Bróna McVittie Announces ‘ Supernatural’ — A New Album of Myth, Mystery and Cosmic Folk, Released to coincide with Halloween / Samhain on State 51 / Company of Corkbots
Ulster singersongwriter, harpist and biologist Bróna McVittie returns this autumn with ‘Supernatural’, her fourth solo album and her most ambitious work to date: an immersive journey into the mythic imagination of Ireland and beyond. Released to coincide with Samhain, the ancient Irish festival when the veil between worlds grows thin, ‘Supernatural’ stands at the threshold between folklore and contemporary sound art, between ancestral memory and modern storytelling.
Born in County Down, Bróna McVittie has carved out a singular space in contemporary folk music. A trained biologist and a lifelong lover of mythology, she blends traditional song with natureinfused lyricism and experimental soundscapes – an approach The Guardian praised for its ability to “take you on its wing and give you fresh visions”.
Across her three acclaimed albums: ‘We Are the Wildlife’ (2018), ‘The Man in the Mountain’ (2020) and ‘The Woman in the Moon’ (2022), McVittie has pioneered a form of cosmic folk, weaving harp, guitar, ethnic instrumentation and electronic textures into music that evokes birdsong, open skies and elemental forces. Her work has been championed by MOJO, Uncut, The Guardian, The Independent and BBC Radio, and she has performed at WOMAD, Celtic Connections, the National Concert Hall Dublin, Kings Place London and festivals across the UK and Ireland.
The ‘Supernatural’ album is companion to McVittie’s illustrated folklore anthology ‘A Way with the Fairies’, a richly woven literary collection exploring Irish fairy lore alongside mythic tales from across Europe. Together, the book and album form a unified creative world in which the supernatural is not distant fantasy, but something embedded in daily life – felt in the fields, the hearth, the music, and the land itself.
Produced by Thomas Gandey, the album draws directly from the stories in ‘A Way with the Fairies’, with the track list mirroring the order of tales in the book. Each piece is a sonic reimagining of a myth, poem or folk narrative brought into the present through McVittie’s distinctive blend of traditional and electronic elements.
Although ‘Supernatural’ is primarily a solo creation, McVittie invited three distinctive international artists to contribute to particular individual tracks, each bringing the flavour of their own folk traditions into the album’s mythic tapestry. From Spain, Antonia Jiménez: a pioneering flamenco guitarist and author of ‘Haeda’ lends her expressive, percussive style to the track of the same name, adding a fiery Mediterranean edge. Ukrainian bandurist and singer Anastasiya Voytyuk (known as Bandura Girl), author of ‘White Bird’, showcases the harplike folk bandura, deepening the album’s connection to Slavic folklore. Lithuanian vocalist and composer Jausm?, author of ‘Brothers’, contributes Baltic sensibility to the spellbinding layers of harmony and myth. These guest appearances, each on a single track, expand the album’s reach across Europe’s storytelling traditions while keeping McVittie’s own artistic vision at the centre.
The album explores a worldview in which fairies, spirits and otherworldly forces were once accepted as part of the same landscape as homes, fields and family life. These are not sanitised fables but stories alive with beauty, strangeness, darkness and emotional truth. Through voice, harp, and experimental textures, McVittie invites listeners to step into these tales, linger with them, and feel their resonance in the modern world.
‘Supernatural’ is both a preservation of old lore and a deeply personal creative offering, an exploration of how myth evolves through voice, memory and reinterpretation. With Supernatural, Bróna steps further into the realm where folklore, science, imagination and sound converge, inviting listeners to cross the threshold with her.
The new album drops on October 16th. Pre-order here.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.