ireland

'Last Days' at The Annesley House

Dear Reader,

Thank you for dropping by.

Here is a video for a song called ‘Last Days’. It was filmed by Alek Nowak and Ewa Respond at our recent gig in Annesley House on November 29th 2025.

A very big thank you to Ewa and Alek for their beautiful film.

Alek and I had been talking about making something together and when we put our heads together we thought this would be a good chance. So we recorded the gig live, with some help from Jackie at the venue and now have a little keepsake of the show. We hope you enjoy the film and the music from me, Enda, Billy and Morgan.

P

My Cover of 'Your Loving Arms'

I wanted to do a little version of ‘Your Loving Arms’ by Billie Ray Martin. Always found the vocal melody and lyrics haunting and lush but wanted to take the production in a different direction. Have a listen and let me know what you think..

Songwhip - listen to Your Loving Arms on your platform of choice (CLICK TEXT).

https://songwhip.com/pearse-mcgloughlin/your-loving-arms

Caretaker (Requiem)

A few weeks back on my social media I shared the last song on my album ‘The Rest’, called ‘Caretaker (Requiem)’ and I just wanted to record it here, on my website as well. The song was a tribute to a friend of mine, Mícheál Gormley who I worked with. Mícheál came to lots of our gigs at Sligo Live, we played lots of music together and had great, (extensive!) music chats. He also played the bass and for this reason I have a little bassline running through the song. Although I put the album out in October 2020, I didn’t get to deliver the record to his family until recently and that was quite a touching moment.

The song was a tribute to Mícheál but also seemed fitting as I had some other loss in my family leading up to the release of the album and of course the pandemic brought its own existential weight to bear on everything. The title for the album ‘The Rest’ comes from Hamlet’s last words ‘the rest is silence’ and I managed to fit those beautiful words into the song too.

Kudos are due to Enda Reilly who I asked for a second opinion on the song, as I wanted to do it justice and sometimes you need someone objective.

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‘the ocean takes back its islands’

Focus

Hi friend, I wanted to pass on this new song. I wrote it after Electric Picnic a few years ago, in what seems like another world. But it's not another world. It's the same world. Awful things are happening but alongside them beautiful things are happening too. My daughter is learning to cycle with a determined  little heart. My students are showing up for class online and trying to make sense of huge change. And I want to make new music.

The song's called 'Focus' and comes from an album called 'The Rest'. I had some shows lined up to support its release which won't go ahead just now, of course, but I will share new work over the next while which I look forward to.

Focus

Song by Pearse McGloughlin. Music by Pearse, Billy and Enda.

Production by Darragh Nolan. 

Beautiful artwork by my uncle Eoin MacLochlainn 

FOCUS

Strange summer evening

Autumn wind blowing

Lurching from coast to coast

Blowing hot, blowing cold

And you drew everything 

You knew everything

You gave focus

Red eyed morning

New light dawning

Coasting from pole to pole

Bowing low

For your glowing soul

 

 

And you drew everything

You knew everything

You drew focus

 

Where do your horses run?

When the seasons over

Do you tell them to gallop on

By bullets by boulders 

 

All horses fall up on 

The thorns of winter

May all horses overcome

Their bruises and splinters

 

 

And you swing with the tides and the moon

Fear can take over

When you’re burned and you’re spurned and you’re shunned

But your spirit’s stronger

 

So you speak with a seeing tongue

Though you shake

Though you shiver

All that  blossoms is not born in the black of winter.

HUMANS { new live video }

Last week there was an open call for the Other Voices IMRO Other Room. I thought it would be fun to turn our rehearsal into a live recording of a new song as a submission. So, my brothers Kevin and Eoin came up from Sligo to shoot us in Billy's place. We set up quickly and did a couple of takes. One mic, two cameras. I'm very happy with it as we don't have many live recordings of Nocturnes and there was a lovely natural energy and momentum in the evening. 

Big thanks to Billy, Niamh and Séamus for allowing us to turn their house into a makeshift studio and to Kevin and Eoin for doing the visuals so well.

We will release the studio recording of the song before the year is out. 

In the meantime, our next stop is Nighthawks at Cobalt Café on October 7th.

Be sure to see the flowers,

Pearse

Rehearsal video of 'Humans' by Nocturnes from forthcoming EP by the band. Camera by Eoin McGloughlin and Kevin McGloughlin Video edited by Kevin McGloughlin Live audio recorded by Nocturnes Music by Nocturnes Nocturnes have featured on BBC Radio Ulster, RTE, Today FM as well as on Jason Kramer's show on KCRW.

Visual Piece for 'Dear Infant'

Visual Piece by Fionn MacArthur, Lakeside Productions 'Dear Infant' is taken from 'The Soft Animal' by Nocturnes "subtle elements of the fantastical" - The Irish Times 'The time has come for Pearse McGloughlin's ever-evolving cosmic groove merchants. Their recent album The Soft Animal is our favourite Irish record of the year - do yourself a favour and get it immediately'....

Hi folks, 

Here's a sweet new video for 'Dear Infant' shot by Fionn MacArthur of Lakeside Productions. 

Stream the track here on Spotify.

 

 

Video for Whale Song from The Soft Animal Out Now

Music by Pearse McGloughlin and Enda Roche. Produced by Darragh Nolan at Asta Kalapa, Gorey 'Whale Song' is a single from Irish group Nocturnes' new album 'The Soft Animal'. The piece is inspired by the song whales use to communicate and it draws parallels between these great ocean creatures and our human selves. The sea represents our unconscious, our spiritual depths and the song gives voice to a desire to live lives of connection, nobility and strength. Kevin McGloughlin has directed a number of videos for his brother Pearse, songwriter with Nocturnes. For 'Whale Song' Kevin combines animated footage and live action footage to mesmeric effect, creating an imagined astro-aquatic environment which is both the sea and the cosmos, the aquatic and the astronomic. Kevin on his approach to the piece 'After many a chat with Pearse over the course of the album I had a good idea of where the song was coming from. So it was a matter of visualising an already painted picture. I took quite an expressionistic approach to the video, not worrying much about realism and detail while putting my focus on creating an immersive experience for the viewer. We felt a surreal mix of the ocean and the cosmos fitted nicely, highlighting the depth of the ocean and the depths within ourselves'. Whale Song (Single) Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/3jnPNa6PslaaSBEihLamHs iTunes: https://itun.es/ie/SjT6eb Bandcamp: https://pearsemcgloughlin.bandcamp.com/track/whale-song-single-edit CDBaby: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/nocturnes4 The Soft Animal (Full Album) Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2aQ7KCR iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/the-soft-animal/id1139489343 Google Play Music: http://bit.ly/2crKEBk Bluestack Records: http://bit.ly/2ait677 Bluestack Records Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/29WSWDq Pearse McGloughlin Bandcamp: http://bit.ly/29EgM1z More about Nocturnes and The Soft Animal 'The Soft Animal' by Nocturnes is Sligo songwriter Pearse McGloughlin’s first album release since the birth of his daughter, and a more personal record than previous works. A transformed creativity and time of reflection has resulted in an emotionally resonant album drawing from childhood and parenthood, and human spiritual and animal nature. Nocturnes features Choice Music Award winning Adrian Crowley on lead vocals for ‘Heikegani’; Pearse’s long time collaborator and multi-instrumentalist Enda Roche and Christophe Capewell on violins. Produced at Asta Kalapa studios by Darragh Nolan, the album was largely recorded in live takes creating a heady organic impact. A follow-on from his previous collaboration ‘Idiot Songs’ with friend and composer Justin Grounds, The Soft Animal is a new departure, in essence an ambient first- person narrative. A collection of new age noir, it features meditative atmospherics alongside folk-tinged tales of redemption. The story of the record is an intriguing one; it involves oceanic themes, dramatic rescues, glimpses of the fantastical, and our struggles with serpents of many types, real and imagined. Pearse, on the inspiration behind The Soft Animal, observes: ‘I wanted to explore what we share as humans: our animal origins, our residence in the natural world. Having my daughter arrive into my life prompted this simple reverie.’ The Soft Animal interweaves live recordings with rich production to create an expansive range of sounds and emotions echoing influences as diverse as Sufjan Stevens and A Winged Victory for the Sullen. Reflecting on the recording process Pearse comments: ‘Enda, Darragh and I were guided by the drama of what can happen when you record musicians playing live together. We were seeking feeling and atmosphere.' The Soft Animal has featured on BBC Radio Ulster, RTE, Today FM as well as on Jason Kramer's show on KCRW. ‘subtle elements of the fantastical’ - The Irish Times ‘flits between folk, ambient, orchestral and singer-songwriter styles, underscoring an inquisitiveness and search for something greater within’… Nialler9 ‘Release of The Week’ ….. The Irish Times Culture ‘beautiful harmonies’ - BBC Radio Ulster Across the Line "a rewarding listen, 'The Soft Animal' is a true album " - The Last Mixtape Album of The Week - Dan Hegarty, 2FM