The Swell Season Tickets

The Swell Season
Glen Hansard of the Irish band, The Frames and Marketa Irglova met through Irglova's father who is a musician and gig promoter. They happened upon one another when The Frames were touring the Czech Republic.

Glen retired to the Czech Republic for some down time. It's here when he spends much of his time writing songs. Some time later he decided to enter a studio with some time collaborator, Marketa.

They both teamed up to produce an album of affecting songs and compositions in the shape of chilling and intimate, The Swell Season.

The Swell Season originally refers to the 2006 album by the duo. The title of both the song as well as the album was inspired by Glen's favorite novel by Josef ?kvoreck? from 1975 which too had the same title.

Set in Nazi occupied Czechoslovakia, the novel revolves around one man's love of music and pursuit of unattainable women. The Swell Season, like the book, too deals with the pains and hopes of those struggling to have one great chance that will give meaning to their lives.

On the 2001 release, For the Birds, The Frames lead singer, Glen Hansard asked the question ?What happens when the heart just stops?' it's indeed a simple, rhetorical question and yet one that won't go away.

The song would go on to become a staple of the Frames live set. Glen continued to provide us with a whole album of like minded questions with his new project called The Swell Season.

In 2005, Glen and Marketa recorded an album together in Prague, ?The Swell Season'. The album also featured two interference musicians Marja Tuhkanen on violin and Bertrand Galen on cello and was issued in April 2006.

In many ways, The Swell Season was proved partly inspirational for John Carney's movie ?Once'. Despite being a low budget indie film, ?Once' turned out to be one of the most successful independent features of 2007. The couple not only wrote songs for the movie but also starred in it as well.

Since their mutual came to limelight after starring in the 2007 film called ?Once', the duo now sometimes refer to themselves as ?The Swell Season'.

The initial album came about after Glen and Marketa were approached by the Czech film director Jan Hrebejk to record songs for his forthcoming movie ?Beauty in Trouble'. In February 2008, they succeeded receiving an Academy Award for Best Original Song for ?Falling Slowly'.

Since the release of Once, Glen and Marketa have toured extensively as ?The Swell Season'. The pair has also appeared on a number of high profile US TV shows such as ?Letterman' and ?Tonight Show' with Jay Leno.

The movie was rounded off in February by winning an Academy Award for ?Falling Slowly' in the ?Best Original Song' category.

The year 2008 saw Hansard work on the new Frames album while both himself and Marketa had performed with The Swell Season at the prestigious Coachella festival on the 25th of April.

The duo also amused people on the 12th of June in Boonaroo. Currently, the Swell Season is touring the U.S. and Europe and will continue enchanting people with their soulful compositions and music for the next few months.