ABOUT THIS ITEM

Sam Lench and Anna Zweck are partners in life as well as in song and this is their debut album under their creative nom de plume Samson & Delilah. Influenced by stories and traditions new and old, the duo write songs of love and longing, truth and deceit, beauty and decay. The album tells the story not of their relationship per se but rather of where their lives intertwine. Lench has a background in indie-rock whilst Zweck is classically trained and this difference comes together to lend the album a rare breadth of style. From transcendental drone-folk ("Crystallised Sand") and room-silencing acapella ("And When The Rose") to uplifting songs of love across distance ("Angels Said"), "Samson & Delilah" locates the exact point where Lench and Zweck's unspoken truths find a voice. "Samson & Delilah" is structured as a loose day cycle, reflected in the album's stunning artwork depicting dawn and dusk. This concept takes on a greater resonance when you learn that many of the songs were written while Zweck (who is Australian) and Lench (who grew up by a river in rural Somerset) were apart, on opposite sides of the world. Lench produced the album and takes influences as diverse as John Martyn, Sigur Ros and Leonard Cohen to stretch and twist the songs out of conventional folk shapes. His meticulous work builds the texture of the album instrument by instrument, layer upon layer, taking in the atmosphere of the recording locations: churches, family homes and studios across the country.