Seedlings All

This is the folk duo's fifth album, their first of all-original songs and, once again, a maturation and development of what went before. It was back in 2011 when their first album, The Seas are Deep, hit the shelves, comprising traditional songs in striking new settings. Since then, they’ve won the Best Duo accolade at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, they have featured in the play Our Country's Good at the National Theatre and signed to the Rough Trade label, which put out 2016's excellent Overnight and more recently The Birds EP. Seedlings All is a maturation of the intense, often melancholic emotional interiors that the duo have explored before, with Clarke's dark, complex imagery in the lyrics pushing the songs into rich metaphorical territory, one of the heart and of self enquiry, whether that's on the opening ‘Chicago’, ‘Bells Ring’, or ‘Bathed in Light’, with their searching self-analysis over fear of loss, of losing one's voice, one's love, one's audience.

The musical settings are rich and varied, with jazz pianist Kit Downes and singer Samantha Whates (who have both recently recorded music with Clarke) among an extensive guest list of players, on top of the guitars, saxophone, recorder and woodwind the duo bring to the table. All in all, the high standards of their music has been raised yet higher with Seedlings All.