Leveret, featuring three of England’s finest folk musicians – Andy Cutting on melodeon, Sam Sweeney on fiddle and Rob Harbron on concertina, mark their ten years together with the release of their new album Forms (out 21 April – more on the labum below). The album, which was recorded by Neil Ferguson in Lummen, Belgium, last year, features both traditional and original tunes and, of course, Leveret’s spontaneous playing at its best. The trio are on tour next month (see dates below).
This is Leveret’s sixth album; their last was Variations, a live album (2020), prior to which was their 2019 studio album Diversions (review & interview).
Featuring beautiful cover artwork by Alex Merry, Forms can be pre-ordered now as a CD & Download via their website here or as Digital Download only via Bandcamp. You can hear tracks from the album below – Bass Hornpipe, Cotillion, and Oh The Days When I Was Young / Young Collins Rant.
Playing exclusively instrumental music and unearthing countless tunes from dusty archives and tunebooks, Leveret have carved a unique path through the folk scene doing what they were told wouldn’t work. Relying on their incredible musicianship and unique interaction, they have brought a new way of making music to the fore, playing instrumental music without arrangements at a uniquely high level, expanding the English cannon and bringing a vibrance and originality to tunes that were lying dormant.
Now Leveret are marking ten years of playing together with the release of Forms, a new album of traditional and original tunes. Forms was recorded on location in Belgium by the band’s regular live engineer, Neil Ferguson, in a favourite safe house where the band have played several house concerts. The material was quite new, and the process of setting off through the channel tunnel in a couple of cars filled with equipment and instruments brought a freshness to the recording process and helped give the record even more exciting spontaneity than their previous four albums.
A leveret is a young hare, and a hare’s nest is called a form. There are tunes in several different forms on the record – new and old, well-known and newly unearthed, regular and crooked – and there were also the extensive and boring forms of post-brexit bureaucracy in the carnet that had to be obtained and stamped multiple times on the journey.
During their decade together, Sam Sweeney, Andy Cutting and Rob Harbron have been at the heart of countless albums and projects with numerous heavyweight artists – Roger Daltrey, Bellowhead, The Full English, Blowzabella, Eliza Carthy and Jon Boden, to name a few – and yet as a trio, they continue to plough their own furrow, playing the music they are passionate about in their own unique way. Together they have inspired a new generation of musicians and helped bring a renewed interest in English instrumental music. Forms is Leveret at their best – spontaneous, inventive and truly listenable music from three superb instrumentalists who are truly leading the field.
Leveret Tour
15 March – NCEM, York
16 March – Christ Church, Bath
17 March – Ruskin Mill, Nailsworth
18 March – Courthouse, Otley
19 March – St Mary’s Handbridge, Chester
20 March – Traverse, Edinburgh
23 March – Salisbury Arts Centre
24 March – Squire PAC, Nottingham
25 March – Stamford Arts Centre
26 March – Sheffield & Live To Your Living Room
22 April – Kings Place, London
Tickets and Further Details: https://www.leveretband.com/gigs