n 1981 a teenage Martin Kennedy stumbled upon Steve Kilbey and The Church at a strange hybrid hippie/new wave festival in Australia and fell in love with their look and sound. He recorded their set on a walkman, and the songs helped spark the beginning of his music career. Just a year before, an equally fresh-faced Steve Kilbey formed The Church in Sydney, the very beginning of their public life as accidental hit makers. Twenty-nine years later Martin and Steve find themselves working together on Unseen Music Unheard words, without any fanfare and virtually no prior planning. It was simple: Martin wrote the music and Steve wrote the words. No argument, no egos, just a matter of pressing the record button. The results are an effective balancing of Kennedy’s haunting and melodic tunes with Kilbey's witty and intelligent lyrics, melded together by his heavenly voice. Martin kept his teenage love of The Church out of the equation in fear of it skewing his songwriting but look out for a wink to the Church’s “You Took” in “Thought of Leaving.”
“Steve's voice complements the ambient sounds so well; he wraps his velvety smooth lungs around the words like a boa constrictor going in for the kill, and you’re hypnotized by his voice so much that you wouldn't even realize that the life is being squeezed out of you. Stretch into the Stars is exactly that a beautiful piece of space rock that wouldn't sound out of place on any kraut rock album from the 70’s.” – thedwarf.com.au
