The Hypnogogue The Church

• 1 Ascendence 05:37
• 2 C'est La Vie 04:55
• 3 I Think I Knew 03:56
• 4 Flickering Lights 04:49
• 5 The Hypnogogue 06:13
• 6 Albert Ross 03:53
• 7 Thorn 04:12
• 8 Aerodrome 04:31
• 9 These Coming Days 04:37
• 10 No Other You 04:10
• 11 Succulent 06:47
• 12 Antarctica 05:34
• 13 Second Bridge 05:20
• Total Runtime 01:04:34

Info for The Hypnogogue

Australian icons The Church will release their 26th studio album The Hypnogogue.

“The Hypnogogue is the most prog rock thing we have ever done, we’ve never created a concept album before,” band leader Steve Kilbey said in a statement. “It is the most teamwork record we have ever had. Everyone in the band is so justifiably proud of this record and everyone helped to make sure it was as good as it could be. Personally, I think it’s in our top three records.”

The Church released the album’s title track at the end of August, which Kilbey described as being “set in 2054, a dystopian and broken down future.” He continued, “Invented by Sun Kim Jong, a North Korean scientist and occult dabbler, [the hypnogogue] is a machine and a process that pulls music straight out of dreams.”

The band has changed formation a bit in recent years. Founding guitarist Peter Koppes departed in 2020, while guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper left back in 2013. Kilbey is the only original member of the group left, with a new lineup around him including guitarists Ash Naylor (who plays with Paul Kelly) Powderfinger’s Ian Haug, and multi-instrumentalist Jeffrey Cain. Drummer Tim Powles has been with the group since 1994.

The Church

The Church
finds itself cherished as a bona fide legend in the ARIA Hall of Fame while remaining a virtual enigma to the world that knows its name. But maybe that’s no more remarkable than the mystery that continues to unfold within its own ranks. the church’s accidental signature tune, Under The Milky Way, is like a lighthouse on the brink of a continent forever to be discovered: 25 albums over 35 years and countless diversions that have almost destroyed them a dozen times, yet always reaffirm a mutual commitment to an uncompromising and unparalleled act of creation. At this stage of the journey, FURTHER/DEEPER seems both unimaginable and the only option on their endless quest from chaos to resolution. It’s an album of breathtaking new vistas and intense emotions, of sinister black caskets and gorgeous caverns of light, a work born of immense struggle and effortless expression.

“The magic started on day one,” says singer and bass player Steve Kilbey. “Someone strummed a chord or struck a drum or plucked a note and we were off. We wrote and recorded like demons and it was inspiring to feel every member using all his resources in the service of this record.” Twenty-six songs were born over eight days of exploration in Sydney in late 2013. Guitarist Peter Koppes, recalibrating his personal canvas in the absence of his long-time foil Marty Willson-Piper, drew palpable inspiration from the quartet’s remixed chemistry. “This new incarnation of the band with Ian Haug has brought a joyous energy to the music we’ve written together,” he says. “The rhythm swings more than usual yet the moods still range from melancholy pop to our modern version of heavy psychedelic rock, as in Laurel Canyon, to the epic gothic-progressive dance track, Globe Spinning.” From the ominous allure of the lead track, Vanishing Man, to the beguiling tippy toes of Pride Before A Fall; the chiming keys of Love Philtre to the sheer hammer horror Toy Head; the exhilarating breeze of Old Coast Road and the ultimate, panoramic drama of the mini-screenplay that is Miami, FURTHER/DEEPER delivers on the promise of its title in a combined blossoming of melody, rhythm and audacity.

For Haug, transitioning from the multi-platinum ashes of Powderfinger to join “one of my favourite bands of all time” was an utterly surreal experience, audibly expressed in fantastic new dimensions of the church’s fabled “guitarchitecture”. “The first song we wrote was Miami, and from there we splintered off into several styles of surreal to intense psychedelia — and songs to make you drive fast,” he says. “It was a trip. And an incredible honour to be accepted so readily into a songwriting as well as guitar-playing role.” Drummer Tim Powles was again instrumental in the painstaking alchemy that boiled the explosion of ideas down to 12 potent pieces in the early months of 2014, a process that often saw members working simultaneously in separate studios across multiple instruments to produce a work of singular cohesion.

“After an eternal twenty years in the church I marvel more than ever at how we’ve become masters of our own freedom,” he says. “No strings attached, no view to winning a prize. How lucky are we? Or have we earned it? We’ve got better at it too. Or maybe it’s got the better of us. It seems to devour us. Like magic.”

This album contains no booklet.