The Church, one of Australia’s most enduring and imaginative musical forces, have returned with a brand-new single, ‘Sacred Echoes (Part Two)’. Arriving just as the band prepare to embark on a national Australian tour revisiting four decades of remarkable music, the track captures The Church in full cinematic flight, bending mood, melody, and atmosphere into something both otherworldly and deeply human.
Frontman and founding member Steve Kilbey describes the song as a distillation of darkness and transcendence. “Bleak and yet beautiful, Sacred Echoes (Part Two) is unlike any previous Church song ever with its almost orchestral climaxes and its sombre mood,” Kilbey says. “The lyrics and voice are the weariness at the point where hope and hopelessness merge. The music is by turns delicate and sparse turning into a churning monstrous racket. Intense, forlorn and exultant!”
For a band now entering its fifth decade, The Church sound anything but weary. Their recent albums, The Hypnogogue (2023) and Eros Zeta And The Perfumed Guitars (2024), not only reaffirmed their devotion to immersive, narrative-driven dream-rock, but introduced the group to a new generation of listeners around the world. The new single follows that artistic momentum with majestic authority, finding beauty in shadow and catharsis in chaos.
Formed in Sydney in 1980, The Church quickly became one of the defining acts of Australia’s post-punk and neo-psychedelic movement. The original line-up – Kilbey, Peter Koppes, Marty Willson-Piper, and drummer Nick Ward – soon delivered their first breakthrough with ‘The Unguarded Moment’ from their debut album Of Skins And Heart (1981), a track that would introduce the band’s jangling guitars and atmospheric production to national audiences.
International recognition followed across the 1980s, culminating in their global chart breakthrough with Starfish in 1988 and the immortal single ‘Under The Milky Way’, a song that has long since transcended its era to become a modern Australian standard. Its acclaim peaked when it received the ARIA Award for Single Of The Year in 1989 and later topped multiple ‘greatest Australian song’ polls, including one by The Australian newspaper.
Across a catalogue now stretching more than 27 studio albums, The Church have continually reinvented themselves – sliding gracefully from jangly psychedelia to lush dream-pop, krautrock-leaning experimentation, visceral rock, and sweeping ambient textures. Even through line-up changes, relocations, industry shifts, and evolving musical climates, the band’s creative identity has remained distinct.
The group’s longevity is not merely nostalgic. Their recent creative renaissance – culminating in the conceptual world-building of The Hypnogogue – has seen critics and fans place modern Church material alongside their classic canon. Their place in Australia’s music legacy was formally recognised in 2010, when they were inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame.
The release of ‘Sacred Echoes (Part Two)’ comes as The Church prepare to take their vast discography on the road for an extensive Australian tour. The shows promise a career-spanning setlist, celebrating both the anthems and the esoteric deep-cuts that have made their catalogue so celebrated by critics and fans alike.
Full tour itinerary and ticket links will be announced shortly.
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