Where Have You Been All My Life?, to be released on January 8, 2016, is a collection of songs that distils five years and three albums of Villagers’ songwriting into one flowing narrative.

Recorded in one day at London’s RAK Studio with Richard Woodcraft (Radiohead, The Last Shadow Puppets) and Villagers live engineer Ber Quinn, the album is a re-imagining of older material seamlessly woven with present glories from Villagers’ most recent studio album, Darling Arithmetic.

Released in April 2015, Conor O’Brien’s third album under the guise of Villagers was a more pared-back, intimate journey compared to the multi-faceted arrangements of Becoming A Jackal (2010) and {Awayland} (2013). ThE approach was extended on subsequent Villagers tours, where old songs were reinvented to match the new. Then for one day in July 2015, 18 songs were quickly captured and 12 songs chosen for the final album, making it Villagers’ most intense, but satisfying, session to date. These recordings are all first or second takes, and the immediacy of the occasion was part of the magic that day, live and unadorned by overdubs or studio trickery.

The nature of these arrangements is due in no small part to the musicians in the room at the time of recording: Cormac Curran on grand piano and analogue synthesizer, Danny Snow on double bass, Mali Llywelyn on harp, mellotron and vocals, and Gwion Llewelyn on drums, flugelhorn and vocals. The result is a lush, harmony-laden and vibrant document of a time and a place.

Included in the album is a new recording of ‘Memoir’, which O’Brien wrote for Charlotte Gainsbourg; it can be found on her 2011 album Stage Whisper, but has never before been recorded by Villagers until now.

Where have you been all my Life? tracklisting

1. Set the Tigers Free
2. Everything I Am is Yours
3. My Lighthouse
4. Courage
5. That Day
6. The Soul Serene
7. Memoir
8. Hot Scary Summer
9. The Waves
10. Darling Arithmetic
11. So Naive
12. Wichita Lineman

In Dreams: David Lynch Revisited:
18 November: Ireland – Dublin – NATIONAL CONCERT HALL,
19 November: UK: Bristol – COLSTON HALL
21 November: France, Paris – PHILHARMONIE
22 November: France, Paris: PHILHARMONIE
23 November: France, Nantes: CITE DES CONGRES

Villagers live dates:
31 October: Spain – Bilbao – Bime Festival
27 November: Portugal – Lisbon – Mexe Festival
28 November: Austria – Vienna – Bluebird Festival
13 December: Germany, Berlin – Stargaze Long Weekender
26 January: UK – Belfast – ‘Out to Lunch Festival’ – The MAC Theatre
28 January: Ireland – Dublin – Vicar Street
29 January: Ireland – Galway – Black Box
30 January: Ireland – Cork – Savoy
1 February: UK – Newcastle – Sage Gateshead
2 February: UK – Glasgow – Oran Mor Auditorium
3 February: UK – Leeds – Brudenell Social Club
5 February: UK – Manchester – Gorilla
6 February: UK – Sheffield – Leadmill
7 February: UK – Birmingham – Glee Club
8 February: UK – Oxford – Academy 2
10 February: UK – Bath – Komedia
11 February: UK – London – Shepherds Bush Empire
12 February: UK – Brighton – St Georges Church / Concorde 2
13 February: UK – Ashford – St Mary’s Church
15 February: Belgium – Brussels – La Madeleine
16 February: Holland – Amsterdam – Paradiso North
18 February: Holland – Zwolle – Hedon
19 February: Germany – Dusseldorf – Zakk
20 February: Germany- Munich – Strom
22 February: Germany – Berlin – Postbahnhof
23 February: Germany – Frankfurt – Zoom
25 February: France – Paris – La Maroquinerie
26 February: France – Rouen – 106
28 February: France – Nantes – Stereolux