Yann Tiersen returns with a solo piano + electronics performance in support of his new album Rathlin from a Distance | The Liquid Hour. In an era of climate urgency, Yann Tiersen is redefining touring and challenging capitalist norms.
From his solitary winter tour across Europe from Brest to Tallinn with no crew and only his dog for company – driving no faster than 61mph in his van, eschewing the usual trappings of tour consumerism (hotels, dressing room rider) and sleeping in people’s gardens, to voyages aboard his sailboat Ninnog, where he sailed through Ireland, the Faroe Islands, Scotland, Shetland, Wales, and Cornwall – he has brought his music to extraordinary landscapes and intimate settings, rejecting the trappings of large scale touring to forge genuine connections with local crews and organisers.
Rathlin from a Distance | The Liquid Hour is an album divided into two distinct, interconnected parts, each with its own unique sonic characteristics. Rathlin from a Distance is eight tracks of introspective instrumental piano.
Tiersen explains, “There is something transformative about being at sea. Away from the noise and weight of the world, you are left with the raw, untamed forces of nature – and yourself. It is a space where you can begin to challenge your beliefs, your identity, your gender – even the person you thought you were. I began to shed the expectations, constructs, and roles that society places on us. The waves demand honesty.”
He continues, “Rathlin from a Distance is born of this experience. Each piano piece is tied to a place we visited, but also to a moment of meditation. They are maps to the self. They are meant to guide you to the core of who you are – not the version of yourself moulded by societal expectations. It is a call to connect, to be vulnerable, and to find solace in the authenticity that comes from facing the forces around – and within – you.”
The Liquid Hour is an expansive, genre-defying blend of electronic synthesis and dynamic psychedelic rhythms.
Tiersen explains how an experience at the helm of his sailboat, with Belfast glimmering in the distance, informed these five tracks, “I think of the bruises left by systems grinding against us, I feel the fury bubble up – ancient, raw, electric. It burns through me. The water becomes a mirror to my rage. And hope. There’s a war to wage against the choking vines of capitalism, binding our roots, stealing our light. It’s a wipe-out of everything that’s broken. A rebuilding, hand in hand, heart to heart, until there’s no room left for despair. I feel it swelling inside me, this energy, this urge to act, to gather, to shout, to rise. Because the future doesn’t wait. It’s there – blinding, brilliant, gender-fluid, shimmering with brightness. This is for you. With your hope and your rage. For all of us, for what’s coming, for what we’ll build together. The soundtrack to our uprising.”
Tickets also available from:
Visit Belfast | 028 90 246 609
9 Donegall Square North
- Open 7 days a Week
