The Swell Season

Origin Dublin, Ireland Genres Indie folk folk rock Years active 2005–2011, 2015 (one-off) 2022–2023 (as Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová of The Swell Season) The Swell Season is a folk rock duo formed by Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. "The Swell Season" name is derived from Hansard's favourite novel by Josef Škvorecký from 1975 bearing the same title. Their debut album, released in 2006, carried the same name. The duo rose to prominence following the success of the 2007 film Once, directed by John Carney, in which the pair starred depicting a dramatised version of their own musical pairing. Their song "Falling Slowly" from the film took the Oscar for Best Song at the 80th Academy Awards. They increasingly referred to themselves as "The Swell Season" in promotion of their performances until it became the formal name of their collaboration in 2008. (They still used their separate names when they contributed their cover of Bob Dylan's "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" to the 2007 soundtrack of I'm Not There.) From 2007 through 2010, a documentary film was made about Irglova and Hansard called The Swell Season. The documentary premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2011 to positive reviews. History The self-titled first album came about after Hansard and Irglová were approached by the Czech film director Jan Hřebejk while touring in the Czech Republic, and were asked by him to record songs for his upcoming film Beauty in Trouble. It was the first album that Hansard, the singer for The Frames, had released independently of his band. The tracks "Falling Slowly" and "When Your Mind's Made Up" from their debut album, also appeared on The Frames' album The Cost. These two tracks, along with "Lies" and "Leave" also from the debut album, all appear on the Once soundtrack. A follow-up album, Strict Joy, was released on 27 October 2009 in the United States.[5] Three singles from the album have been released: "In These Arms", "Low Rising", and "Feeling the Pull". Spin Magazine's review of Strict Joy gave the album 4 out of 5 stars. It stated "If Glen Hansard's and Markéta Irglová's roles in the hit Irish indie film Once unintentionally wove the tale of their real-life falling in love, their second album as the Swell Season weaves the story of their falling out of it."[6] In August 2010, The Swell Season covered Neutral Milk Hotel's "Two-Headed Boy" for The A.V. Club.[7] At a concert on 19 August 2010 at the Mountain Winery, Saratoga, a concert attendee leapt to his death from the roof of the venue onto the stage. The death was deemed a suicide.[8] The band provided and paid for group counselling sessions for concert attendees who witnessed the event.[9] In a December 2011 interview in the Huffington Post with Irglová, she revealed that the Swell Season would probably release a third album when Hansard finished with other commitments, but no third album was made by the duo.[10] Hansard and Irglová parodied their roles from Once in The Simpsons 2009 episode, "In the Name of the Grandfather". On 10 and 11 January 2015, The Swell Season reunited for two concerts at Sejong Center[11] to celebrate re-releasing Once in South Korea. In 2021, Hansard confirmed to Variety that The Swell Season would be playing six dates in the U.S in 2022.[12] Seventeen further dates were announced for 2023. Also in 2023, they recorded a number of new songs in Markéta’s home studio in Iceland, with the first one released being: "(Was it all worth it?) The Answer is Yes". March, 18th 2025 they announced a new song "People We Used to Be" along with a fan community called The Hoover Repair Club. The Swell Season is back. After reconvening for a limited number of sold-out shows in March 2022, followed by a more extensive US tour in August 2023, the duo returns with new music. A studio session that started out as an effort to create a couple new singles to bring with them on tour, ended up yielding a full length album, fittingly titled ´Forward´. Although The Swell Season released a stand alone single ´The Answer Is Yes´ in June 2023, ´Forward´ will be their first full length album in 16 years. The album consists of 8 tracks written by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, who take turns singing the lead. Building on the foundation of and with respect to their shared history, they move forward as two equals, supporting and lifting each other up. Accompanied by old band members Joe Doyle, Marja Gaynor and Bertrand Galen, joined by Piero Perelli, and produced by Sturla Mio Thorisson, they create a sound both old and new for The Swell Season. Irglová and Hansard came to prominence together starring in the 2007 film Once and winning the Academy Award for Best Original Song with their composition “Falling Slowly” in 2008. The soundtrack garnered two Grammy nominations and the two christened their project, The Swell Season. They went on to release the critically acclaimed album Strict Joy and touring the world before branching out into solo careers. In 2012, Once, The Musical debuted and went on to be nominated for eleven Tonys, winning eight including Best Musical. It ran for three years on Broadway and is currently still in production as a touring musical. In 2014 the musical was nominated for five Laurence Olivier awards with Hansard and Irglova winning for Outstanding Achievement in Music. Over the course of the last decade, Once, in all its iterations, has become a modern classic and a cultural touchstone being referenced in everything from The Simpsons to Ted Lasso. The fan base created by this modern masterpiece looms large in the minds and hearts of many. Since the success of Once, Irglová has released three studio albums, the most recent one of them being LILA, recorded with an Icelandic producer Sturla Mio Thorisson at their Masterkey studio in Iceland. LILA reflects on Irglová’s journey from her “Girl from a Movie” status to wife, mother and artist. Hansard has released 5 studio albums, the most recent one of them being ´All That Was East Is West Of Me Now´ released in October 2023, exactly one year after the release of “Take Heart” single featuring the Ukrainian Action, upon spending time with Ukrainian refugees in Ireland. Earlier in ‘22 he toured as part of Eddie Vedder’s Earthlings band and was featured on the Flag Day soundtrack with Vedder and Cat Power.

爱尔兰带给我们的不只风琴 竖笛 凯尔特民谣 还有这对曾经的情侣档组合The Swell Season 相信两人在电影《Once》里的演出和歌曲融化了许多人的心，其实在《Once》之前，他们就曾以二人组合身份发表过一张专辑，其中的歌曲大部分后来被放在《Once》里，他们的音乐一直都在记录这生活。听感平和感动 两人后来合组The Swell Season并且在宣传巡回时结为真正的情侣，虽然如今恢复拍档身份，但仍旧以组合身份继续音乐创作。如此说来，once套用在他们俩身上倒也合适。 The Swell Season 就是来自爱尔兰的这对夫妻档Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova的组合。 其实在《Once》之前，他们就曾以这个名字发表过一张专辑，其中的歌曲大部分后来被放在《Once》里，只是在那张专辑里的编曲更简单，更类似Acoustic的感觉，而事实上，他们的音乐一直都是记录生活的。所以听来那么平和又感动，这次的第三张专辑，名字《Strict Joy》取自一本爱尔兰诗集，Glen Hansard说：对他而言，这张专辑只是一本有声日记，是生活的还原。