Spectres

This instrumental folk duo are young musicians with a long pedigree. Immersed in the English folk scene

since birth, they are two parts of the BBC Young Folk Award-winning trio Moore Moss Rutter with guitarist Jack Rutter, and they bring a brave experimentalism to their music that always delivers distinctive results.

Tom Moore is a multi­instrumentalist and producer from Norfolk who plays viola on this recording. Archie Moss, who hails from Somerset, plays diatonic accordion. All 11 tracks are self-penned and explore a broad soundscape from the atmosphere of traditional dance tunes to minimalism, electro-loops and dissonant avant-garde moments. When you press play, you’ll think at first your speakers are faulty. Be patient, this duo is in no rush. The sound creeps in like a slow tide. The general tempo of this recording is contemplative, with the best tracks – such as ‘Oculus’ – building steadily on repetitive refrains of viola and subtle pulsing rhythms that almost sound like the distant, refracted echo of contemporary dance music. Folk music never sounded so spaced out.