David Gray announces new album Nightjar

David Gray has announced a new album, Nightjar, a companion album to his 2005 work Life in Slow Motion.

Written and recorded at the same time as Life in Slow Motion, the album features 19 previously unreleased songs. The first single of the album, ‘When I Fall In Love’, was released on February 20.

The album was recorded during a period of upheaval in Gray’s life, following the success (and subsequent touring) of his breakout album, White Ladder, and following album, A New Day At Midnight.

“When I returned home after the tour I knew that I needed nothing less than a total reset, a new home for my family and a fresh start for my music,” said Gray. “The flavour of some of these songs is one of grief, and in others of confusion and disillusionment. I think I was attempting to make sense of everything that had spun me round so completely in the previous four or five years. That would prove to be a long process, perhaps a never-ending one in some respects.”

Life in Slow Motion and Nightjar were recorded at The Church Studios with Gray and his band.

“The mainstay of Nightjar is the result of the creative teamwork of myself, the band and the producer Iestyn Polson, all working together within a very free and open process,” said Gray. “The basic protocol was to work fast and get ideas recorded as spontaneously and instinctively as possible. I didn’t want to be hindered by trying to organise everything into a compact set of commercially viable songs, I just wanted to stretch out into the space in front of me.

“Life in Slow Motion was the ambitious and highly produced end result of this 18-month recording blitz, but these other songs reveal much more of the story and shine a light on many of the dark and conflicted feelings that were beginning to crystallise.”

Nightjar will be released on March 27, and Gray will be touring in Ireland this June.

Listen to ‘When I Fall In Love’, the first single from Nightjar, now: