Sinead O’Brien has announced the release details of her debut album, and shared a new single.
The full-length, ‘Time Bend and Break The Bower’, was recorded at Dan Carey’s south London studio Mr Dan’s, and is set for release on 10th June via Chess Club Records.
“The story of the album is built up in layers; one song giving context to the next,” O’Brien explains. “I thought about becoming undressed; testing my ideas, my voice. Working myself out across themes of identity, curiosity, creative process. Experimenting with the form and shape of language, using tone and delivery to get to the immediate centre of what I am saying. The record opens and closes with poems, these tracks have a really clear direction – a form which is set apart from the ‘songs’. I hold stops in different places, moving emphatically through the lyrics, changing the meaning. No punctuation – only the voice mapping out the way.”
“The album title ‘Time Bend and Break The Bower’, from the song ‘Multitudes’, came into my head and made its demands, an idea that pressed on me throughout the record. It has a very active role. The clock symbol is enlarged, it looms like a moon over my activity watching, counting me down to zero. Dripping with self-sabotage and the feeling of being chased; it pulls and pushes against the verses which talk of ‘Multitudes’; the things that faithfully come back – the images, the words, creativity. It is creativity itself.”
The news comes alongside a new track, ‘Holy Country’. Her first new material since last year’s ‘GIRLKIND’, it comes alongside a Chloé le Drezen-directed video, which you can check out below.
There’s also a whole bunch of live dates plans. They read:
March 2022
12 Route Du Rock, Saint-Malo, France
14 20th SXSW Festival, Austin TX, USA
26 M4Music Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
April 2022
9 Wide Eyed Festival, O2 Academy, Leicester, UK
29 Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Belgium (Belle and Sebastian Support)
May 2022
1 Get Together Festival, The University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Sheffield, UK
12 14 The Great Escape Festival, Brighton, UK
28 29 Sea Change Festival, Totnes, UK
June 2022
6 Primavera In The City, Barcelona, Spain
July 2022
17 Motherwell Concert Hall, Motherwell, UK (Belle and Sebastian Support)
29 31 All Together Now Festival, Co Waterford, Ireland
September 2022
1-4 End Of The Road Festival, Wiltshire, UK
15 Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France
16 Le Point Éphémère, Paris, France
17 Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands
18 Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam, Netherlands
20 Cassiopeia, Berlin, Germany
21 Loppen, Copenhagen, Denmark
22 Obaren, Stockholm, Sweden
25 Bumann & SOHN, Cologne, Germany
26 Trix, Antwerp, Belgium
October 2022
9 Cluny 2, Newcastle, UK
10 King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, UK
11 Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
12 Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
14 Bodega, Nottingham, UK
17 Lafayette, London, UK
19 Green Door Store, Brighton, UK
20 Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate, UK
21 Exchange, Bristol, UK
26 Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland
27 Whelans, Dublin, Ireland
28 Black Box, Belfast, UK
29 Dolans Warehouse, Limerick, Ireland
November 2022
14 Roundhouse, London, UK (B&S Support)
17 O2 Academy, Sheffield, UK (B&S Support)
24 O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK (B&S Support)
27 Corn Exchange, Cambridge, UK (B&S Support)
28 O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK (B&S Support)
29 Guildhall, Southampton, UK (B&S Support)
30 Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK (B&S Support)
