Lisa Hannigan

Lisa Hannigan is a versatile Irish folk singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and voice actor. She released her solo debut album, Sea Sew in 2008, a joyous kaleidoscope of love songs, laments, sea shanties and glockenspiels, with a cover hand-stitched by Lisa herself. The self-released album was a runaway success, nominated for a Choice award in Ireland and a Mercury Music Prize in the UK.  

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This ecstatic reception gave Lisa the confidence to explore deeper, darker emotions. Passenger, which came out in 2011, centred around the pain of leaving and the sense of apartness consequent to a life spent in constant motion. If Sea Sew bobs beautifully on the surface, you could say that Passenger explores the undercurrents of passion and heartache beneath the waves. 

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At Swim, her third album, released in 2016 is arguably her most bewitching collection yet.

From the very start we are drawn into a darkly magical space where the boundaries between love and death, past and present, grief and happiness, are dissolved. Hannigan's never been a singer who is afraid of the dark, but here she handles her themes with an empathy and directness that can only come with experience.

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2019 saw the release of a live album with the contemporary-classical orchestra,

s t a r g a z e. The collaboration, Live in Dublin – which sees Hannigan’s sparse, ethereal folk transformed into something cinematic and transfixing – has been taken to select festivals across Europe, and most recently graced the stages of London’s Barbican and Dublin’s National Concert Hall. Across its fourteen tracks, Hannigan’s delicate vocals and soft-plucked guitars and mandolin are delivered against a hypnotic backdrop of sublime waltzing keys, affective string sections and minimalist percussion. The result is something majestic in scope and ambition, and truly beguiling in the best possible way. 

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Lisa Hannigan continues her fruitful solo musical career that has spanned 17 years and received several award nominations, both in Ireland and the United States.

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