The Swell Season was the name Glen Hansard adopted for first recorded project outside of the Frames, the Irish rock band hes fronted since the early 90s. Quietly released in 2006, The Swell Season was co-credited to Hansard and Markéta Irglová, a gifted young Czech singer-songwriter who began performing with Hansard (and the Frames) in her early teens. Shortly thereafter, Hansard and Irglová were cast as the leads in writer/director (and former Frames bassist) John Carneys award-winning film Once; in it, Hansard plays the nameless Guy, a talented but lovesick Dublin street busker who finds his musical soul mate in Irglovás Girl, a married but lonely immigrant with classically inspired piano chops. The sweet, simple and heartbreakingly real (as in non-Hollywood) story is told as much through Hansard and Irglovás own songs song as it is through dialog, and both the film and its soundtrack (reprising many songs from The Swell Season as well as Hansards Frames catalog) introduced their beautiful music to thousands of fans who otherwise might never have heard of them. Millions more heard the duo for the first time when they performed the soundtracks Falling Slowly at this years Academy Awards and walked away with the Oscar for Best Original Song. Hansard and Irglová are also featured on the soundtrack to Im Not There, covering Bob Dylans You Aint Goin Nowhere.