Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell - Tomorrow Held

The eclectic duo formed by Owen Spafford (fiddle and vocals) and Louis Campbell (guitar, banjo and vocals) is back with Tomorrow Held, an eight track album that showcases their unique style, a smooth blend of tradition, atmosphere and impressionistic passages.

The opening track Cooper immediately introduces the listener into a world of ethereal soundscapes, where fiddle and guitar exchange their roles, gently floating around each other on a delicate substrate provided by Ben Nicholls’ double bass and Alex Lyon’s bass clarinet. It is followed by the even more experimental All Your Tiny Bones, characterised by rather obscure lyrics, light percussion, and a more daring approach.

The release alternates serene and meditative moments like the stunning MacGill and more avant-garde and cinematic music influenced recordings like Will and 26. The closing track Four is a big surprise and pleasantly contrasts with the rest of the release: it is a very short and energetic original reel, delivered in an intense arrangement where every member of the line-up has their voice.

Following in the footsteps of their debut 2022 album and the acclaimed 102 Meters East, these two artists take their fans on a new journey between light and darkness, between serenity and chaos, all thanks to their inventive talent and their mastery in creating bold settings for these melodies. Elements of folk weave with post-rock sounds, chamber music atmospheres, and jazz improvisation to create vivid pictures suspended between colourful imagination and raw emotional gravity.

Poetic, intrepid, and introspective, Tomorrow Held is a new step forward and Spafford and Campbell’s sonic experimentation; one could only try to imagine what would be the next one.