Ed O’Brien – Incantations
We covered Ed O’Brien’s “Blue Morpho” title track back in W12. Now the second single is here: “Incantations”, with guitar from Dave Okumu, who also serves as musical director for the upcoming live shows. The album, his second solo record and first under his own name, arrives May 22 on Transgressive.
The backstory behind “Blue Morpho” is worth having in mind when you listen. After 2020’s “Earth” — released under the EOB moniker into a locked-down, touring-free world — O’Brien fell into the deepest depression of his life. He began a daily ritual of breathing work and cold exposure drawn from Wim Hof’s teachings, then retreating to his small London studio to play guitar for hours with no direction. Thom Yorke had once told him that being a good songwriter meant being a good librarian — cataloguing ideas rather than chasing them. O’Brien kept a record of everything. Over four years, and increasingly from his house in Wales on the site of a Roman villa surrounded by ancient oaks, those fragments became “Blue Morpho”.
The collaborators assembled around the record reflect the same serendipity. Paul Epworth came in through a school-run connection; Shabaka Hutchings contributed flutes after a Glastonbury conversation about instruments tuned to 432 Hz. Estonian composer Tõnu Kõrvits, who bonded with O’Brien over a shared admiration for Arvo Pärt, arranged strings performed by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Flood handled sequencing, Ben Baptie mixed, and sessions split between Wales and The Church Studios in London.
What I notice in “Incantations” is how much Okumu’s guitar carries without trying to resolve anything — it stays open throughout, and that patience feels like a deliberate choice rather than restraint. Across seven tracks the album moves between psych-folk, trip-hop and quieter, more static passages. An accompanying short film, “Blue Morpho: The Three Act Play”, directed by Kit Monteith, premiered at SXSW and has screened in London, Oxford and Paris.
Tracklist:
- Incantations
- Blue Morpho
- Sweet Spot
- Teachers
- Solfeggio
- Thin Places
- Obrigado
Tour Dates:
Europe:
- Oct 4 – Royal Theatre Carré, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Oct 6 – Teatro Lirico, Milan, Italy
- Oct 8 – Salle Pleyel, Paris, France
- Oct 10 – Admiralspalast, Berlin, Germany
- Oct 12 – Laeiszhalle, Hamburg, Germany
- Oct 14 – Oosterpoort Main Hall, Groningen, Netherlands
- Oct 16 – Barbican, London, UK (SOLD OUT)
