The Breath, the moniker of the sublime partnership of Ríoghnach Connolly and guitarist Stuart McCallum, have revealed details of their third album’ Land Of My Other‘, due for release via Real World Records on 13th October 2023.
Their first single, Don’t Rush It, accompanies the news, on which Connolly sings, “If it all falls tomorrow, be glad of today”. The song is 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.
“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 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 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.”
Don’t miss their Union Chapel album launch and Manchester Folk Festival appearance in October – see below.
Pre-Order/Save Land Of My Other
Land Of My Other Tracklisting
- Don’t Rush It
- Little One
- Land of My Other
- Burning Away
- Cliona’s Wave
- Remembering the Flood
- Head Down
- Letters from Long Kesh
- Without You In It
- Every Time It Comes Around
UPCOMING LIVE DATES:
16th Oct Union Chapel album launch London
& 21st Oct Manchester Folk Festival, New Century Manchester (a special in-the-round performance with an immersive PA)