Premiere: Wallis Bird announces new album with first song/video, As The River Flows

Header image by Jens Oellermann.

Ireland's Wallis Bird is a name surprisingly not mentioned too often in Australia, but we have a feeling that within the next year, this will change. With a strong discography spanning five albums - six, in September (but we'll get to that in a minute) - and countless singles, the musician's unique twist onto acoustically-built folk and indie sits perfectly within Australia's taste, perhaps a reason why she's been invited to the country for long-spanning tours three times within three years, the latter of which including a spot at Woodford Folk Festival, where she caught the eyes of one our most incredible names, Amanda Palmer: "Wallis Bird at Woodford folk festival fucking destroying it...".

In saying that, however, her international rise has been a long time coming. Across the better part of a decade, the musician's endless stream of captivating folk-rock has seen her become one of her home country's most adored musicians, often compared to Fiona Apple as she scores Meteor Awards - the Irish equivalent of-kinds to the ARIA Awards - and two nominations for the Choice Music Prize, a long-standing annual award comparable to Australia's AMP ceremony or the British Mercury Awards. 

Woman, her forthcoming sixth album due for release September 27th, is bound to be the one that breaks her further into international waters, with the now-Berlin-residing musician promising a collection of tracks that are short, but incredibly powerful; tackling heavy issues with a strong emphasis and a strong vocal that she's come to spotlight across the years, and something she further spotlights on the album's first tease, As The River Flows. It's a rather quick-paced change of sound for the musician who utilises rapid hand clips, strumming guitar and twinkling melodies as the backbone for her soaring vocal, which grows stronger and more powerful as the single continues. It's devoted to Alan Kurdi, the three-year-old Syrian refugee whose drowned body on a Turkish beach in 2015 became one of the year's most devastatingly powerful images and summary of the Syrian refugee crisis, with Bird explaining: "It’s dedicated to the incredible souls who faced death crossing the Mediterranean Sea and to the poor little boy, Alan Kurdi, whose drowning broke my heart. This is ultimately a song for hope."

It's powerful and a really quite harrowing listen, and with her forthcoming album set to bring many similar moments of intenseness, watch the single's video clip below while we wait.

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