About

Owen Spafford and Louis Campbell met as teenagers, as part of the first cohort of the National Youth Folk Ensemble. Since forming their duo in 2018, they have: supported Martin Hayes; been nominated for the BBC Young Folk Award; released their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘You, Golden” and had national airplay on BBC Radio 2 and 3 alongside RTE1 in Ireland and BBC Scotland. 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 redefine the trad. fiddle and guitar duo idiom. 

Owen has performed for the leaders of the commonwealth states, toured with Giffords Circus and has received a scholarship to study composition at the Royal Academy of Music. His installation ‘Welcome Here, Kind Stranger’ has been performed at the Rainy Days festival in Luxembourg alongside Sam Amidon, Brighde Chaimbeul, Annabelle Blott and Louis Campbell. Owen is also an All-Britain Fiddle Champion in the Fleadh Cheoil na Breataine and BBC Young Composer Competition nominee. Alongside the duo, his band ‘The Weaving’ with Méabh Begley and Cáit Ní Riain explores his deep love for traditional Irish music. 

Louis joined Sam Sweeney’s band at 19, going on to record the albums ‘Unearth Repeat’ and ‘Escape That’ and performing at venues including the Royal Albert Hall. He also plays for mercury-nominated singer Sam Lee and frequently works with guitar virtuoso Martin Simpson, with whom he performed at the Bert Jansch 80th Birthday Concert at the Royal Festival Hall. He has been cited as ‘a talent to watch’ by the Sunday Times. 

The duo allows Owen and Louis to distill their love of traditional and experimental music into powerful, intricate and intimate music. Their music manages to orbit many different sound-worlds from traditional English dance tune to chamber music and post-rock, blurring the lines between what is traditional, composed and improvised.