Edgelarks is the pair’s most innovative work to date, and will be debuting in Marlborough’s Folk Roots October 5.
Gone are the four personal names from the rather lengthy, previous duo titling. In comes a snappy new single-word name that reflects both of the members of the duo and how they see where they are coming from.
Much of the new album was conceived during the duo’s extensive Australian tour of 2016.
Although only one song, Signposts, is directly inspired by their time down under, the warmth and new inspiration of their travels can be heard throughout the work on Edgelarks.
Recorded in May 2017 at Cube Studios in Cornwall, songs burnished by tradition fly off down contemporary paths.
Top of the World Album’s Julian May, said: “Keen, curious and concerned intellects are at work here. Hannah Martin ‘s an enthralling singer; Phillip Henry plays all manner of guitars and the harmonica, terrifically.”
Edgelarks - to sing about the margins - is an album about transitional spaces. Liminal places, people and times, the straddling of boundaries and thresholds; crossroads and borderlands; travellers and refugees; dusk and dawn.
It’s about the pause between an old way and a new, the idea that, despite often being places of marginalisation, these are also places of change - and therefore places of hope.
It’s that, when social norms break down and you are between two established worlds, there is a chance to gain new perspectives. It is also that in the end, we have far more in common than things that divide us, because we are all liminal - we are all standing on the threshold of tomorrow. We are all just passing through.
The Guardian’s Robin Denselow. said: “Subtle, atmospheric… Bravely original.”
For the Edgelarks Launch Tour, John Elliott (The Little Unsaid) will be joining Phil and Hannah for the majority of the gigs. For the final few dates their former bandmate, the excellent Tobias Ben Jacob, will be their very special guest.
For further information about the event, and to purchase tickets, click here.
