Glen Hansard previews his upcoming album Don+t Settle – Transmissions East with a powerful live performance of ‘My Little Ruin’, recorded in Berlin and capturing the essence of his enduring artistry
by Paul Cashmere
Glen Hansard has unveiled a new live performance video for ‘My Little Ruin’, offering another glimpse into his forthcoming album Don+t Settle – Transmissions East, due for release on 24 April via Plateau and Secretly Distribution.
The performance was captured across two nights in April 2025 at Berlin’s historic Funkhaus, a former East German radio complex renowned for its acoustics and cultural legacy. The setting plays a central role in shaping the album’s identity, with Hansard using the space to document a body of work that sits somewhere between a retrospective and a reinvention.
Don+t Settle – Transmissions East is not a conventional studio release. Instead, it merges multiple formats into one cohesive statement, a live recording, a reinterpretation of past material, and a forward-looking studio document. The result is a collection that reflects the breadth of Hansard’s catalogue while preserving the immediacy of his live performances.
‘My Little Ruin’ arrives as one of the album’s more intimate moments. Hansard has described the song as a deeply personal piece written for a close friend navigating a destructive period. The track functions as both a warning and a gesture of care, grounded in the idea that honest intervention can alter the course of someone’s life. That emotional weight carries through in the live recording, where the stripped-back arrangement allows the narrative to take precedence.
The video itself, filmed during the Berlin sessions, reinforces the album’s guiding philosophy, authenticity over perfection. Across both Transmissions East and its companion release Transmissions West, Hansard has deliberately avoided vocal overdubs, second takes or studio correction. The recordings are presented as they happened, emphasising performance over polish.
This first volume draws from across Hansard’s extensive career, revisiting songs from his solo work, as well as material associated with The Frames and The Swell Season. It reflects a journey that began on the streets of Dublin, where Hansard busked as a teenager before forming The Frames in 1990.
His breakthrough into international consciousness came with a supporting role in The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker. However, it was the 2007 independent film Once that would define a turning point. Co-starring Markéta Irglová, the film evolved from a modest production into a global success, ultimately earning the pair an Academy Award for Best Original Song with ‘Falling Slowly’.
That success led to further recordings and touring as The Swell Season, while Hansard’s solo career began in earnest with 2012’s Rhythm And Repose. Subsequent albums including Didn’t He Ramble, Between Two Shores, This Wild Willing and All That Was East Is West Of Me Now have established him as a songwriter capable of balancing introspection with expansive, emotionally driven arrangements.
Across his career, Hansard has also shared stages and collaborations with artists such as Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell, placing him within a lineage of influential contemporary songwriters.
Now 55, Hansard describes Transmissions East as a document of connection, an attempt to capture the energy between performer and audience at a specific point in time. The concept extends into the second volume, Transmissions West, which is expected later in the year. Together, the two releases form a broader reflection on his past and future, framed as a series of “transmissions” that move in both directions.
The track listing for Don+t Settle – Transmissions East is:
Don’t Settle
Down On Our Knees
Back Broke
My Little Ruin
Didn’t He Ramble
Fitzcarraldo
Carrickfergus
Lonely Deserter
The Feast Of St John
Wreckless Heart
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