How I Became A Wave – How I Became A Wave (Gatefold Vinyl)

The self-titled debut from the collaborative project of Pat Carey, formerly of Cork's much-loved The Hard Ground, released in March 2026 and nearly a decade in the making. Carey describes it as a collective with nebulous members in the Villagers or Bon Iver mould, and the cast here is some of Ireland's finest, with former bandmates Davie Ryan and Hugh Dillon, cellists Laura McFadden and Aoife Burke, and key string arrangements from Cormac McCarthy of RTÉ Concert Orchestra and Iarla Ó Lionáird renown.

This is aggressively quiet music, an antidote to the noise of everything else. Drawing on writers like Mary Oliver, Seamus Heaney, Doireann Ní Ghríofa and Sara Baume, the nine songs move through love, loss and the quiet significance of everyday moments, all lush strings, saxophone and pedal steel under Carey's considered lyrics. As much about grains of sand as the waves that shape them, and named in the Irish Independent's Ones to Watch for 2026.