Ahead of the release of their highly anticipated debut album, Dublin-based dream-pop band A Ritual Sea have returned with a brand new single 'Desire Lines' – and an accompanying video, premiering below.

Following a lauded appearance at Other Voices in 2019, and high profile support slots for international acts like Gwenno and Jane Weaver, A Ritual Sea played their last live performance in February 2020 – a sold-out headliner, Upstairs at Whelan's. With the pandemic upending their live plans, the band concentrated on finishing their debut album.

'Desire Lines', which was self-produced and recorded at their home studio, offers a first taste of the synthy, shoegaze direction you can expect A Ritual Sea to explore on their highly anticipated album. Exploring themes of homelessness and Dublin's fading brutalist architecture, the single is a biting commentary on the realities of modern life in the city – concepts that are also addressed in the music video, which was shot and edited by the band's lead singer and keyboard player, Donna McCabe.

“I filmed the footage over one weekend, nearly two years ago,” she says. “The song was written during the midst of Dublin’s rental and homelessness crisis; it's about the impact of not having a steady place to live and the constant anxious pressure it creates. ‘Desire Lines’ are the routes made by people going in the direction they wish to, like repeated tracks through a grassy area despite nearby paths. That image really stuck, of just wanting to move freely where you desire, but always being forced to go in directions you have no choice over, having no personal power.

"With the video, I wanted to capture some of Dublin’s Brutalist architectural buildings that were being torn down also at the time," she continues. "Their duality is very interesting – stark, cold, and industrial, but still solid, stable, reliable.”

Poignantly, all of the buildings in the video are now demolished and erased from the city.

The artwork for the single is a piece called 'Ghost Hotel', by Dublin-based photographer John Foley.

Ahead of the single's official release tomorrow, watch the music video for 'Desire Lines' below: