Bróna McVittie
The Woman in the Moon
Album release 2nd October 2022
Company of Corkbots
“You’re put in the place of a bird navigating wide open landscapes, absorbing light, space and air. This is music that takes you on its wing, and gives you fresh visions”
★★★★ Jude Rogers, The Guardian
“McVittie takes her inspiration from W.B. Yeats’s idea of a kind of Celtic phantasmagoria which can be felt but remains essentially ineffable”
★★★★ Mike Barnes, MOJO
The Woman in the Moon is the new album from Northern-Irish singer/songwriter Bróna McVittie, due for release on 2nd October 2022. The Woman in the Moon includes the title track single plus Tiocfaidh an Samhradh released in May 2022. This release follows her acclaimed albums We Are the Wildlife (January 2018) and The Man in the Mountain (September 2020).
Bróna has steadily built a reputation for her eerie, Celtic lore-inspired electronic folk and with The Woman in the Moon she adds more than a touch of Alice Coltrane with a mix of harp, transcendental melodies and unexpected rhythms from guest musicians Brazilian drummer Marius Rodrigues, who recently recorded with Robert Wyatt, and jazz double bassist Oli Hayhurst, who performs with Pharaoh Sanders. Having previously collaborated with legendary Scandi trumpet maestro Arve Henriksen on The Man in the Mountain, the vein of jazz-influenced instrumentation is a continuation of Bróna’s desire to present traditional and contemporary folk songs in new clothing. Other collaborators include ongoing visitors to Bróna’s sonic universe Hutch Demouilpied (trumpet); Richard Curran (strings); Myles Cochran (steel guitars). Alongside Bróna’s gorgeous original compositions, she reimagines two well-known traditional Irish ballads: Star of the County Down and Gaelic Irish song Tiocfaidh an Samhradh. – FULL ALBUM TRACK BY TRACK FROM BRÓNA BELOW
Bróna’s second album The Man in the Mountain was ranked 4th in The Guardian’s 10 Best Folk Albums of 2020 and received four-star reviews from Mojo, and the national and local press. Her tracks have been broadcast on BBC Radio 2 Folk Show, BBC Radio 3 and BBC 6Music by Mark Radcliffe, Iggy Pop, Gideon Coe, Cerys Matthews and Lauren Laverne; on regional BBC channels by Lynette Fay, Eve Blair and more; in Ireland on RTÉ radio by John Kelly, Ellen Crannitch and Cian Ó Cíobháin as well as in Italy, The Netherlands, the USA, Canada and Australia. In 2019 Bróna performed with her trio at Dublin’s National Concert Hall, the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, London’s Kings Place, Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Celtic Connections, TradFest and WOMAD. The Woman in the Moon was recorded at Corkbot Castle Studios in County Down, Ace Recording Studio in Devon, and mastered in Denmark by RedRedPaw.
Album recording funded with support from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland
The Woman in the Moon by Bróna McVittie
1. Star of the County Down – I’ve been singing this song for many years but recently chanced upon a new arrangement – the result of experimenting with synthesisers. It’s an alternative rhythmical take to well-trodden versions.
2. Living Without You features two bespoke synth patches, one of which I particularly adore (listen on your best hifi) on account of its very slow oscillation rate, which makes you feel like you’re swimming in sound.
3. The Woman in the Moon – the album version lacks the drums that the single version features. It’s more open and spacious and features steel guitars by Myles Cochran, which help to emphasise the otherworldliness of the song.
4. Tiocfaidh an Samhradh (Summer Will Come) – an unrequited love ballad with heart-wrenching lyrics in Irish Gaelic. Translated from the 3rd verse: “A curse on the sea / Because it’s so vast / It goes between me / And the one that I love”
5. Your Heart Wants to Go – a wee love song thrown in for good measure.
6. The Fairy Glen (Gleann na Sidhe) – one day I was sat on my front doorstep, which is opposite a riverside walk called ‘The Fairy Glen’ and a melody came to me, as if from the fairies! It begins with the age old traditional Irish song entry “As I roved out…” and is inspired by my fascination with the ‘Leannan Sídhe’ or the deathly muse, a concept that has been attributed to W.B.Yeats. The dark-haired fairy features in famous Irish traditional ballad My Lagan Love. In my song: The Fairy Glen, the singer meets such a fairy and is entranced. She kisses them and turns them into a bird “And beauty kissed me softly upon my feathered brow, and I was elevated, for to fly.”
7. I Left My Heart on the Misty Mountain – sometimes when you’re out roaming the wilds, you have a sense of what we’ve lost in our overly complicated modern lives. How often do we stop and just listen to the sound of our heart beating?
8. In the Winter – in the face of adversity there is always a silver lining, whether we get to find it or not. As we mature emotionally we realise that out of the gloom comes a ray of hope.
9. Pushing Up the Daisies is one of two guitar-based songs on the album. Sometimes life hits you with a curveball and you suddenly realise how precious each moment is, and how important it is to hang on to those you love, and cherish them while they’re alive.
10. Looking – my lockdown ballad. This was written on the guitar in my living room looking out the window. “Looking out as I’m gazing in” — I went on a thought journey to visit myself as a child (there’s a photo on the mantelpiece of me sitting on a chaise longue all dressed my mothers furs) and wondered what I’d think of myself now as an adult. I’m still wondering…
11. Phantastmagoria – the album’s instrumental features the song of the robin and also the songthrush, which I very regularly hear first thing in the morning, its complex song ringing out in the still air. Just before the first harp phrase the bird song slows down, and sounds more like monkeys in the jungle. The instruments play a call and response game with the phantasmagorical birds.
12. The Woman in the Moon (Single version) – remastered version of the single released on 7/5/22.
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