THE BREATH
ANNOUNCE DETAILS OF THEIR NEW ALBUM:
‘LAND OF MY OTHER’
OUT 13th OCTOBER, ON REAL WORLD RECORDS

LISTEN TO THE FIRST TRACK:
“DON’T RUSH IT”

+ ANNOUNCE LIVE DATES:
16th Oct UNION CHAPEL album launch London
& 21st Oct MANCHESTER FOLK FESTIVAL New Century Hall

The Breath announce details of their new album, ‘Land Of My Other’ and share new track “Don’t Rush It”.

STREAM “DON’T RUSH IT”

Ten original tracks of raw, gorgeous, acoustic-minded music. Songs that tell stories in ways that soothe, stir, exalt, and touch emotional chords that will bring tears of lamenting joy, to your eyes.

‘Land of My Other’ is set for release on vinyl, CD and digital via Real World Records on 13th October 2023.

“If it all falls tomorrow, be glad of today”

…sings Ríoghnach Connolly, on “Don’t Rush It”, the first song to feature from the album. It might be about the toll we pay for leaving home, the mistakes we make by hurrying grief or something else… it’s the opening track of an album where Connolly’s emotions run the gamut: righteous, sorrowful, joyous. Authenticity is at a premium. Shame is cast aside.
‘Land of My Other’ is written and performed by the sublime partnership of Ríoghnach [Ree-uh-na] Connolly and guitarist Stuart McCallum. For the widely acclaimed duo, this is the third album under their moniker The Breath.

“We work like two halves of a single songwriter,” says McCallum, the Manchester-based composer and producer. “Imagine a guitarist and a singer who are not separate but are separate people. We just have this really special connection that lets us listen, adapt and evolve a piece of music together.”

Connolly nods her agreement. “Stuart is the yin to my yang,” says the BBC Folk Singer of the Year, her north of Ireland accent un-tempered by two decades of Manchester living. “He has one face. I have many. He’s very measured. I’m not. I like mayhem. He doesn’t. I know where I am with him.”

‘Land of My Other’ is produced by renowned composer/pianist Thomas Bartlett, and he joins the duo on keys for some of the recordings. Such a remarkable bond, between Connolly and McCallum, might have intimidated a lesser producer. But the Ireland-born, US-based Bartlett, famed for his work with the likes of Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent, Florence Welch and Irish/American supergroup The Gloaming, intuited how to frame The Breath’s distinctive brand of art.

“The main aim was to capture the duo” he says, of an album that was recorded in Manchester and at Real World Studios. “I’d sit at the piano not playing very much, just locating the energy and helping to focus it in a way I wanted it to happen. Sometimes I wanted to join in the fun.”

‘Land Of My Other’ is the domain of memories and melodies, lyricism, and lore. A place of sunlight, faerie-tales and rowan trees; of grief, incarceration and thunder in darkness. A realm where ancestral trauma and colonial injustice meet blazing pride, romantic self-rule, all the while with hands held in a circle under the sea.

Where songs are sung with feeling, instruments are everywhere, and music lives deep within our bones.
‘LAND OF MY OTHER’ TRACKLISTING
1. Don’t Rush It
2. Little One
3. Land of My Other
4. Burning Away
5. Cliona’s Wave
6. Remembering the Flood
7. Head Down
8. Letters From Long Kesh
9. Without You in It
10. Every Time It Comes Around
*****
THE BREATH UK LIVE DATES
16th October – London, Union Chapel
21st October – Manchester, New Century Hall (headlining Manchester Folk Festival)
All live dates currently on sale