Dublin sextet Madra Salach announce debut album, Gorta

Gorta follows the band's EP It's a Hell of an Age released earlier this year, with "Ribbon Factory" offering an early preview ahead of the album's announcement.

Gorta was written collectively by all six members and recorded together as a full group, with production by Loren Humphrey — who is credited for his work with the likes of Westside Cowboy and Cameron Winter — in New York. The title comes from the Irish word for "hunger", with the songs centring around the idea of inheritance, what we carry forward from generations before and what is left behind. Rooted in Irish traditional music, the album delves into darker, more experimental, contemporary territory.

"I usually write from personal experience," says vocalist and lyricist Paul Banks. "I try not to go too big-picture. I can tap into the emotions that way. The ideas of longing and yearning, all the kinds of hunger, they slot into where we are as 21st century Irish people. The more I've thought and written about Irishness, the more I've seen how strange a history and a position and a culture we have."

Ahead of the album's release, Madra Salach are currently on the road for a sold-out headline UK tour, including two nights at London's Electric Ballroom and Manchester's New Century Hall, before sold-out tours in Ireland and North America, as well as a performance on Jools Holland on 25 October 2026.

Gorta artwork

Gorta tracklist

"Hunger"
"Ribbon Factory"
"Tunnel Tigers"
"Searrach"
"The Stolen Sheep"
"Bolg"
"She Talks to the Telly"
"Cranes"
"Circus Horse"
"The Haunted Isle of Green"