IKON releases ‘The Witness Tree’ single ahead of ‘Collective Illusion’ compilation
Gothic rock band IKON released the single “The Witness Tree” on 4 July 2026, a preview of the compilation “Collective Illusion: The Singles 1998-2026”.
IKON, the Melbourne darkwave, post-punk and gothic rock band, released the single “The Witness Tree” on 4 July 2026. The two-track single previews a forthcoming compilation, “Collective Illusion: The Singles 1998-2026”, which gathers 32 non-album singles and exclusive renditions from across 28 years. IKON has not announced a release date for the compilation.
Inside IKON’s ‘The Witness Tree’ single
“The Witness Tree” pairs the title track with “My Black Mirror”, both listed as 7-inch single versions, and is available on Bandcamp. IKON recorded the single at Shrimp Shack Studios in Melbourne between 2024 and 2026. Michael Hubbard engineered the session, Chris McCarter and Michael Hubbard produced it, and Adam Calaitzis mixed it at Toyland Studios. Lucie Zann created the artwork.
“Collective Illusion: The Singles 1998-2026” collects 32 non-album singles and exclusive renditions, with “The Witness Tree” issued ahead of it. The set continues a run of retrospective releases from the band. In 2023 IKON compiled its early years on “The Complete Recordings 1992-1996”, a four-CD box set on Cleopatra Records, and in March 2026 the label returned to the catalogue with the “Resonance – An Anthology 1998-2009” box set. A 2020 collection, “The Thirteenth Hour: The Singles 2007-2020”, had already drawn together a later stretch of the band’s singles.
About IKON
Chris McCarter (vocals, guitar, programming) and Dino Molinaro (bass) began writing songs as high-school students in Melbourne in 1988. The pair first worked under the name Death in the Dark, then changed it to IKON in 1991. Original singer Michael Carrodus fronted the band’s first two albums, “In the Shadow of the Angel” (1994) and “Flowers for the Gathering” (1996), which reached goth audiences in Europe and the United States through releases on Apollyon and Metropolis Records.
Carrodus left in 1997, and McCarter took over vocals. “This Quiet Earth” (1998) shifted toward electronic composition and produced the singles “Subversion” and “Ghost in My Head”, while “On the Edge of Forever” (2001) returned to the band’s rock sound and brought IKON back to live performance. The group toured Europe for the first time in August 2001, played M’era Luna in 2002 and made its first appearance at Wave-Gotik-Treffen in 2003. The “Psychic Vampire” EP (2004) was followed by the albums “Destroying the World to Save It” (2005) and “Love, Hate and Sorrow” (2009).
Later albums include “Everyone Everything Everywhere Ends” (2014) and “Realm of the Black Sun” (2024). Alongside the studio records, IKON’s back catalogue has been reissued and compiled steadily, from Cleopatra’s box sets to a run of double-CD reissues. McCarter also works outside the band: he issued the solo EP “Atmosphere” in 2024, and former members carried IKON’s post-punk sound into the side project Chiron. “The Witness Tree” and the coming “Collective Illusion” compilation extend that singles history into 2026.
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