Sinead O’Brien has announced that her debut – Time Bend and Break the Bower – will be released on 10th June via Chess Club. The album will feature the new single and video ‘Holy Country.’ Alongside the announcement, O’Brien has announced UK, Ireland and Europe headline tours. Pre-order the album here.
“The story of the album is built up in layers; one song giving context to the next” explains Sinead; “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.”
Time Bend And Break The Bower album tracklisting:
1. Pain Is The Fashion Of The Spirit
2. Salt
3. Girlkind
4. End Of Days
5. Like Culture
6. The Rarest Kind
7. Holy Country
8. Spare For My Size, Me
9. There Are Good Times Coming
10. Multitudes
11. Go Again
Upcoming Live Dates:
March 2022
12th – Route Du Rock, Saint-Malo, France
14th– 20th SXSW Festival, Austin TX, USA
26th – M4Music Festival, Zurich, Switzerland
April 2022
9th – Wide Eyed Festival, O2 Academy, Leicester, UK
29th – Les Nuits Botanique, Brussels, Belgium (Belle and Sebastian Support)
May 2022
1st – Get Together Festival, The University of Sheffield Students’ Union, Sheffield, UK
12th – 14th – The Great Escape Festival, Brighton, UK
28th – 29th – Sea Change Festival, Totnes, UK
June 2022
6th – Primavera In The City, Barcelona, Spain
July 2022
17th – Motherwell Concert Hall, Motherwell, UK (Belle and Sebastian Support)
29th – 31st – All Together Now Festival, Co Waterford, Ireland
September 2022
1st – 4th – End Of The Road Festival, Wiltshire, UK
15th – Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France
16th – Le Point Éphémère, Paris, France
17th – Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands
18th – Paradiso Noord, Amsterdam, Netherlands
20th – Cassiopeia, Berlin, Germany
21st – Loppen, Copenhagen, Denmark
22nd – Obaren, Stockholm, Sweden
25th. – Bumann & SOHN, Cologne, Germany
26th – Trix, Antwerp, Belgium
October 2022 – UK and Ireland headline tour
9th – Cluny 2, Newcastle, UK
10th – King Tuts Wah Wah Hut, Glasgow, UK
11th – Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK
12th – Deaf Institute, Manchester, UK
14th – Bodega, Nottingham, UK
17th – Lafayette, London, UK
19th – Green Door Store, Brighton, UK
20th – Ramsgate Music Hall, Ramsgate, UK
21st – Exchange, Bristol, UK
26th – Cyprus Avenue, Cork, Ireland
27th – Whelans, Dublin, Ireland
28th – Black Box, Belfast, UK
29th – Dolans Warehouse, Limerick, Ireland
November 2022 – Belle and Sebastian UK Support Tour
14th – Roundhouse, London, UK (B&S Support)
17th – O2 Academy, Sheffield, UK (B&S Support)
24th – O2 City Hall, Newcastle, UK (B&S Support)
27th – Corn Exchange, Cambridge, UK (B&S Support)
28th – O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK (B&S Support)
29th – Guildhall, Southampton, UK (B&S Support)
30th – Brighton Dome, Brighton, UK (B&S Support)