ELECTRIC GUITAR, VIOLIN, EPIC STORM AND SILENCE.

CONTEMPORARY FOLK AS A KIND OF INTENSIVE EXPERIENCE.

With the first song and looking at the giant pedalboards at the feet of violinist Owen Spafford and electric guitarist Louis Campbell, you can get the impression that two modern folk experimenters are sitting in front of you and you start to watch the time you give them on your watch. And when the first distorted industrial sound cuts through the room, you are about to leave, because you have come to a concert of "the best and most innovative English instrumental folk duo". You just didn't notice the note about the innovative revelation. Just before you stand up, a passage comes that will knock you off your chair and you will suddenly become a participant in an extremely intense musical experience built on the contrast of tension between tradition and how they perceive it.
“The English folk scene is quite confused today about what it is and what I would like to be, which we really enjoy because it gives us a lot of freedom,” said the young graduates of the Royal Academy, absorbed in the idea of playing folk in their own way and building on improvisation and momentary mood in a telepathic connection. They often find themselves on the very edge of silence, relying heavily on meditative minimalism, soundtrack atmosphere or jazz, but they also have expressive, noisy moments in reserve.
They also admit how much they were inspired by the Irish music they started with and post-rock, which they say shares the same melodic and rhythmic intensity with traditional compositions. “I ignored the world of pop and rock until recently, but then I discovered Mogwai and Godspeed You! Black Emperor and I’m currently obsessed with Bruce Springsteen,” explained Owen Spafford, an important source of inspiration for the pair.
On the album Tomorrow Held, released last year on the Real World label, both of them deviate from the usual instrumental aesthetics of their traditions, but never so much that it is not obvious from their original compositions how deeply they are immersed in English folk, even though the result is the chamber post-folk of tomorrow.

Photos by Laura Laeverenz