John Spillane releases live album with Cork Opera House Orchestra

John Spillane’s brand new album, As In Another Light, spans the length of Spillane’s career. Some songs on the record were released in 1983 and others from the singer’s most recent release in 2021, 100 Snow White Horses.

Recorded live with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra, the album includes performances from Pauline Scanlon, conducted by John O’Brien and orchestrated by Kevin Codd, Paul Frost, Daniel Murphy and Robbie Pender.

The record came into effect after a live concert with the Cork Opera House in 2021 at the Right Here Right Now Festival. Reminiscing on the concert that inspired the album, a press release regarding Spillane’s new release shares, “For John and Pauline, who have been performing these pieces for years, it meant learning them anew, in collaboration with the orchestra.

“For the orchestra, playing newly orchestrated pieces brings new challenges and excitement. For the audience members, they could sit back and experience these well known and much loved songs as they have never heard them before.”

The result shines with the power of family and community, laced with the lyrical genius that Spillane has been renowned for throughout his career.

Single ‘Prince Street’ is out alongside a nostalgic music video directed by former Gráda member Alan Doherty. The video is the second in a three-part series chronicling a storyline.

Speaking of the video trilogy, Spillane shares, “As In Another Light is a career spanning album including songs I have written between the years 1983 and 2019, we wanted to create the videos in a similar vein. We wanted to work with one videographer across all three videos to have a consistency in the vision, Al Doherty who created these videos has a really wonderful point of view and a great eye, so it had to be him.”

Since his induction into the industry, Spillane – a musician, songwriter, performer, poet and self-proclaimed “dreamer” – has received two Meteor awards and travelled the globe performing to live audiences. His 1997 album The Wells of the World served as a turning point for the artist, whose songs evoke a sense of story and location.

John Spillane plays The Pavilion in Dun Laoghaire on November 6 with tickets available here. Purchase a digital download or physical copy of the brand new As In Another Light (with the Cork Opera House Concert Orchestra) now and check out the video for ‘Princes Street’ below.