Devon Church is a singer-songwriter hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba and based in New York City. He was, for many years, a multi-instrumentalist, co-writer and producer of the dreampop duo Exitmusic, whose album, Passage (Secretly Canadian), Pitchfork described as “insurgent, cinematic, and sometimes brilliant.” In 2018, the same year that Exitmusic released it’s swan song, The Recognitions (felte), Church released his solo debut, We Are Inextricable (felte), which employed the textural electronic elements he had harnessed during the Exitmusic years in the service of a songwriting style rooted in the folk rock tradition, with deep nods to Cohen and Dylan. Having gigged throughout the US in 2019, Church set to work recording his latest offering, Strange Strangers, while seeking refuge from the global pandemic in a barn in rural Pennsylvania.
After his apartment in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint burned down shortly thereafter, Church and his partner (now wife) Ada Roth (also a vocal contributor to the new album) relocated to Manhattan’s northern tip, where he would spend days wandering the woods and gardens surrounding The Met Cloisters. His time there (they’ve since made it back to Brooklyn), his deepening relationship, and his growing interest in Buddhism provided the album’s moodboard.
