The Swell Season
originally refers to the 2006 album by Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. The title of the album as well as of the song "The Swell Season" is inspired by Hansard's favourite novel by Josef Škvorecký from 1975 bearing the same title.
Since their mutual rise to prominence after starring in the 2007 film Once
, they increasingly referred to themselves as "The Swell Season" in promotion of their performances until it has unambiguously become the formal name of their collaboration in 2008. (Notably, 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
.)
The initial album came about after Glen and Marketa were approached by the Czech film director Jan Hrebejk 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.
Some of the tracks on this album have appeared on other recordings - the track "Falling Slowly" and "When Your Mind's Made Up" on The Frames' album The Cost
, and "Falling Slowly", "When Your Mind's Made Up", "Lies" and "Leave" on the Once
soundtrack.
A follow up album, Strict Joy
, is due to be released October 27, 2009 in the States. [1]
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THE SWELL SEASON TICKETS
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Academy Award
In February 2008, the duo won an
Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Falling Slowly", beating songs from the films
Enchanted
and
August Rush
.
The Simpsons
On October 3, 2008, Glen announced to the audience at their concert in
San Diego that he and Marketa had just driven down from
Los Angeles where they recorded their voices for
an episode of
The Simpsons
when the family visits
Dublin, Ireland. They also announced that they were due to record the second half of their new album the following week.
Discography
Swell Season (2006)
Once Soundtrack (2007)
Strict Joy (2009)
References
- http://www.theframes.ie/v4/news/newsletters/july_2009.shtml