Marketa Irglova, the Academy Award winner known most famously for staring in the movie Once and as one half of the duo The Swell Season, is ready to step back into the spotlight with LILA, her first record in over eight years.
Irglova’s time away has been far from quiet as she married, had three children, and built a studio all while working on music near constantly in the intermitting years.
While many artists are busy offering up their pandemic record, LILA is a work that has been long in progress. With its confessional-like nature, the record offers insight into Irglova’s journey and how she has managed to find balance in her career as an artist, wife and mother, while embracing the full paradox of love, which softens even as it provides strength.
The central premise of LILA’s nine-song journey is one of LOVE. It finds Irglova living her dream life offering insight into the healing power of love and being at peace with that which you cannot control. As Irglova states: “Simply sitting with things I can’t change, rather than trying to solve them or run away from them, has brought me into a deeper place in my heart and I am grateful for that.”
LILA was conceived in Iceland with her partner/producer Sturla Mio Thorisson bringing Irglova’s vision into sharp focus. Recorded at the couple’s studio Masterkey, LILA is a showcase for Irglova’s exceptional piano and arrangement skills which have come to be known through her most famous song “Falling Slowly.” The singer-songwriter is joined by noted Finnish born / Irish based string player, Marja Gaynor, Czech guitarist Peter Moc, and Venezulan percussionist Manuel Barreto throughout the record.
LILA calls to mind the work of indie artists like Cat Power, Half Waif and Damien Rice while still touching on larger themes and styles that musically rest alongside more spiritual artists like Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan, and Enya.
With her first single, “My Roots Go Deep”, Irglova looks back on her early and wandering days, leaving them behind as she makes her case for “letting down my roots” while “getting good at being still” prepared to “weather any storm.” The song, with its anthem like refrain, was a highlight on her recent 15th Anniversary ONCE tour with Glen Hansard, prompting a standing ovation by songs end each night.
The second single ‘The Season’ released on July 19 was inspired by a Netflix series called Bridgerton, as well as Marketa’s classical piano background and influence. It was accompanied by a video filmed at the UNESCO protected Archbishop’s Chateau and Gardens in Czech Republic, where Amadeus ( a Milos Forman movie about Mozart ) was filmed.
The third single ‘Girl From a Movie’ released on August 2nd references the role of GIRL she played in an Indie movie called Once in 2007, where she notices how reality becomes distorted through our perception of it as we project our beliefs and expectations on everything and everyone, and how we only ever truly see one another through our heart, not our senses.
LILA takes its name from an Indian word that is often used in moments of serendipity where a higher power has interfered in a playful and well-meaning way. Being open to these invisible forces has helped Irglova navigate her art and life.
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