Today, 12th March, IMRO presented Conor O’Brien with an IMRO Award in recognition of Villager’s Independent No1 Album, ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’.
The IMRO Number 1 Award was introduced to acknowledge IMRO members who reach number 1 in the album charts here in Ireland.
Villagers’ acclaimed album ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’, released in September was written, produced, mixed and primarily performed by Conor O’Brien in his Dublin studio.
Following the exquisitely sparse, intimate aura of 2015’s ‘Darling Arithmetic’, Conor O’Brien’s new record reconnects with the multi-faceted approach of Villagers’ 2010 album debut ‘Becoming A Jackal’ and 2013’s {Awayland} while adding a new-found soulfulness, rhythmic nous and dazzling panoply of sonic detail, both analogue and digital, creating feverish moods while writing effortlessly accessible tunes. Balanced with subtle aspects and lyrical themes that embrace existential fears and hopes in this desperate, technologically-centred dystopian age, ‘The Art Of Pretending To Swim’ is the most brilliantly realised Villagers album to date.
O’Brien has a string of accolades under his belt including two Ivor Novello Awards (the most recent being 2016’s Album Award for ‘Darling Arithmetic’), two Mercury Music Prize nominations and is also a previous winner of Ireland’s Choice Music Prize.
Additionally, Villagers’ music recently featured in the high profile HBO drama ‘Big Little Lies’, Conor has collaborated with the composer Nico Muhly (that track featuring in the recent Paulo Sorrentino Berlusconi biopic ‘Loro 2’) and Villagers’ Spotify session of ‘Nothing Arrived’ has hit over 120 million streams.
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