my favourite auf „Gold Afternoon Fix“.

Don’t come to pieces in my hand
White stars reflecting dust and sand
That perfume makes me think of grief
Shake the faith, shake the belief
Who’s there to say that we’re living this moment
Feels like I’m in a play
The sets and the props of this, your apartment
Seem to be fading away, fading away
So I wander through these rooms
I feel the orbit of the moons
And I dream what I’ve become
And all’s forgotten by the sun

I understood before I knew
I realized I’d spend my life coming back to you

(„Laughing“)

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