May 21st: Talos & Ólafur Arnalds new album and special Opera House show, PULP Listening Party, new NEIL YOUNG, CYPRUS HILL plus Orchestra and New WOLF ALICE

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Hi folks

Hope yer all doing well out there!
Cork Hurling crash landed back to earth last Sunday….credit to Luimneach, they were just awesome.

Loads going on this week , it’s going to be a long one!

So you will definitely have to click “ read entire email” to read it all
Firstly here are the releases in the siopa for this Friday the 23rd of May….

 

 

Right so going to start with one close to our hearts…

There is an album announced today for release on the 11th of July.

Ólafur Arnalds & Talos – A Dawning 

Here is a little bit about the release

“When we feel as though we might drown under the waves of our grief, there is music. On A Dawning, the astounding album from Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and the late Irish artist Eoin French – known to many as Talos – music becomes a raft to keep us afloat in those dark, seemingly fathomless waters, guiding us towards a glimmer of light on the horizon. For both artists, this record serves as the apotheosis of their creative talents, two brilliant minds revelling in their shared love of music.”

Ólafur Arnalds & Eoin French, known professionally as Talos, come together on A Dawning, a deeply immersive collaborative album set for release in July 2025 via OPIA Community and Mercury KX. Created before the untimely passing of Talos in 2024, the record blends their distinct musical voices into something truly transportive.

Adding a deeply personal touch, all artwork for the album and its singles were crafted by Talos himself, offering fans an additional insight into his beautiful creative vision. This release not only celebrates the musical partnership between Arnalds and Talos but also honours the enduring legacy of Talos, ensuring his artistic spirit continues to inspire and resonate.”

 

I only met Eoin twice briefly down through the years and he would only remember me as the guy who was hounding him for an instore when we met!

His last sentence to me was “ I will do an instore someday for you Ray”….it never happened.

Beautiful smile on a handsome face as he said it…hard to fathom.

 i was always a huge fan of his music and talent, what a voice Eoin had ( that’s what caused the instore hounding)

Last year when I heard the news, it rocked me big time and as i said i didn’t even know Eoin.

What a loss to his family and friends, what a loss….and what a loss to the wider musical community.

So this release is  close to everyone’s hearts.

We really hope our community will support it.

This release ( i think) will showcase once again, the immense talents of these two musicians.

Here is a beautiful  tune from it with friends and family…this one always gives me chills

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vREl36k1eGs

 

There is a bit going on around the release…first things first there is a show in the Opera house in September and if you preorder the album from us you will get a presale code for the show.

Ólafur Arnalds & Talos – A Dawning Vinyl/CD/NPN preorder for presale access to Remembering Talos in the Cork Opera House on September 11 2025, as part of the SFSH festival.

“Remembering Talos is a special one-off concert taking place on September 11 at the Cork Opera House as part of the Sounds From A Safe Harbour festival. Tickets go on general sale on Friday May 30 at 10am. Pre-order* ‘A Dawning’ on any format from Musiczone.ie by 5pm BST on Tuesday May 27 to get pre-sale access to the Remembering Talos concert. Pre-sale codes and ticket link will be sent out by email by 10pm on Tuesday May 27. The pre-sale will open from 10am BST on Wednesday May 28 and close at 10am on Friday May 30.”

 

Thats the info on that…at the end of tonight’s newsletter we are going to share with ye Ólafur and Eoin’s journey together … .it is a deeply moving piece and so worth a read…its lengthy but so worth a read.

Here is the second tune released from the record ( just today) its wonderful in my opinion

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pycvvw8GYc

Right releases for the 30th May next up folks

 

Right more news …we are having a PULP listening party in advance of the new album “ more”

The listening party is on Thursday the 29th of May @ 6 pm ( a week before the album is out, so there will be no stock available on the night)

The listening party is limited to 70 spaces so if interested please email us for a spot or buy an album and request a spot with that as well.

Every party attendee will receive ( 70 of these available only to those who attend the listening party!!)

  • Tote bag
  • Bic 4-colour pen
  • Soft notebook
  • Button Badge Set
  • Sticker

“We’ll also have some exclusive t shirts, we only have a small qty of these per shop (I think it’s 10 per shop but will confirm), so they would need to be a names in a hat competition on the night.  But I think they look pretty cool”

Yes we will have 10 tees which we will raffle off … .sizes are going to be random and there is nothing I can do about it.!!

But the main big draw for these listening events will also be the opportunity to preorder an Exclusive Crystal Clear White Label.

 

These will be stickered up with the individual shop names for added exclusivity too!  

 

The white label will only be available in the shops hosting the listening parties, they won’t be available to take away on the day (as it is a week before the album), but will be available to preorder and then shipped or picked up instore on release day as normal.  

We will ask people on the night do they want to  to buy these vinyl ( 40 euro retail) 

We will have 15 of 60 in the country….if more than 15 people want to buy it, again we will go to the raffle to draw the 15….make sense?

If 15 or less want to buy them…no raffle!!

Everyone who attends will get these

  • Tote bag
  • Bic 4-colour pen
  • Soft notebook
  • Button Badge Set
  • Sticker

And maybe a tee shirt and maybe an exclusive listening party only white label of the record.

Hit us back if you want to go….went on socials yesterday and 28 spots gone already.
Right so releases for the 6th June next

Here is the lead single from the new album

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-27a1ugJX8U

Going to hand ye to Shane now as he takes ye down the road as usual … .thanks for your help the last few days … .categorically I could not have done it without you … .and that’s as categorical as it gets ! 

Sound, Ray, no bother! Hello everyone!
Yeah, jaysus, twas stressful enough over the last few days with the Pulp and Talos/Olafur Arnalds events. Extra tricky because they both kind of landed on our plate on the same day.
I know it’s not noticeable at all, but we’re not very corporate leaning… so not used to all the deadlines and embargoes and chart compliant wording etc.
But look, especially with the Talos release, it’s lovely to get a posthumous release from him, and from the two tracks Ray included, I’m sure it’ll sound great.

I hope ye don’t mind if I just list everything for ‘down the line’ (I probably only bore ye anyway)
My team are in the Europa final tonight so I want to get settled for it!
Here’s the list:

That’s all from me. Sorry if a bit rushed!

Thanks Shane!

 

Sin e more or less for this week ( i would like if some folks read the piece below)

 

Thanks for listening as always

Ray, Shane, Adam Og and Mia.

 

 

Here is the piece about Eoin and Ólafurs friendship and music making…so poignant and heart breaking really…an incredible snapshot…we really hope folks will support the record.

 

“When we feel as though we might drown under the waves of our grief, there is music. On A Dawning, the astounding album from Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds and the late Irish artist Eoin French – known to many as Talos – music becomes a raft to keep us afloat in those dark, seemingly fathomless waters, guiding us towards a glimmer of light on the horizon. For both artists, this record serves as the apotheosis of their creative talents, two brilliant minds revelling in their shared love of music.

It is abundantly clear that French found a kind of freedom in the music he and Arnalds made together, while Arnalds relished the fresh challenge of working with someone new. On “Signs”, French’s voice shifts and morphs in unexpected ways, moving instinctively rather than following predictable patterns – a reminder of his masterful approach to composing. “It sounds a little bit different from the other songs on the record because we were still trying to figure out what we were doing – what direction we were going to take,” Arnalds says. We hear this in the stutter of the drums, the chopped vocal samples and improvisational quality, allowing us to sink into the song and be transported.

French and Arnalds met just before their residency at Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival in Cork, in 2023. “We instantly felt a very strong musical connection, and composed a few songs that ended up on the album,” Arnalds recalls. The pair were natural collaborators: “It brings a certain ease to things when you’re working with other people, because when you’re alone in it, you tend to suffer quite a lot,” Arnalds says. “Bringing other people feels familial, and maybe more related to the origins of what music was, what music has always been.” 

French later visited Arnalds’ studio in Reykjavík, where they realised they wanted to work on a full-length project. Devastatingly, French became ill during his stay and was admitted to hospital; too unwell to travel, he stayed with Arnalds and his wife, Indonesian-Filipino artist Sandrayati for a few weeks while receiving treatment. “It brought us together like nothing else can, living there with our partners and being so deeply embedded in all of this,” Arnalds says. “It put everything into perspective and we realised that we needed to finish this album, because we had something to tell.”

Lead single “We Didn’t Know We Were Ready”, featuring Niamh Regan and Ye Vagabonds with a choir of friends, begins with hushed, reverential piano notes before French starts to sing: “How did we doubt the evening sun?/ We didn’t know we were ready.” As he is joined in harmony, strings glide in like swans on a still lake. In one moment, his voice disappears, and Regan and Ye Vagabonds take the lead, before he returns: “What if the silence said it?” Each vocal cascades over the other, growing louder then falling away again. It’s a beautiful work, one in which raw grief mingles with acceptance, and closes with a profound quiet.

When French eventually returned to Ireland, Arnalds began visiting him at his home in West Cork where they continued writing new songs. “Slowly, the music became more and more serious – you knew the lyrics were poignant, and it started to feel like we were onto something really special.” Arnalds describes their friendship as a perfect match: “I don’t think we even spoke that much, we could hang out for a whole evening and maybe say three words.” This only changed towards the very end, when it became clear that French had little time left: “We started going through the album in a more organised way, working out how to finish it and what was important to him.”

A Dawning opens on “Shared Time”. Snatches of conversation are caught between strange murmurations of sound, as though preserved in amber that appears like warm honey when held to the sun. “We both knew that I would have to finish parts of this record without him, but it was still our music, so Eoin suggested I go through his phone to find something there,” Arnalds says. “‘Shared Time’ is the result of that idea, prefacing the record with thoughts on the importance of family and community. In a way it felt symbolic of my purpose, of keeping his creativity alive.”

“Bedrock” is more forlorn in tone, the piano notes as immovable as stone as the song delves into themes of home and belonging. French sings in a strange, lilting cry, stirring something ancient within as he is joined by Sandrayati. As their voices rise and fall, you imagine waves crashing against the rocks, eroding the surface. The song was written in West Cork, while Arnalds was staying with French: “We would drive around a little bit – he showed me the ruins of a ceremonial circle,” he recalls. Arnalds felt an instant connection with his friend’s home, knowing the history of Irish monks who came to Iceland and of the Vikings who established the town that would later become known as Dublin. “There’s a defiance in both countries, an island mentality, which I think is often a result of us fighting to keep what is uniquely ours – there’s a certain energy that comes from that,” he says.

“It’s not difficult to grasp the notion that French was exploring ideas surrounding our physical and spiritual forms for much of the record, and a sense of place inspired by the rugged, wild landscapes of Arnald’s country and the dramatic, sweeping coastlines of his own home. The lyrics to “Bedrock” were written with author Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers), who later told Arnalds that French had spoken about Michelangelo and “the body beyond the rock” – the Atlas who emerges out of the marble while bearing the weight of the world on his shoulders. The sculpture’s half-completed form is what scholars call “non-finito”, believing the artist intended to demonstrate the eternal struggle of humans to free themselves from their material trappings. These figures already existed in the marble, just as French’s songs already existed in him, waiting to be released.”

“west Cork, 12 Feb”, then, feels like French imagining himself without a body tying him to the earth. His voice drifts like smoke out of the ether then vanishes again amid Arnalds’ undulating patterns of piano, as both artists play with sound and melody. There is a sense of foreboding in how French wrestles with the idea of no longer having a physical form. It’s a moment frozen in time, taken from the original recording Arnalds captured while they were together. For that same reason, the title is written in the manner of a voicenote – a fleeting thought documented before it could be snatched away and lost forever. 

French and Arnalds were already exploring the concept of “Borrowed Time” before they realised how significant it was. They asked English folk musician Alexi Murdoch to write a spoken-word section to weave in with French’s vocals: “He came in and wrote it on the spot, reciting it into a cheap microphone,” Arnalds recalls. Only later did he add the orchestral closing that swells like some great leviathan rising from the depths. “for Steph”, meanwhile, is French’s wordless declaration of love for his wife, written for her on the piano on Valentine’s Day. “That’s Eoin playing on the first half of the song,” Arnalds confirms, “and then I added the strings to the second half. It was important to honor Eoin’s legacy and the love he had for his community. That extends to Steph, as symbolised in this song here, and it continues with all of us, as friends as we’ll continue to care for her. It’s there in the final part of the album where the wider purpose of the album reveals itself – community – represented on the final song by a choir of friends in the most moving and sincere celebration singing in unison: “we didn’t know we were ready”.  

Steph was watching over a video call as Arnalds led the orchestra for the title work “A Dawning”, a staggering masterpiece. “I think this song has the best lyrics Eoin ever wrote,” he says. “I get goosebumps just thinking about it.” If “west Cork, 12 Feb” and “Borrowed Time” allude to something unfinished, “A Dawning” states it outright. “I had this feeling that he knew the whole time what was going to happen,” Arnalds says. “I think you know in your body, and going through some of his writing, his poetry, you can kind of see what he’d been writing this whole time. He just knew.”

What began as a collaboration between like-minded friends now serves as a work that honours French’s extraordinary legacy, keeping the flame of his creativity burning bright for all to hear. He died before the album was completed, leaving Arnalds to finish what the pair of them had set out to do. “It’s been two-sided,” he says of this emotionally complex process. “I would get these waves of sadness in the moments that I realised he wasn’t here, sitting next to me. But then, having this record as a way of channelling my grief, and this platform… I’m so grateful for that. After you lose someone, you’re often left with an emptiness, but I was able to have Eoin in my life for the last six months – and I could feel him very clearly when I was working on our music.”

The orchestra session for “A Dawning” took place a week after French’s passing. “I really tried to get him to witness it – he hadn’t done orchestra before, he was so excited about it,” Arnalds says. “It was only about a week after his death that I had this session I needed to go to, and I was like, ‘What do I do here?’ I wasn’t ready, but… I just had to.” He flew some of French’s friends over, for emotional support more than anything else, and steeled himself to tell the orchestra about what had happened. “You just heard this audible gasp,” he remembers, “and I couldn’t really keep it together. I started breaking down. But at the same time, I saw everyone in the orchestra just going like, ‘Alright. Don’t worry, we got you.’”

Arnalds had never seen an orchestra “lock in” in the way they did that day. You hear it in the emotion of the performance; the sombre tone of those opening notes. “Now let’s just ride on highs while the moment’s right,” French sings, “Now don’t you fold my wings for the fear of flight…” The violins sustain, like the lull – as though the world has stilled – before that first sliver of morning light sends the birds into song. “It feels like this war is our dawning,” French urges. “Don’t let that light outrun us yet/ It feels like this war is our dawning.” The strings grow louder, surging upwards and threatening to drown him out, but French chases them, his voice growing ever stronger and more defiant. It seems for a moment that he’s victorious, as the music quietens, falling away to leave just his voice, then the silence.

“We made this album together,” Arnalds says. “Even after, while I was there working on some arrangements, I never felt like I was truly alone. Near the end, where we saying how grateful we were to have met each other, he told me, “One day you’ll be sitting at the piano and suddenly get an idea, and you’ll know that’s me.”’ A Dawning is testament to those eternal bonds forged through music, a lasting monument to French’s incredible legacy, and the wonderful friendship that he and Arnalds shared.

ENDS

About Ólafur Arnalds

Over the years, Icelandic composer Ólafur Arnalds has become known for his work with fellow artists such as Nils Frahm, Ry X and Arnór Dan, as well as for his Grammy and Emmy Award-winning contributions to scores for the critically adored ITV drama Broadchurch and Apple TV+’s Defending Jacob. Earlier this year, he and Swedish Eurovision champion Loreen worked together on the stunning EP, SAGES. 

About Eoin French

Irish artist Eoin French is known for his works under the name Talos, such as his imposing, magnificent 2017 debut Wild Alee – nominated for the Choice Music Prize – and 2019’s Far Out Dust. Critics raved about the “sense of majesty” to his music, with The Irish Times calling Far Out  Dust a “captivating album that shows an astute emotional growth of an artist as a lyricist and musician”. His third album, 2022’s Dear Chaos, was hailed for its fearless approach that, Hotpress noted, showcased two sides of his artistry: “The visionary behind vast, cinematic soundscapes, and the singer-songwriter who’s not afraid to get devastatingly raw and intimate in his approach.”