Selfless Orchestra announce new album 'Terra Nullius'
Photo credit: Dallas Howell
Selfless Orchestra return in 2025 with their most ambitious and urgent work to date: Terra Nullius, a cinematic soundscape that confronts the deep fractures of Australia’s cultural identity, unearthing stories of dispossession, displacement, and resilience.
Releasing worldwide on 24 October via Stock Records, with an exclusive early live launch, featuring physical and digital sales, on Sunday, 19 October at Boorloo/ Perth’s Liberty Theatre as part of Strange Ball 2025. Tickets on sale now via Oztix.
Following their acclaimed 2020 debut, Great Barrier, Terra Nullius marks a bold new chapter for Selfless Orchestra, an ensemble shaped by time on Country and dedicated to amplifying stories at the intersection of art, justice, and truth.
The title, Terra Nullius, Latin for “nobody’s land”, references the colonial doctrine that denied the presence, rights, and sovereignty of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This falsehood enabled the violent occupation of Country, the marginalisation of communities, and the ongoing desecration of the natural world. In exploring these legacies, Selfless Orchestra asks: “Are we still a land deemed devoid of humanity?”
“This project delves into the complex interplay between colonial legacies causing generational trauma among Australians and our current struggle with cultural identity…Terra Nullius looks at how we've lost touch with the profound connection between ourselves and the earth. It's a realisation that we don't possess the land; rather, the land possesses us.”
- Steven Alyian (guitarist & sound designer)
In a captivating musical and cinematic journey, the record explores themes such as the Maralinga Nuclear Bomb Tests, the struggles of refugees at Woomera Detention Centre, and the loss of ancient Aboriginal rock art.
Recorded live at Loop Studios and as part of the Barefoot Band Project in an abandoned train station in the WA goldfields, the record evokes a visceral energy. Strings, guitars, piano, synths, didgeridoo, drums, and handpans rise to create a space where pain can transform into possibility; whilst authentic voices of those who lived these realities, including Geoffrey Stokes and Sue Coleman-Haseldine, ground the work in lived experience and truth.
Blending orchestral post-rock with documentary filmmaking, Selfless Orchestra have crafted a performance that is both concert and requiem. An immersive journey through the themes of devastation and survival explored in Terra Nullius.
Selfless Orchestra’s album Terra Nullius is out 24 October via Stock Records.