Four years after the release of his latest album, Dark Eyed Messenger, Adrian Crowley has revealed that his highly anticipated ninth studio album, The Watchful Eye of the Stars, is out on April 30 – with the first track from the project released today.

“The songs straddle the conscious and subconscious world and some are even psychedelic in my mind, but to me they are all at once true stories and born of another place,” the Irish singer-songwriter says of the upcoming album.

In making the album, Crowley moved between studio and home recording set-ups, while John Parish (Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey) produced. The pair worked from tracks made initially by Crowley on a charity shop ¾ size nylon string guitar or Mellotron: “In this way, John wanted to keep some of the magic of that first take”, says Crowley.

These raw beginnings were then fleshed out more in the studio, with Parish and additional musicians. Jim Barr of Portishead contributed double bass, and was brought in to engineer parts of Watchful Eye in Bristol. Nadine Khouri and Katell Keineg were invited in as guest backing singers, taking a day trip from London and Cardiff respectively.

They also had members of Crash Ensemble in Dublin to record for a few days – and Crowley recalls staying up all night to write string parts for 'Northbound Stowaway', which was recorded the following morning.

Watch the video for 'Northbound Stowaway', directed by Niall McCann and Adrian Crowley, below:

Adrian Crowley plays The Workmans Club, Dublin on October 23. See the full tracklist for The Watchful Eye of the Stars below:

1. Northbound Stowaway
2. I Still See You Among Strangers
3. Underwater Song
4. Bread And Wine
5. A Shut-In's Lament
6. The Colours Of The Night
7. The Singalong
8. Ships On The Water
9. Crow Song
10. Take Me Driving