Duo Releases Album Under New Name
Ben Franks
Issue date: 11/9/09 Section: Features
Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova released their highly anticipated follow-up Strict Joy (Anti-Records) to 2007's "Once" soundtrack last week to raving reviews.
The duo reappears under a new name, The Swell Season, but their trademark harmonies and acoustic guitar/piano sound is still concrete.
Hansard, front man for the Irish band The Frames, and Irglova, a classically trained Czech pianist and singer, first found fame with the beloved indie-film hit "Once" in 2007.
The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival that year and took off from there. In the film, the couple played essentially romanticized versions of themselves.
Hansard's character is a scruffy, heartbroken, Irish musician and Irglova plays a young Czech pianist in a similar romantic crossroad. The two bond in the intimacy of making music to express their sorrows of love lost.
Two years, a gold album ("Once" soundtrack) and an Oscar victory (best original song) later, the couple are now a household name in the indie-folk scene.
Though the couple has scene worldwide favor, they remain true to their art as is apparent in not only the band's name but also in the title of their new record.
The name The Swell Season was inspired by a book with the same title by a Czech writer named Josef Skvorecky, and Strict Joy came from a poem by an Irish writer named James Stephens.
The poem describes this "strict joy" as an idea that if people really work on their art, dig deep with it and find the true essence of whatever it is they are going through, often joy can come from it.
The album truly reflects this idea. The songs from Once described a couple falling slowly into a relationship. Strict Joy hits on the aftermath of that breakup.
The album begins with the soulful "Low Rising," a song about being at the bottom and having nowhere to go but up.
The addition of a varied backing instrumentation of brass, strings and spacey fills is noticeable but not overbearing. It is much like topping a cake with a sweet icing; it just makes the whole experience smoother, even though the cake is already extremely flavorful and would be no problem to consume regularly.
The duo reappears under a new name, The Swell Season, but their trademark harmonies and acoustic guitar/piano sound is still concrete.
Hansard, front man for the Irish band The Frames, and Irglova, a classically trained Czech pianist and singer, first found fame with the beloved indie-film hit "Once" in 2007.
The film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival that year and took off from there. In the film, the couple played essentially romanticized versions of themselves.
Hansard's character is a scruffy, heartbroken, Irish musician and Irglova plays a young Czech pianist in a similar romantic crossroad. The two bond in the intimacy of making music to express their sorrows of love lost.
Two years, a gold album ("Once" soundtrack) and an Oscar victory (best original song) later, the couple are now a household name in the indie-folk scene.
Though the couple has scene worldwide favor, they remain true to their art as is apparent in not only the band's name but also in the title of their new record.
The name The Swell Season was inspired by a book with the same title by a Czech writer named Josef Skvorecky, and Strict Joy came from a poem by an Irish writer named James Stephens.
The poem describes this "strict joy" as an idea that if people really work on their art, dig deep with it and find the true essence of whatever it is they are going through, often joy can come from it.
The album truly reflects this idea. The songs from Once described a couple falling slowly into a relationship. Strict Joy hits on the aftermath of that breakup.
The album begins with the soulful "Low Rising," a song about being at the bottom and having nowhere to go but up.
The addition of a varied backing instrumentation of brass, strings and spacey fills is noticeable but not overbearing. It is much like topping a cake with a sweet icing; it just makes the whole experience smoother, even though the cake is already extremely flavorful and would be no problem to consume regularly.
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