The Swell Season, the acclaimed duo of Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová, have announced the release of Forward, their first new album in 16 years, an eight-song collection will be released on 13 June 2025.

Recorded at Masterkey Studios in Iceland, Forward sees Hansard and Irglová reunite with original Swell Season musicians Marja Gaynor, Bertrand Galen and Joseph Doyle, along with newcomer Piero Perelli on drums and percussion. Produced by Sturla Mio Thorisson, the album captures both the heartrending emotion and joyous beauty that listeners first fell in love with, while also offering a more reflective and mature view of where the duo find themselves today.

The album’s lead single, Stuck In Reverse, has already been released, accompanied by a video filmed during a surprise performance at New York’s Scratcher bar last month. A soaring, impassioned song about the difficulty of moving on, it follows People We Used to Be, another track from the album that was a recent track of the week on Today Radio.

"In any situation of letting go, moving on is clearly the right and natural thing to do", Hansard explains. "This song speaks to that part of us that cannot quite get there." Irglová adds that the title Forward reflects their decision to look ahead rather than dwell on the past. "Both of us have grown and changed. We are in different places and getting to know each other again as the new people we have become."

First forming in 2005, Hansard and Irglová rose to international fame with their work on the film Once, winning an Academy Award for Best Original Song with Falling Slowly and later seeing their music adapted into a Tony Award-winning Broadway production. Although each pursued solo careers over the past decade, their friendship and creative partnership remained strong, leading to reunion shows in 2022 and 2023 and, eventually, to new recording sessions in Iceland.

The songs on Forward were often written spontaneously, shaped by their long-standing chemistry and deep understanding of each other's artistic instincts. "We serve as a mirror to each other", Irglová says. "It is almost like alchemy; we pass this through the sieve of our experiences and who we are as people."

While no Luxembourg dates have been announced yet, The Swell Season will perform in nearby cities including Cologne and Amsterdam later this year.

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