Tempest’s new release is a true force of nature

Groove Tube with Cian O’Connell

Few musicians take a more holistic approach to their art than Kae Tempest. A songwriter, poet, playwright and novelist; a recipient of a Ted Hughes Award and a BRIT; a named Next Generation Poet – their work has been prolific and, in all of its guises, affective.  The 36-year-old’s most recent project was an adaptation of Sophoclean tragedy Philoctetes in London’s National Theatre, reimagined through a contemporary social lens. In their sprawling catalogue of material, it was typically enterprising and unconventional.

Now though, in the form of a fourth studio album, they are set to release a body of work more intimate and experiential than anything it succeeds.

The Line Is A Curve comes out on April 8, a date that marks the beginning of a European tour that will take Tempest to Galway’s Róisín Dubh on April 30.

Perseverance is central to the record’s identity. It handles trauma and grief with an unshaking resilience and, for an LP with so much of Tempest at its core, it benefits from a series of thoughtful collaborations.

Among those featured are former Brockhampton frontman Kevin Abstract, Lianne La Havas and Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten.

“It was just really natural,” Tempest says of the collaborations.

“It wasn’t so much a selection of people from some infinite list of possibilities – it’s just people I love, respect and have some kinship with. Grian is someone that I know because of Dan Carey who recorded the first Fontaines album. I’ve known about Fontaines since that process, and I’ve been so electrified by them.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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