​Lisa Hannigan announces new album, ‘At Swim’

New track – ‘Prayer for the Dying’ – premieres today

Released August 19^th via Play It Again Sam recordings

Lisa Hannigan has announced details of highly-anticipated new album, ‘At Swim’, which will be released on August 19^th via Play It Again Sam recordings. Produced by Aaron Dessner, her third – and arguably most bewitching – record follows the double-platinum, Mercury-nominated debut ‘Sea Sew’, and 2011’s ‘Passenger’ (which charted at number 1 in Ireland, and earned Lisa another Choice Music Prize nomination). Lisa is currently in the middle of an intimate 16-date Irish tour, with an extensive worldwide run of shows and the album’s first single to follow shortly.

  Listen: Prayer for the Dying

Airing today on NPR, new track ‘Prayer for the Dying’ was inspired by the passing of a friend’s parent after an extended illness. ‘They’d had a very long and happy marriage and the loss was devastating,’ Lisa recalls. ‘I wanted to try and express that grief but also pay tribute to their marriage.’ Building from its Patsy Cline-esque lament to a starlit, shimmering chorus (‘Your heart, my heart’), ‘Prayer for the Dying’ is perhaps the darkest and most vulnerable recording of Hannigan’s career – which began of course with her seminal, shadowy turn on Damien Rice’s ‘O’, ‘9’, and has since seen her strengthen her own unique artistic voice.

After playing in support of ‘Passenger’ for nearly two years, Lisa Hannigan struggled at first to write new material for ‘At Swim’. A new relationship meant that she was dividing her time between Dublin and London: adrift and lost, she threw herself into distraction instead. There was an acting debut as a mermaid in the Oscar-nominated animation ‘Song of the Sea’, soundtrack work on ‘Fargo’ and the Oscar-winning score for ‘Gravity’, all the while founding and co-hosting the acclaimed ‘Soundings’ podcast (which saw Lisa turn interviewer, and speak to guests such as Harry Shearer, Sharon Horgan and David Arnold).

The breakthrough came when Hannigan got an email out of the blue from Aaron Dessner, guitarist with The National and producer for the likes of Sharon Van Etten and Local Natives. Taking up Dessner’s suggestion to work together and rediscovering the collaborative spirit she’d missed in Dublin enabled Lisa to see her time in London in a different light. So while ‘At Swim’ is in part about homesickness and isolation, it’s also – profoundly and very movingly – about love.

Having first exchanged ideas over email and iPhones, ‘At Swim’ surfaced when Lisa and Aaron finally met up in Denmark: recording then took place in a church in Hudson, New York, during a furiously-creative seven-day stint. Despite openly being written lost-at-sea, you sense that at this point in her career, Lisa Hannigan is now a strong enough swimmer to go as far out as she wants; to darker depths than before, where the treasure lies, and bring it back to us.

Pre-Order on Vinyl, CD & digital now (on iTunes as of tomorrow) and receive ‘Prayer for the Dying’ instantly:  http://found.ee/lisahanniganstore

TRACK LIST

1. Fall
2. Prayer For The Dying
3. Snow
4. Lo
5. Undertow
6. Ora
7. We The Drowned
8. Anahorish
9.  Tender
10. Funeral Suit
11. Barton

June/July Irish Tour

• June 8^th De Barras, Clonakilty- sold out
• June 9^th Connolly’s, Leap- sold out
• June 10^th St Luke’s, Cork- sold out
• June 11^th The White Horse, Ballincollig- sold out
• June 14^th The Set Theatre- Kilkenny
• June 15^th The Spirit Store, Dundalk- sold out
• June 18^th Seamus Ennis Centre, Naul, Co. Dublin – sold out
• June 19^th Balor Theatre, Donegal- sold out
• June 20^th The Greyhound, Kilkee- sold out
• June 21^st Kenny’s, Lahinch- sold out
• June 23^rd The Belltable Theatre, Limerick- sold out
• June 24^th Interlude Festival, Dublin
• June 25^th Roisin Dubh Galway- sold out
• July  9^th Clonmel Junction Festival