Owen Spafford & Louis Campbell

As part of the Metronome Folk Sessions – bringing together the best folk musicians from around the world, for intimate seated performances.

Owen Spafford (Cosmo Sheldrake) and Louis Campbell (Sam Sweeney) met as part of the first cohort of the National Youth Folk Ensemble. Since forming their duo in 2018, they have been nominated for the BBC Young Folk Award and been played on BBC Radio 2 and 3, as well as RTE Radio 1. A shared musical ‘true north’ and lasting friendship enable the duo to make two instruments seemingly sound as one; creating subtle and emotive textures that re-calibrate the fiddle and guitar duo idiom.

Their debut album ‘You, Golden’ released in November 2022 manages to envelop influences from contemporary classical, post-rock, ECM Jazz and bluegrass cohesively and organically into English folk music with a combination of traditional and contemporary material which is sonically indistinguishable in origin. It was recorded entirely live in a barn in the Oxfordshire countryside in just two and a half days and has seen remarkable critical acclaim for such a new act.

The duo’s live performances present an extraordinary sense of musical intimacy, covering the full dynamic spectrum, with as much of themselves being put into every note as possible. For technically advanced young musicians they hold an unusual allegiance to the beauty of simplistic melodies, putting their musical point across as clearly and honestly as then can.

“Rising stars of the folk scene” – Katie Derham, BBC Radio 3

“Beautiful, swirling, modern English folk music”  – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

“Virtuosic, vibrant and very, very progressive. A magnificent take on the trad. tune idiom. Don’t let their youth suggest these aren’t two very wise old hearted musicians at the start of a very long and glorious career” – Sam Lee