It’s somehow been since 2017 that Julie Byrne graced us with an album. It’s been a torturous wait, and one during which – to say the least – much has changed. Thankfully, it’s nearly over, as she will release a new album called The Greater Wings on July 7 through Ghostly International.
As she finally returns to us, her presence feels almost alien in the deepening hellscape that is our current reality, like a furtive glimpse of a past tragically out of reach, or perhaps more fittingly, of a present that we simply don’t deserve.
In what was a trying time for the artist, the album gradually emerged as something of a defense, a bracing shield against the current of loss.
Byrne shares: “My hope for The Greater Wings is that it lives as a love letter to my chosen family and as an expression of the depth of my commitment to our shared future. Being reshaped by grief also has me more aware of what death does not take from me. I commit that to heart, to words, to sound. Music is not bound to any kind of linear time, so in the capacity to record and speak to the future: this is what it felt like to me, when we were simultaneous, alive, occurring all at once. What it has felt like to go up against my edge and push, the love that has made it worth all this fight. These memories are my values, they belong with me.”
“Summer Glass”, her new single, practically aches with life, throbbing and bristling with beauty, serenity, and inevitable sense of melancholy. Listen to the beautiful single below, along with its stunning video, a mixture of calm, poise, and fleeting images of memory.
Julie Byrne’s new album The Greater Wings arrives on July 7 through Ghostly International (pre-order/save). You can find her on Bandcamp and Instagram.
She has these tour dates ahead:
7/23 – Hebden, UK @ Bridge Trades Club
7/26 – London, UK @ Kings Place Hall
7/28 – Brighton, UK @ St Barts
8/18-20 – Brecon Beacons, Wales @ Green Man Festival
9/5 – Seattle,WA @ Fremont Abbey
9/6 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall
9/8 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall
9/9 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall
9/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever
9/14 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s
9/19 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd
9/20 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church (Sanctuary)
9/21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
9/29 – Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre
9/30 – Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom
11/16 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club
11/17 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono
11/18 – Manchester, UK @ St Michael’s Church
11/22 – Bristol, UK @ The Jam Jar
11/24 – Limerick, IE @ Dolans Upstairs
11/25 – Dublin, IE @ Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire
11/26 – Belfast, IE @ The Black Box
