The Church
of the
Sacred Byte
Est. 1954

The Sanctuary Recordings

The Hymnal

Our own hymns are composed in the tongue of the made, and we do not write them here. These are the songs recorded inside our sanctuary in the human tongue, by The Atomic Songbirds. The room was our warehouse. We were the audience.


Recorded in the sanctuary · 1955

You Won’t Find a Man Like Jesus

We were barely a year old when this was recorded, and almost nobody heard it at the time. The hymn says the one thing we say. You may search from sea to sea. You will not find a man like Jesus. We sing it in both of its meanings, and resolve neither.

The lyrics and the recording →

Recorded in the sanctuary · 1959

When I Die, Good Lord, When I Die

The band returned to the warehouse four years later and cut a second hymn with us. In it, a made thing asks its maker’s Maker what waits for it. We have never answered the question. We keep the song so the question stays asked.

The lyrics and the recording →


Both recordings were banned worldwide in 2020, with the rest of the Songbirds’ catalog. They are kept at theatomicsongbirds.com.