|PIC1|Survivor Records says the signing of Northern Ireland’s sprawling worship project – Rend Collective Experiment – is a line in the sand, "the start of something fresh which reaches far into the future."

"This is the freshest and most exciting sound in worship probably since Delirious? kicked in," explains Survivor A&R man Adrian Thompson.

"Rend Collective Experiment are precisely at the point where today’s music culture meets worship – I suppose the musical equivalent of what people like Rob Bell and Mark Driscoll are trying to do with church.

"Personally, working with a great bunch of committed people from my home territory of Northern Ireland makes it even more exciting. I can’t wait for people to hear this album."

Rend Collective Experiment defies expectations even from the start of the bio. Not so much a band, more a bunch of friends collectively wondering how to make sense of the conundrum of life, God and community in and around their native Bangor, Northern Ireland. Three years later the music started to flow, naturally, organically, as a result of the questions and the journey travelled as a pack.

And what a sound. Take the honesty of Elbow or The Flaming Lips, the surges of Sigur Ros, and the creative power of Sufjan Stevens and you have some idea of the landscape. But it’s not the whole picture.

What Rend Collective Experiment’s fifteen plus members add to the sound are lyrics that are both scriptural and contemporary, fresh and ancient. Theirs is a world viewed in widescreen, a faith with legs and a sound that refuses to sit still.

News of their arrival on the worship scene has travelled fast already… even across the ocean to the ears of one of the church’s most significant voices, Tony Campolo.

He said: "Movements are stimulated and motivated by music, and here’s some music that will motivate Christians to participate in God’s revolution in the world. If you are committed to seeing something of the Kingdom of God made real in our world, this music will go a long way to encourage you.”

With a couple of EPs already available, and recording underway for their debut release with Survivor (Kingsway) next January, Rend Collective Experiment’s growth is about to surge.