Marketa Irglova, half of the successful folk duo Swell Season, has confirmed the October 7 release of Anar, her debut solo album which is being released here through the Frames’ Plateau Records label.

Two of the tracks, “Fantasy Man” and “I Have Loved You Wrong,” are streaming now on marketairglovamusic.com, according to Hot Press.
Well, that’s an interesting turn of events! The other half of Swell Season, of course is Frames’ leader Glen Hansard. They are no longer a romantic couple, and in fact Czech Republic native Irglova recently married someone else, which makes the choice of record label so interesting.

If you want to know how it all went down between the couple you might want to check out The Swell Season, an eponymous documentary which premiered as part of the Tribeca Film Festival. It garnered impressive reviews.

“In 2008, Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova captivated audiences and earned two Academy Awards for their musical collaboration in the film Once, which reached $10 million at the box office and grew their popularity and fan base by tens of thousands in North America and throughout the world,” reads the press release.
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“As their fictional romance blurred with reality, they fell in love, recorded an album, and embarked on a world tour. Fueled by two years of exhilaration, performance and psychological turmoil, The Swell Season is much more than a music documentary. It is a volatile and intimate portrait of a romance that fractures in the face of life on the road and personal tragedy. As Glen and Marketa's relationship unhinges, ultimately music prevails as their enduring connection.”

The Swell Season is the work of two NYU Tisch School of the Arts graduates, Nick August-Perna and Chris Dapkins, and Carlo Mirabella-Davis, who previously worked with Martin Scorsese.

As far as the music goes, Irglova has plotted a tour of the U.S. with Iron and Wine, another experimental folk outfit. 

Anyone looking for more clues on how the songstress feels about how things ended will have plenty of material to pore through, if the first few songs are any indication.

“If everything is measured by the hole that’s left behind/then this mountain has been leveled and there’s no more diamonds in the mind/go on and leave it/the timing wasn’t right and the force that swept us away was too much for us to fight,” she sings on “Fantasy Man.”

Both that track and “I Have Loved You Wrong” are stark ballads with gentle acoustic brush strokes of standup basses and strings. The hurting sounds exquisite, which hints at this being a great album to wallow in. And who among us doesn’t need that once in a while?

But don’t feel too sorry for Marketa! They say behind every breakup is a breakthrough, and we would like to congratulate the 23-year-old and her new husband Tim Iseler!

Meanwhile, Hansard has been going solo lately -- at least in the area of music. He has been touring with Pearl Jam, whose lead singer Eddie Vedder recently released a collection of gorgeous original ukulele songs. He continues to tour by himself throughout Europe.

The website continues to spit out new merchandise like t-shirts with the Swell Season logo on them, so who knows? Perhaps the pair will hit the stage again sometime soon!