Spafford Campbell + Watersmeet
About this Event
Spafford Campbell are twenty-something mould-breakers, fiddle player Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell.
The two first met as teenagers playing traditional music. The connection, they say, was immediate. The duo Spafford Campbell began playing live in 2018, prompting double takes with their delicacy, dynamism and seemingly telepathic exchanges, with the startling intimacy of musical conversations nurtured in improv-led writing sessions.
Their latest album Tomorrow Held is a visionary body of eight largely instrumental tracks that hold space, resolve into mystery, that fold in elements of jazz, post-rock and chamber classical music while raiding the folk music toolbox. Call it what you want: post-folk. Trad-noir. Folk nihilism. Then know that Spafford Campbell are blazing a trail that erases genre — and finds gold in the embers.
While redolent of Talk Talk’s moody, experimental 1988 opus Spirit of Eden, and riven with a Bon Iver-ish sense of transcendence, Tomorrow Held is a work of bold singularity. A whole greater than the sum of its parts — parts that include effects pedals, ambient cassette loops, flashes of electric guitar, electronic processing on fiddle and impressionistic accompaniment.
“Mingling traditional tunes with influences from minimalism, post-rock and jazz, they shift moods exquisitely” The Guardian — 10 best folk albums of 2025
“England's finest and most innovative instrumental duo.”
★★★★★ Songlines — Top of the World
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Watersmeet is Anna Hughes and Jessie Howard. Partners in life and in music, they came together in 2022, to share slow-burning, heartfelt songs with lofty melodies. Interweaving guitar arrangements meet spacious harmonium drones creating a dreamlike yet grounded sound carried by close-knit harmonies. Their music explores ideas of rest and restlessness, nature and wildness, guiding listeners into a space of reflection and reverie. “Their style is where light meets dark, gripping, thoughtful and packed with poignancy.” - Shakk (BBC Introducing North East)
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 11.16 to GBP 17.51
