(headline image: Spafford Campbell – Photo by Lara Laeverenz)
Fiddle player Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell, together known as Spafford Campbell, form a boundary-pushing duo deeply steeped in the traditions of English folk yet driven by experimental ambition. They first met as teenagers in the National Youth Folk Ensemble, a nationwide initiative uniting emerging musicians to reinterpret traditional material. Their creative chemistry was immediate, eventually leading to the formation of their duo in 2018.
Since then, Spafford Campbell have garnered attention for their live performances marked by subtlety, dynamic range, and near-telepathic interplay, qualities developed through improvisation-based writing sessions. Their sound interlaces folk, jazz, post-rock, and chamber classical music, anchored by a commitment to exploring musical ideas through a minimalist yet expressive lens.
Leeds-born Spafford, a BBC Young Composer of the Year nominee and Royal Academy of Music scholar, draws influence from artists such as Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh of The Gloaming. He previously toured with Giffords Circus and comes from a literary and musical family immersed in English folk traditions. Meanwhile, Campbell studied at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and has performed with artists including Sam Lee, Sam Sweeney, and Martin Simpson.
Their debut album Tomorrow Held, set for release on 1 August 2025 via Real World Records, includes eight largely instrumental tracks. The album integrates ambient loops, effects pedals, and processed fiddle sounds, supported by bass clarinetist Alex Lyon and double bassist Ben Nicholls. It presents the duo’s inventive control, from hushed introspection to soaring climaxes, and their shared priority: examining small musical ideas through expansive frameworks.
The lead single, “MacGill,” nods to the American songwriting legacy of Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell, meshing together jazz-tinged harmonies with folk sensibility. Its accompanying video, filmed at Wiltshire Music Centre, captures the duo’s unfiltered, live connection.
In 2025, the duo was selected to perform at the influential WOMEX world music showcase in Tampere, Finland.
Discography:
Tomorrow Held (Real World Records, 2025)
Author: Ryan Emmert
