When you put together the incredible musical skills of songwriter/multi instrumentalist and producer Martin Kennedy and the vivid and unbounded imagination of the legendary Steve Kilbey, you get something far greater than the constituent parts in Kilbey/Kennedy. Seemingly forming part of a triptych with earlier collaborations ‘Jupiter 13’ and ‘The Strange Life of Persephone Nimbus’ (while recognising their fertile collaboration began back in 2009), their new album ‘Premonition K’ is another collection of ethereal and mystical tracks that seem other-worldly and spiritual.
Both musicians are disturbingly prolific and the sheer quantity of their output is matched by the quality. There can almost be no scientific explanation for how so much creativity and sonic innovation can pour out of the two like the waters from Icelandic waterfalls. Kilbey of course is steering the venerable institution The Church to its greatest heights with a series of phenomenal albums (most recently ‘The Hypnogogue’ and ‘Eros Zeto and the Perfumed Guitars’) while Kennedy has produced magnificent solo albums, material under the labels All India Radio and Observers and with other collaborators.
Kennedy creates the incandescent canvas upon which Kilbey paints his words and melodies and the two work together and remotely to shape and form the magnificent end result.
I spoke to Kennedy late last year on his collaboration with Kilbey and where ‘Premonition K’ fitted in with the previous two albums. He noted that the new album does have elements of a concept album with its unifying theme about near death experiences but veered off on its own trajectory. He notes that ‘Jupiter 13’ and ‘Persephone’ were set by Kilbey in a vaguely sci-fi steampunk world but the new one isn’t, although the art work is the same so it looks like it forms part of a trilogy.
Opening track ‘Breaking the Fourth Wall’ sets forth over gently dappling guitars and Kilbey’s dreamy vocals, half spoken and as mystical as ever with the delicate harmonies that seep through like mist. Kilbey sings of being a hunter and gatherer – possibly the unspoken search for creativity, melody and song as an artist. The instrumentation soars like contrails across the vast skies: Kennedy’s ability to infuse his instrumentation with emotion and feelings is spectacular. The orchestration is vast and cinematic – epithets that will re-occur throughout the album.
‘NDE’ rumbles in with a lot more steel and barbed wire – perhaps influenced by or on Kennedy’s excursion into instrumental heavy metal in his project Observers. The sky-scraping urgent melodies soars above the fray with Hobart singer Sasquin adding a golden filigree to the edges of the vocals, giving it an operatic thrill full of drama and pose. It’s exciting pulse-racing stuff. ‘The Doctor’ presses gently on the brakes, returning to a more open sparse sound supported by acoustic guitars and strings and Kilbey’s reflective words. It’s about curative actions – death, grief and loss, rehabilitation and resilience over a melancholic air. A spoken ending with Kilbey emulating a posh protagonist worrying about a restaurant booking with a secretary creates a bizarre and surreal end with perhaps a message about the sacred and profane – the disconnect between the mundanity of the everyday life of saviors.
‘Nowhere’ – no one comes in no one comes out – is a vast dreamy track with Kilbey’s disconnected vocals in the distance. The influence of Pink Floyd in Kennedy’s instrumentation can be detected in the soaring soundscapes, while the structure is psychedelic and surreal, drifting off into a fugue before a spectacular return. It’s anthemic and immersive – a guitar solo drifting high in the sky. ‘My Better Half’ is a glorious pop song: billowing guitars and strings form the bed over which Kilbey’s plants his melodies with verses sung by Kennedy’s frequent collaborator Leona Gray, adding a glorious luster. The song is mysterious and enigmatic with the cascading guitars and synths.
‘That’s Gotta Hurt’ – released as a single – has bright jangling acoustic guitars and memorable melodies that combine to create a seething, burning song that reaches a crescendo like a spark setting off a flame in the dry bush. I was lucky enough to witness Kilbey recording the vocals in the flesh for this track in Kennedy’s Taroona studio when The Church played in Hobart last year, and it was just amazing to see Kilbey formulating the lyrics on the spot and both Kilbey and Kennedy adjusting the structure and arrangements collaboratively.
Kilbey says:
‘That’s Gotta Hurt’ is about the existential pain of loving and losing and of attachment to the roles we play in this theatre of the absurd.
‘Whispered Voices on Tape’ has an enigmatic bass thrum throughout and a wandering style reminiscent of early The Cure until Kilbey’s mysterious echoing vocals enter, with haunting whispers in the air and an ominous atmosphere. It’s a ghostly sonic apparition. ‘The King’ lets some light in with its airy synths and rambling pace: a wall of crystalline guitars forming a wave that rolls into the shore. Kennedy always has an ability to produce the most amazing guitar sounds that echo and cascade. As the instrumentation recedes, Kilbey’s voice takes to the fore, weaving his opaque, layered lyrics over an organ bed. When the chorus kicks in, it’s transcendent, raw and thundering with its bastardised nursery rhyme chant and almost robotic delivery. It’s a formidable track.
The acoustic strums that ring out in ‘The Contender’ herald a gripping recurring enigmatic guitar riff while Kilbey’s vocals are passionate and yearning over the top. Another stirring anthem that positively shines. Kilbey’s voice in ‘The Ouija Board’ is sardonic and brusque – you know you’ve got a lot of nerve – let go – and contrasts with Sasquin’s velvet sheen while a fuzzy undercurrent seeps through the music.
‘Menace in the Past’ has a pastoral elegance enhanced by the bank of synths, arpeggiated notes and the mysterious lyrics. It has a vast sonic portraiture that hangs in the air with a celestial glow. The album ends with ‘The Song That Wrote Itself’, burnished again by Sasquin’s vocals that take over the controls in the enigmatic chorus as she sings I’m preparing a nice place for you. The song is haunting and dreamy, themed perhaps on the connections between this world and the next with a thread of deep yearning.
Kilbey/Kennedy don’t as much produce albums as create atmospheric experiences – best ingested in one whole journey that leads you through brilliant sonic landscapes into mysterious and ethereal worlds. Poetic, immersive and haunting at times, the labyrinth of Kilbey’s mind pours out through the lyrics and create vast infinitesimal worlds that are born on Kennedy’s endless array of luscious layered sounds. This is another magnificent addition to their oeuvre.
‘Premonition K’ is out tomorrow through Foghorn Records and will be available to download and stream via all the usual sites here and through the link below.
There will be a special listening party for the release with a track by track commentary from Kennedy on 6 April 2024 at 10am GMT + 11 (9pm AET) – details here.
Feature Photograph: Arun Kendall (with Martin Kennedy)
