Don+t Settle – Transmissions East & West is an expansive collection featuring live reinterpretations of some of his most loved and cherished songs from across his solo career, as well as his work as the the frontman of The Frames and half of the Oscar winning duo The Swell Season.
Friday 24th April 2026 will see 10 of these tracks released first as Transmissions East (Vol. 1).
Glen Hansard and his band recorded the album over two nights in April 2025 in front of a dedicated audience at Berlin’s historic Funkhaus–an expansive former East German radio facility–and in many ways, it encapsulates multiple things at once: a career retrospective opus, a ‘Best Of’ collection, a live record, and a new studio album.
The inspiration for Don+t Settle – Transmissions East & West came from a memorable rain-soaked outdoor performance at Zuiderparktheater in The Hague in summer 2024, when Hansard invited audience members onstage during a storm, creating an impromptu communal experience that would help to shape the record’s concept. Transmissions East (Vol. 1) is the first release in a two-volume set with the 2nd, Transmissions West (Vol. 2), appearing later this year.
Both volumes feature no vocal overdubs, second takes, autotune, or editing–brilliantly showcasing the breadth of Hansard’s talents and songwriting. In all, Don+t Settle – Transmissions East & West feels like an important demarcation point in an already storied career, with Hansard looking backwards within his creative path while he moves forward–‘transmissions’ both from his past and to his future.
Hansard today shared his new version of “Didn’t He Ramble” from Vol. 1 about which he explained:
“Our local bar was The Ramble Inn. My father spent most of his waking and sometimes sleeping hours in there…he’d ramble in and stumble out. I wrote this song after he passed at the fair young age of 62. The kind of tribute song he would have approved of. My father was a proud man. Loved his family and his drink in equal measure. My father showed his love shoulder to shoulder, not face to face. He drove The Frames amps and instruments around for years. Rarely staying for the show. But always there to load out the gear with the band afterwards. I loved him very much and wanted to write him a tribute song he’d enjoy. I raise my voice, and a glass to Jemo Hansard.”
The track listing of the Vol. 1 is as follows:
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
Additionally, Glen heads out on a U.K. / EU headline tour in later spring. The full list of dates is as follows:
30.04.26 – Olympia – PARIS
02.05.26 – TivoliVredenburg – UTRECHT
03.05.26 – TivoliVredenburg – UTRECHT
06.05.26 – E-Werk – COLOGNE
08.05.26 – Columbianahalle – BERLIN
09.05.26 – Lucerna Velky Sal – PRAGUE
11.05.26 – Gasometer – VIENNA
13.05.26 – Tonhalle – MUNICH
14.05.26 – Volkshaus – ZURICH
16.05.26 – De Roma – ANTWERP
17.05.26 – Stadtpark Open Air – HAMBURG
19.05.26 – Bristol Beacon – BRISTOL
20.05.26 – Barrowland – GLASGOW
22.05.26 – Albert Hall – MANCHESTER
23.05.26 – Roundhouse – LONDON
02.07.26 – Trinity College – DUBLIN
Tickets for the tour are available HERE.
A founding member of The Frames, Hansard first gained international attention through Alan Parker’s 1991 film The Commitments and a subsequent film, Once (2007), made on a modest budget, became a global success and grossed $23 million worldwide.
Co-starring Markéta Irglová, the pair won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for ‘Falling Slowly’ and later recorded and toured as The Swell Season.
Since launching his solo career with 2012’s Rhythm and Repose, Hansard has released four further studio albums: Didn’t He Ramble (2015), Between Two Shores (2018), This Wild Willing (2019), and All That Was East Is West of Me Now (2023).
Over the years, he has collaborated with and earned praise from artists including Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Joni Mitchell. Now 55, Hansard describes Transmissions East as a document of energy and connection, capturing the spirit of his live performances at an important moment in his musical journey.
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