Devon Church first arrived on our radars a decade and a half ago as one half of the duo Exitmusic alongside actress Aleksa Palladino, with the pair’s densely foggy dream-pop sound ultimately fitting in perfectly among Felte Records’ overcast discography. Yet a mere six months after the group released their last solo LP with 2018’s The Recognitions, Church launched his solo career with his debut record We Are Inextricable, also released through Felte and also experimenting in cavernous stripped-back shoegaze.
Today, he’s announcing the follow-up to that project with his second solo full-length set to arrive April 7. Judging from lead single “Ephemera,” Strange Strangers sees a hard pivot to the realm of dark folk, with the fuzzy memories and existential uncertainties of his previous work shifting comfortably into acoustic strums and gurgling organs, all matching his gravely baritone in harmony with vocals from his partner Ada Roth. “‘Ephemera’ is a song about the fragility, weirdness, and confusion of feeling like an isolated human being in the modern world, and about taking refuge—in love or god or interbeing or Buddha or whatever you want to call it,” he shares of the track’s themes.
The video the single arrives with plays into the song’s temporal themes with Church aging significantly and fading out like a ghost over the course of the visual. Watch it below.
