Write a comment
Rostrevor singer-songwriter, harpist and biologist Bróna McVittie will release 'Supernatural', her fourth solo album later this month to coincide with Samhain, the ancient Irish festival when the veil between worlds grows thin. The album is a companion to her illustrated folklore anthology 'A Way with the Fairies'.
The album will be launched at an event in An Cuan Rostrevor 18 October at 4pm. You can get tickets at www.eventbrite.co.uk
Born in County Down, Bróna is a trained biologist and a lifelong lover of mythology. She blends traditional song with nature-infused lyricism and experimental soundscapes, an approach The Guardian praised for its ability to "take you on its wing and give you fresh visions".
'Supernatural' is produced by Thomas Gandey and draws directly from the stories in 'A Way with the Fairies', an anthology exploring Irish fairy lore alongside mythic tales from Europe. The track listing mirrors the order of the tales in the book, opening with 'The Stolen Child' and closing with 'The Wooing of Étain'. Each piece is a sonic reimagining of a myth, poem or folk narrative, brought into the present through Bróna's blend of traditional and electronic elements.
The album explores a worldview in which fairies, spirits and otherworldly forces were once accepted as part of the same landscape as homes, fields and family life. McVittie describes these as stories alive with beauty, strangeness, darkness and emotional truth, and she invites listeners to step into them and feel their resonance in the modern world.
Although 'Supernatural' is primarily a solo creation, McVittie invited three international artists to contribute to individual tracks. Spanish flamenco guitarist Antonia Jiménez, author of 'Haeda', lends her percussive style to the track of the same name. Ukrainian bandurist and singer Anastasiya Voytyuk, known as Bandura Girl and author of 'White Bird', features the harp-like folk bandura and Lithuanian vocalist and composer Jausmė, author of 'Brothers', adds a Baltic flavour to the album's layers of harmony.
The album follows her three previous releases, 'We Are the Wildlife' (2018), 'The Man in the Mountain' (2020) and 'The Woman in the Moon' (2022), on which she developed a form of cosmic folk, weaving harp, guitar, ethnic instrumentation and electronic textures into music that evokes birdsong, open skies and elemental forces.
Tracks
Bróna McVittie's work has been championed by MOJO, Uncut, The Guardian, The Independent and BBC Radio and she has performed at WOMAD, Celtic Connections, the National Concert Hall Dublin, Kings Place London and festivals in Ireland and the UK.
