Donating their songwriting skills to the project are Damien Rice, Emm Gryner, Dave Geraghty and Paul Noonan from BellX1, Ollie Cole, Glen Hansard (The Frames), Matt Lunson and The Thrills. Meanwhile, vox duties are taken on by Lisa Hannigan, Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Gemma Hayes, Josh Ritter, Nina Persson (The Cardigans), and Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy).
The nine-track album will be released under Oxfam records, with titles including ‘Black Winged Bird’, ‘Vapour Trail’ and ‘Good Intentions’ and ‘Some Surprise’.
The project was orchestrated by BellX1’s Brian Crosby, who recently traveled with frontman Paul Noonan to Tanzania to witness the social problems first-hand. During the visit, Paul Noonan expressed how critical Western aid was: “There’s a lot of pressure on Third World countries to open up their markets and sign unbalanced trade agreements. We need to raise awareness of this in Ireland and get our politicians to take up the issue.”
The profits from the album, released on 27 October, will go to Oxfam’s Make Trade Fair campaign.