Land and Salt Release 'Long Is The Road' From Forthcoming EP
Land and Salt have released the first in a new set of unexpected songs born from a season of listening. 'Long is the Road' is about trusting that we are not alone in the long dark night. After the release of their album last October, Marie and Charlie valued some time off from recording but very soon felt called to begin writing again. The result is a new EP of stripped back Psalm centered music to be released this year.
Land and Salt herald a rich, deep sound using an original old simplicity of gospel, blues and folk. After an early career in the British folk and acoustic scene, husband and wife Charlie and Marie have come together with two very distinct sounds and a motivation of authenticity. Both grew up in the West of England and met whilst studying music, before touring and playing together. They soon become involved in establishing the collective label Transmit Records in the early 2000’s. The label recorded and released numerous albums from independent artists, recieving national acclaim along the way.
Marie's early years were spent singing and playing Irish and folk songs with musicians including her father’s ceilidh bands, honing her writing skills in the spotlight, whilst steeped in blues, soul and folk music until she began as a session musician in her teens, before working with Transmit Records. Whilst Charlie's aptitude for most stringed instruments, including double bass, was refined through the lofty influences of the great Bluenote records to become a mix of fingerpicking jazz and blues style which easily set him on a circuit of session work and street playing early on.
In 2019, Marie and Charlie returned to the studio to record their debut EP - ‘Salve’ under the name Land and Salt and under the umbrella of their independent label - Saltworks Records. The album was recorded on the banks of the Cleddau River in Pembrokeshire, in a large Georgian House that preserved it's acoustic character and lent an 'alive'' sound.
Early in 2020 Charlie and Marie started recording the 12 songs that make up Here Come The Gospel Folk. An album focused as much on sound as song - "We saw 'spaces' as a tool to get the sound we felt we needed; stairways, tin-roofs, wooden panelled corridors, bay windows - everywhere became our studio. The result is raw, driven with a gritty tension - its people music that is challengly hopeful."
