Julie Byrne releases a lyric video for “Moonless,” the first song she has ever written and performed on the piano and the final single from her highly anticipated and life-affirming new album, The Greater Wings, out July 7th via Ghostly International.

“Moonless” is an ode to the glistening darkness, partially written on an outlying island of southern Portugal where Byrne was completing an artist residency. “I remember walking through the dune systems on the ocean side of Culatra, the noises of the docks, the scent of tidal flats. The land itself, as a coastal formation, in a constant state of movement between erosion and growth.” The hypnotic piano ballad is a portal into the lost, late night with beckoning sensorial detail: voices rising through the smoke, the tactility of names carved in the table, wind moving in off the ocean, across skin. Just as the scene begins to feel eternal, Byrne upends notions of the torch song. “Moonless” does not pine for the return of another but instead speaks to the alleviation of no longer waiting for someone’s love. “Something I love about being a songwriter, especially as a queer woman, is being able to have the last word in my work, becoming myself line by line. This is a breakup song, and it’s the first song I wrote on piano.” Her new instrument fades into pools of eventide. A bare constellation of strings end the story like sparks rising in the darkness, then vanishing into ash.

The Greater Wings was written across several seasons, pulling imagery from nights on tour, periods of isolation, and the drives cross-country for its various collaborations between Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. Recording started with the late Eric Littmann (Phantom Posse, Steve Sobs), her longtime creative partner and Not Even Happiness producer, and finished in the Catskills of New York with producer Alex Somers (Sigur Rós, Julianna Barwick).

While they hold the plasticity of loss, the songs are universally resonant, unbridled in their devotion and joy. Byrne leans further into atmospheres both expansive and intimate; the lush, evocative songcraft flows between her signature fingerpicked guitar, synthesizer, and a newly adopted piano, made wider by flourishes of harp and strings. It is the transcendent sound of resource, of friendship that was never without romance, of loyalty that burns from within like a heart on fire, and the life force summoned in unrepeatable moments — raw, gorgeous, and wild.

Additionally, Byrne has expanded her US tour, adding a record release show at Brooklyn, NY’s Public Records and two shows at Tubby’s in Kingston, NY. All dates below:

7/15 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s

7/16 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s

7/18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Public Records *

7/23 – Hebden, UK @ Bridge Trades Club

7/26 – London, UK @ Kings Place Hall ~

7/28 – Brighton, UK @ St Barts ~

8/18-20 – Brecon Beacons, Wales @ Green Man Festival

9/5 – Seattle,WA @ Fremont Abbey

9/6 – Portland, OR @ Polaris Hall

9/8 – San Francisco, CA @ Swedish American Hall

9/9 – Felton, CA @ Felton Music Hall

9/12 – Los Angeles, CA @ Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever

9/14 – Pioneertown, CA @ Pappy and Harriet’s

9/19 – Washington, DC @ Songbyrd ^

9/20 – Philadelphia, PA @ First Unitarian Church (Sanctuary) ^

9/21 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom ^

9/29 – Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre ^

9/30 – Somerville, MA @ Crystal Ballroom ^

11/16 – Leeds, UK @ Brudenell Social Club

11/17 – Glasgow, UK @ Mono

11/18 – Manchester, UK @ St Michael’s Church

11/22 – Bristol, UK @ The Jam Jar

11/24 – Limerick, IE @ Dolans Upstairs

11/25 – Dublin, IE @ Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire

11/26 – Belfast, IE @ The Black Box

* w/ Taryn Blake Miller (fka Your Friend)

~ w/ Juni Habel

^ w/ LEYA

Photo Courtesy: Tonje Thilesen