Old school friends and fellow artists Paul Noonan and Brian Crosby have reunited for a new artistic venture: Pilgrims – their first creative collaboration in 16 years. The first fruits of which have arrived in the form of debut single Bright & Bold which is set to be followed by their debut album on 30th January 2026.
Noonan and Crosby formed Juniper (with Damien Rice) before founding Bell X1. Since then, they have ventured down different paths with Noonan exploring other projects such as Printer Clips and HousePlants, while Crosby explored scoring for film and television alongside solo piano and ambient work.
On coming full circle to work on a musical project together again, Paul Noonan says:
“Since reconnecting on My Bones a Scaffold last year, we’ve been working on a bunch of songs that sprung from new instrumental pieces by Brian, or songs that I had sketches for. Colouring them in together. Coming from a more classical or cinematic well, Brian takes the kinds of harmonic journeys that I just don’t, and the songs are all the richer for it.
“We did some shows together last April, and played some of these new things. It was there that Pilgrims was formed, in its purist form just piano and vocal. Not torch songs as such, but somewhat similar in their yearning, theatrical sentimentality.
“In those small beautiful rooms, it took actually playing the songs for people, feeling that connection and inhabiting the characters for it to feel like it had its own heart and lungs. The recordings are a little more embellished, though often we would add things and take them away – feeling that we knew what this thing isn’t, happy to be a little fuzzy on what it is.”
Pilgrims will play an Irish tour in the New Year with tickets going on sale this Friday. Details below.
TOUR DATES: