Fiddle player Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell released their debut album, You, Golden, back in late 2022. A bold and confident recording, it was apparent that this duo was one to watch, and their follow-up, Tomorrow Held, confirms the suspicion. The guys at Real World Records clearly shared these thoughts and quickly snapped up the pair of virtuosos to record this accomplished, far-reaching effort.
The first thing that hit me when I listened to Tomorrow Held was the sound; in the album notes, Owen says that they ‘made the quiet bits quieter and the loud bits louder’, and as much as this is noticeable, it’s the clarity of the music that jumps out. The weird click track opening of All Your Tiny Bones, with the James Blake-esque vocal, is super-clean and modern-sounding. Owen’s nifty-picked violin strings are positioned just right, and the bass is minimal but noticeable.
It becomes clear through several listens that this is an album of subtlety and poise, and those quieter moments mentioned are plentiful and skilfully held throughout. Take 26, a plus six-minute number built on a moving ambient sound and spare pulses that support a soft violin air, with Ben Nicholls’ heavy double bass thrums peppering and some strange scratches adding an odd character to things. The song has a film score feel to it, reminiscent of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ slower work.
Lighter in tone for the first few minutes is the title track, a plus-fourteen-minute epic of ebb and flow that encapsulates Owen’s above comment. Contrasting its heavier moments of effected electric guitar coupled with muscular violin lines is a stillness and space, with the violin often just playing a beautifully loose and undulating line. It makes for a piece that pulls us from a blissful reverie to quite intense drama, with a clear violin line emerging seemingly unaffected at the other end.
Also flying the flag for ‘loud’ is the final song, Four, a miniature at just over a minute, but one that packs in a blistering Irish reel with industrial sounding metallic shards and distorted effects. I have no idea how they made the full-on, rusty (in the best sense) sounding backdrop to this frenetic tune, but it’s pretty jarring and totally great.
Tomorrow Held is a beautifully constructed album of music that swings from calm and tranquil to gnarly and abrupt in places. It is a considerable step forward in terms of creative ideas for these two players, who have talent to spare and are obviously not afraid to use it.
Tomorrow Held (August 1st, 2025) Real World Records
Pre-Order: https://lnk.to/RW262
Spafford & Campbell Tour Dates
SEP 19 – POOLE Lighthouse
OCT 07 – YORK The Crescent Community Venue*
OCT 12 – SHEFFIELD Samuel Worth Chapel
OCT 13 – LEEDS The Attic
OCT 14 – NEWCASTLE Cumberland Arms
OCT 15 – GLASGOW Glad Cafe
OCT 16 – EDINBURGH Voodoo Rooms
OCT 17 – MANCHESTER Something More Productive
OCT 19 – OXFORD Common Ground
OCT 20 – STROUD The Prince Albert
OCT 21 – BRIGHTON Fishing Museum
OCT 28 – ASHBURTON Ashburton Arts
OCT 29 – BRISTOL Wardrobe Theatre
OCT 30 – LONDON Round Chapel
* w/Sam Lee
Tickets: https://www.spaffordcampbell.com/live
Editor’s Note on Artwork: The cover art photo was taken by Peter Mitchell, a well-respected British photographer, whose work I’ve enjoyed (I recommend his photobook Early Sunday Morning). He has been documenting Leeds and the surrounding area for more than 40 years. The photo for this album is one of the flats in Quarry Hill, a large housing estate in Leeds built in the 1930s as part of a ‘great social experiment’ to accommodate an entire community of 3000 people. By the 1970s, both the vision and the flats were crumbling, and the decision was made to demolish. Mitchell documented this, and the photos can be seen in his two photobooks: Memento Mori and Epilogue (available via RPB PhotoBooks).
“I photograph dying buildings and Quarry Hill was terminal by the time I got to it. Times change and I know there was no point in keeping Quarry Hill Flats. But what it stood for might have been worth keeping” – Peter Mitchell
