STEVE KILBEY & GARETH KOCH
Gareth Koch is a founding member of the ARIA Award-winning Australian guitar quartet Saffire.
BROKEN TOYS (2019)
Tracks (click a title for details) | Media | |
| 1. | Broken Toys (3:24) | / |
| 2. | Broken Toys (Instrumental Mix) (3:22) | |
| 3. | Broken Toys (No Drums Mix) (3:22) | |
Credits
Music by Gareth Koch
Lyrics by Steve Kilbey
(Barton Price - Drums, Percussion)
Recorded, Mixed and Edited by Russell Pilling at Damien Gerard Studios, Sydney
Mastered by King Willy Sound
Releases
- Streaming & Digital Download - April 12, 2019 - Available on multiple platforms
Notes
Gareth Koch answered some questions about the making of this release for The Music.
Gareth's good friend, and manager of Damien Gerard Studios, Marshall Cullen wrote a gushing review of Broken Toys.
Reviews & Comments
LOST AT SEA (2019)
Tracks (click a title for details) | Media | |
| 1. | Lost At Sea (Steve Vocal) (4:33) | / |
| 2. | Lost At Sea (Instrumental Mix) (4:34) | |
| 3. | Lost At Sea (Steve & Gareth Vocal) (4:33) | |
Credits
Music by Gareth Koch
Lyrics by Steve Kilbey
(Barton Price - Drums, Percussion)
Recorded, Mixed and Edited by Russell Pilling at Damien Gerard Studios, Sydney
Mastered by King Willy Sound
Releases
- Streaming & Digital Download - July 5, 2019 - Available on multiple platforms
BROKEN TOYS & LOST AT SEA (2019)
Tracks (click a title for details) | Media | |
| 1. | Broken Toys (3:24) | / |
| 2. | Broken Toys (Instrumental Mix) (3:22) | |
| 3. | Broken Toys (No Drums Mix) (3:22) | |
| 4. | Lost At Sea (Steve Vocal) (4:33) | / |
| 5. | Lost At Sea (Instrumental Mix) (4:34) | |
| 6. | Lost At Sea (Steve & Gareth Vocal) (4:33) | |
Credits
Music by Gareth Koch
Lyrics by Steve Kilbey
(Barton Price - Drums, Percussion)
Recorded, Mixed and Edited by Russell Pilling at Damien Gerard Studios, Sydney
Mastered by King Willy Sound
Releases
- CD - [self-released - no catalog number] - August 6, 2019 - Available at Bandcamp
CHRYSE PLANITIA (2019)
Tracks (click a title for details) | Media | |
| 1. | Fallen Crown (3:32) | |
| 2. | The Fatal Hour (3:34) | |
| 3. | Thylacine (4:04) | |
| 4. | Tears At The End Of The World (2:29) | |
| 5. | Ophelia Without Wine (3:48) | |
| 6. | Scattered Coins (4:41) | |
| 7. | Stay Where You Are (3:24) | |
| 8. | Heart Is Heavy (2:31) | |
| 9. | Lady Ishtar In Her Garden (5:16) | |
| 10. | She Moved Through The Fair (2:53) | |
| 11. | Broken Toys (3:24) [bonus track] | |
| 12. | Lost At Sea (4:33) [bonus track] | |
| | ||
Credits
Produced by Steve Kilbey & Gareth Koch
Executive Producer - Marshall Cullen
Co-producer - Glen Macready
Released through Foghorn Records/MGM
Vocals - Steve Kilbey
Classical, Flamenco, Electric, Acoustic, Slide & Bass Guitars - Gareth Koch
Keyboard, Percussion & Kankles - Gareth Koch
Bass Guitar & Keyboard (Lady Ishtar in Her Garden) - Steve Kilbey
Hammond Organ (Fallen Crown, Lost at Sea) - Elliot Courtnage
Mandolin, Squeezebox (Lost at Sea) - Pete Cornelius
National Resophonic Guitar (Heart is Heavy) - Pete Cornelius
Audio Treatments (She Moved through the Fair) - Martin Kennedy
Didgeridoos (Thylacine) - Andrew Marshall, Ron Nagorcka
Drums - Dane Leonard
Drums - Barton Price (Broken Toys, Lost at Sea)
Instruments recorded by Gareth Koch - Rhapsody Recording Studio
Vocals recorded at Damien Gerard Studios
Lady Ishtar in Her Garden recorded at Damien Gerard Studios
Mixed by Russell Pilling
Mastered by King Willy Sound
Original cover artwork - Steve Kilbey
Graphic Design - Jamie Coghill
Releases
- Digital Download and Streaming - December 30, 2019 - Available from Bandcamp and Other Music Services
- CD - Foghorn FOG486 (Australia) - February 7, 2020
SONGS FROM ANOTHER LIFE: MUSIC FROM ANTIQUITY (2020)
Tracks (click a title for details) | Media | |
| 1. | Journey To Byzantium (2:41) | / |
| 2. | For Another Life (2:30) | |
| 3. | Nero (2:56) | / |
| 4. | So We Pray (4:15) | |
| 5. | Dream Of A Curious Man (2:35) | |
| 6. | The Nereid (2:41) | |
| 7. | A Devil (2:26) | |
| 8. | Wandering & Condemned (1:51) | |
| 9. | Whispers Of Salvation (2:59) | |
| 10. | Sweet Benediction (1:48) | |
| 11. | We Will Be Remembered (2:19) | |
| | ||
Credits
Produced by Steve Kilbey & Gareth Koch
Executive Producer - Glen Macready
Co-producer - Marshall Cullen
Released through Foghorn Records/MGM
Vocals, Bass Guitar, Keyboard, Percussion - Steve Kilbey
Flamenco, Classical, Acoustic & Bass Guitars, Keyboard, Percussion - Gareth Koch
Additional Percussion - Andrew Beck
Recorded at Rhapsody Recording Studios & Damien Gerard Studios
Engineered by Gareth Koch & Andrew Beck
Mixed by Andrew Beck
Mastered by King Willy Sound
Original cover artwork - Steve Kilbey
Graphic design - Aurora Kilbey
Special thanks to Sonic Consultants Glen & Pamela Macready, Decompression Studios, Portland Oregon
Releases
- Digital Download and Streaming (Australia) - Unofficially released on May 18, 2020 on Bandcamp, Officially released May 29, 2020 - Available at Amazon, Apple Music (Australia/USA), Spotify, and Bandcamp
- CD - Foghorn FOG493 (Australia) - June 1, 2020 - Limited Edition of 160 - Available at Bandcamp
Notes
Blurb by Steve:
"It has long been thought that the music of the ancients had never been notated until now
Instrumentalist Gareth Koch and lyricist Steve Kilbey held long and deep consultations
With archaeologists who recently have come relatively close to deciphering musical scripts glyphs and pictograms
Gathered from such cities as Rome, Nineveh, Byzantium, Tyre, Carthage and Ilium the site of ancient Troy."
Working with language scholars and local musicians we have attempted to bring these ancient songs alive
We have endeavoured to render these ancient songs in a manner that is comprehensible to the modern listener
These songs and recordings represent the thoughts and sounds of a distant antiquity
Here then is the past
And now
the past is here
The cover image is a detail from Steve's 2013 painting "Sumerian Spring":
SONGS FROM ATLANTIS (2025)
Tracks (click a title for details) | Media | |
| 1. | The Augur (2:45) | |
| 2. | The Black Sail (2:56) | |
| 3. | In Poseidon's Temple (2:28) | |
| 4. | Return from War (3:14) | |
| 5. | Ballad of Qetesh (2:37) | |
| 6. | Sacrifice by the River (2:35) | |
| 7. | The Priest's Wife (3:54) | |
| 8. | The Staff of Anubis (2:53) | |
| 9. | The Servant Girl (3:11) | |
| 10. | Calliope's Song (2:21) | |
| 11. | Hyperion's Oar (2:13) | |
| 12. | Wedding by the River (2:55) | |
| 13. | Unison (7:02) | |
| | ||
Credits
all compositions: steve kilbey & gareth koch
production: steve kilbey & gareth koch
vocals & lyrics: steve kilbey
instrumental backing tracks & recording: gareth koch
instruments: lyres, guitars, bass, keyboard, yayli tambur, percussion
track 4 rachel poh - back up vox
track 5 roger mason - cello, barton price - percussion
recording: gareth koch studios launceston damien gerard studios west gosford
mixing: andrew beck
mastering: king willy sound
design & layout: jamie coghill
Releases
- CD - Foghorn FOG717 (Australia) - April 26, 2025 - Cardboard Sleeve
- Digital Download and Streaming (Australia) - April 26, 2025 - Available at Bandcamp
Notes
CD booklet includes this ekphrasis poem by Steve:
Atlantis
We remember somewhere deep within us
We carry her in our veins
In our gardens
In our skies
In my heart I know she has always been with me
I think I understand how it had to end
You'd think it would have been a warning
They were our people, those men and women
Those farmers and actors and soldiers and priests
Human-esque statues and the marble eyed god
Within a wall protected three times from the sea
O beautiful music that they played on their strings and skins
The complicated lays and the mournful drone
Hovels palaces cenotaphs drains wine like anywhere else
I remember the dancers at the wedding by the river
And in Poseidons great temple where we met so long ago
You straining against an oar
You at the Mysteries in the grove next to the ocean
You under the olive trees in summer eating your lunch
You sleeping at night on the deck of a boat
We remember in reveries the taverns and the javelin
The sibyl dressed in cheetah skins
She was swift as the crackling lightning cleaving the mauve cloud
And the things she said in the language that she spoke
We wandered at dawn by citadels into the hazy white plains where serpents slide
When evening descends her starry way you'll fnd us up on the roof peering at the moons effulgences
On stormy afternoons we race through the streets high on Nepenthe
If winter comes we have our cloaks and our warm halls
Visitors from Ilium and India
We could hear the sound of the sun